Sexual Victimization Involving Solo Female Offenders: A Crime Script Approach

This study aims to provide a theoretically grounded analysis of the crime-commission process of solo females involved in sexual offending, using crime scripts. The sample includes 93 cases of sexual assaults perpetrated by female offenders in an extrafamilial context. Latent class analysis was used to identify the scripts involved in female sexual offending as well as to explore the relationship between each step of the crime-commission process. Also, additional variables related to victim, offender, and location characteristics were used to test the external validity of the model. Results suggest four different scripts used by females: Daytime Indoor, Coercive Outdoor, Coercive Indoor, and Nighttime Indoor. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

A structured methodical process for populating a crime script of organized crime activity using OSINT

Crime script analysis is becoming an increasingly used approach for examining organized crime. Crime scripts can use data from multiple sources, including open sources of intelligence (OSINT). Limited guidance exists, however, on how to populate the content of a crime script with data, and validate these data. This results in crime scripts being generated intuitively, restricts them from being scrutinised for their quality, and limits the opportunity to combine or compare crime scripts. We introduce a practical process for populating the content of a crime script that involves simple coding procedures and uses document analysis to quality assure data that are extracted from open sources. We illustrate the process with the example of theft of oil from pipelines in Mexico committed by organized crime groups. The structured methodical process we introduce produces a crime script of high quality, helps to improve the systematic analysis of decision-making performed by members of organized crime groups, and can improve the identification of opportunities for crime control.

Child sexual abuse material on the darknet: a script analysis of how offenders operate

The development of online technologies in recent decades has facilitated the distribution and consumption of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) over the internet, which also led to the emergence of CSAM on the darknet—the segment of the internet hidden from the general public. Using data obtained from interviews with online investigators, this study uses crime script analysis to reconstruct step-by-step how offenders operate on the darknet. The findings highlight the three phases of the script: (1) the crime set-up phase, (2) the crime completion phase, and (3) the crime continuation phase. Scripting is a practical method of developing concrete ways to address this problem. The implications of using crime scripts to fight CSAM are discussed.

Using crime script analysis to understand wildlife poaching in Vietnam

Poaching can contribute to the failure of biodiversity conservation efforts and inflict diverse harms on human livelihoods. We applied crime script analysis to the case of snare poaching—an illegal hunting activity—in three Vietnamese protected areas. Our goal was to enhance the understanding about the opportunity structure underlying snare poaching to advance the suite of community-based crime prevention activities. We analyzed crime scripts for three types of poachers across nine stages of the poaching process using expert-based elicitation with 13 workshop participants in Vinh, Vietnam, 2018. Five stages were similar, clustered toward the early stages, and two were different, clustered around middle crime stages. Analysis produced systematic crime-specific insight about the procedural aspects and requirements for poaching from preparation to hunt to selling one’s catch. Stages identify multiple entry points to apply prevention techniques and match techniques with different types of snare poaching or poachers. Although this research focused on protected areas, the interdisciplinary approach applied herein may be adapted to other conservation contexts.

Crime script analysis for adult image-based sexual abuse: a study of crime intervention points for retribution-style offenders

Objective This research uses crime scripts to understand adult retribution-style image-based sexual abuse (RS-IBSA) offender decision-making and offending in offline and online environments. We explain the crime-commission process of adult RS-IBSA and identify crime intervention points at eight crime script stages. Methods Publicly released court transcripts of adult RS-IBSA prosecution cases (n = 18) in New Zealand from 2015 to 2018 were utilised to examine the crime-commission process of adult RS-IBSA. We analysed the court transcripts thematically at offence-level prior to constructing the crime scripts. Findings The study identified four types of adult RS-IBSA acts including the non-consensual dissemination of a victim’s intimate images, violent cyber sextortion, covert intimate photography, and unauthorised access of a victim’s phone/media. From our analysis, we identified three script tracks and constructed three distinct crime scripts: (1) threats, sextortion and dissemination; (2) unauthorised access of a victim’s mobile device and dissemination; and (3) covert intimate filming. We highlight areas for potential intervention for law enforcement agencies and policy makers to increase deterrence and personal security in online and offline spaces. Conclusion Adult RS-IBSA occurs in a range of dating and domestic contexts. This study develops crime scripts for adult RS-IBSA and advances our understanding of how the Internet/smartphones/digital media translates into virtual crime scenes with opportunities for maximum harm infliction. We offer several policy implications including revising current RS-IBSA legislation and supporting law enforcement agencies with policing online and offline intimate relationship spaces through situational prevention.

