Exploring the role of salon professionals in identifying sex trafficking and violence victims in Indiana.

Background: Sex trafficking victims often have touchpoints with salons for waxing, styling, and other body modification services required by traffickers. Recently, some states have administered laws requiring salon professionals to receive intimate partner violence (IPV)-related training, with even fewer states mandating training on identifying sex trafficking. This study aimed to understand how salon professionals have witnessed evidence of violence, including IPV and sex trafficking, in the workplace and to explore the differences in their approach to each type of victim.

Are you a cop?: Identifying suspicion in online chat operations with online groomers.

Background: The increase in online enticement has led to law enforcement agencies engaging in more proactive policing through undercover chat sting operations.

Objective: We aimed to identify the topics and communication strategies triggering suspicion in chats between law enforcement officers and offenders and why those topics do not result in suspicion in victim-offender conversations.

Methods: We conducted a thematic analysis identifying: (1) how LEOs trigger suspicion, (2) how offenders communicate suspicion, (3) how LEOs attempt recovery from suspicion, and (4) how these triggers were present but did not trigger suspicion in victim-offender chats.

Testing a hybrid risk assessment model: Predicting CSAM offender risk from digital forensic artifacts.

Background: Recent research argues for a formalized hybrid risk assessment model that combines the current online child sex abuse risk measures with digital forensics artifacts.

Objective: We conducted a feasibility study as an initial step toward formalizing the hybrid risk assessment model by identifying high-level digital forensic artifacts that have the potential to be valid and reliable indicators of risk, with a focus on CPORT Items 5, 6, and 7.

Data: Law enforcement investigators from a High Tech Crime Unit (HTCU) randomly selected seven closed cases; selection criteria included: male offender over 18, mobile device, child sexual abuse material (CSAM) offense, and 2019-2023 index offense.

A multi-factor knuckle and nail bed verification tool for forensic imagery analysis.

Background: The grooming process involves sexually explicit images or videos sent by the offender to the minor. Although offenders may try to conceal their identity, these sexts often include hand, knuckle, and nail bed imagery.

Objective: We present a novel biometric hand verification tool designed to identify online child sexual exploitation offenders from images or videos based on biometric/forensic features extracted from hand regions.

Criminological differences between contact-driven and online-focused suspects in online child sexual grooming police reports.

Background: Differences exist between contact and noncontact-driven online child sexual abuse offenders; however, there is still a notable lack of empirical studies with police samples from non-English speaking countries, including Spain.

Objective: We address this gap by analyzing the criminological characteristics of online child sexual grooming (OCSG) suspected offenders from de-identified law enforcement investigations in Spain.

Participants And Setting: We anonymously coded data provided by Spanish law enforcement agencies from 257 OCSG cases (i.

The role of community healthcare professionals in discussing sexual assault experiences during obstetrics and gynecological healthcare appointments.

Background: Nearly half of adult women in the US report experiencing sexual assault, with almost one-fifth reporting rape. For many sexual assault survivors, healthcare professionals are the first point of contact and disclosure. This study aimed to understand how healthcare professionals working in community settings perceived their role in discussing sexual violence experiences with women during obstetrical and gynecological healthcare appointments.

We are meeting on Microsoft Teams: Forensic analysis in Windows, Android, and iOS operating systems.

Microsoft released a new communication platform, Microsoft Teams, in 2017. Due in part to COVID-19, the popularity of communication platforms, like Microsoft Teams, increased exponentially. Given its user base and increased popularity, it seems likely that digital forensic investigators will encounter cases where Microsoft Teams is a relevant component.

A scoping review of child grooming strategies: pre- and post-internet.

Background: Researchers have studied the online sexual grooming of minors extensively since the early 2000s. However, the grooming process is neither new nor restricted to digital media. While grooming and child sexual abuse existed long before the Internet, the advent of the Internet has resulted in more ways in which offenders can interact with candidate victims including offline-only, online-only, and a mix of offline and online.

Chat Analysis Triage Tool: Differentiating contact-driven vs. fantasy-driven child sex offenders.

Investigating crimes against children, specifically sexual solicitations, are complicated because not all offenders are contact-driven, meaning they want to meet the minor for sex in the physical world; instead, some offenders are fantasy-driven, in that they are more interested in cybersex and role-play. In addition, the sheer volume of cases involving the online sexual solicitation of minors makes it difficult for law enforcement to determine whether an offender is contact-driven vs. fantasy-driven.

Exploring detection of contact vs. fantasy online sexual offenders in chats with minors: Statistical discourse analysis of self-disclosure and emotion words.

This exploratory study is the first to identify content differences between youths' online chats with contact child sex offenders (CCSOs; seek to meet with youths) and those with fantasy