Scripting Stranger Sexual Offenses Against Women

This study identifies the first crime script for unsolved stranger sexual offenses against women. The purpose is to better understand the crime-commission process of solved and unsolved stranger sexual offenses and identify potential points of intervention for prevention purposes. Crime script analysis was performed on 542 solved ( n = 265) and unsolved ( n = 277) cases based on police data in Queensland, Australia, followed by a comparison between solved and unsolved crime scripts. Results showed that unsolved offenses tended to be associated with the following factors: the offender fleeing/desisting, using minimal force, less intrusive sexual outcomes, and less verbal engagement with the victim. In these cases, there was a lack of information regarding forensic evidence, behavioral clues, and eyewitness leads. This highlights the relevance of focusing on situational crime prevention and policing strategies that may deter stranger sexual crimes at the earliest stages of the script.

Crime script for mandate fraud

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to critically analyse research surrounding mandate fraud and to devise a crime script identifying the crime commission process. It is hoped this will assist in standardising investigation of mandate fraud by law enforcement. Design/methodology/approach The design of this paper follows on from the approach taken by van Hardeveld et al. (2017) in identifying a cybercrime script for carding activity. The current environment surrounding the investigation of digital fraud in the UK is examined through a review of the existing literature. Analysis of the crime commission process for mandate fraud is then outlined in a potential crime script identifying possible intervention points for law enforcement. Findings UK law enforcement’s current response to digital fraud is struggling to provide positive outcomes for victims. There is inconsistency in the investigative approach and practical issues surrounding how the digital fraud problem is tackled. Changing the emphasis of digital fraud investigation to focus on the money laundering networks based in the UK also needs to be considered. Standardising investigation into digital fraud by mapping out digital criminality using crime scripts and routine activity theory could be beneficial for law enforcement. The results of this process could also assist in effectively identifying where law enforcement resources may be best deployed to solve some of the practical issues highlighted. Originality/value There is little literature directly focused on a crime script for mandate fraud. This is despite it being a significant contributor to fraud losses in the UK. For law enforcement, both digital and financial investigation skill sets are required to investigate such offences. Therefore, mapping the crime commission process has significant value for clearly identifying investigative intervention points.

Corporations, human rights and the environmental degradation–corruption nexus

It is often the case that harms to societies go hand in hand. This seems to be true when looking at cases in which corporations are accused of contributing to human rights abuses, environmental degradation and corruption in developing nations. This article considers the relationships between these three harms from the perspective of corporations as actors involved in producing those harms. Based on a cross-case analysis of 45 cases in which this nexus of harms is found, this article assesses the atrocity crimes/environmental degradation/corruption-nexus, by studying agency (crime scripts), actors (industries and corporations) and connections (how are the three harms related?) in these cases. The analysis shows that corporations are mostly indirectly involved in atrocity crimes, but directly involved in environmental harm and corruption. Extractive industries are overrepresented and the many entanglements with state agents qualify as state-corporate crime. The relations between the harms are multifaceted and can be causal, spurious and synonymous by nature.

Counterfeit alcohol distribution: A criminological script network analysis

This paper analyses a series of subsequent and connected investigations by a domestic European regulator on the network of distribution of counterfeit alcohol across two jurisdictions. The analysis mixes script analysis, a narrative framework for enhancing the understanding of how crimes unfold and are organized, with multi-node multi-link social network analysis, to observe the social structure in which crime scripts take place. We focus our attention on the key players that occupy strategic positions within the network of the crime commission process, from where they overview and control the various phases (scenes) and perform brokerage activities across the scenes, and on strategies of concealment of illicit products beyond the facade of legitimate business. Our findings indicate that actors in charge of managing the proceeds of the criminal activity are also the ones better positioned to monitor the entire process. The overall structure of the criminal network shows a good level of resilience and efficiency, although actors do not adopt common traits of a criminal lifestyle that facilitate secrecy and covertness. We believe that, by shifting the analysis from the nature of the group organization to the network of links between all the aspects of a crime commission process, the organizational structure and its weakest links become more detectable, easier to compare across proto- and meta-scripts, and ultimately more prone to situational preventive measures.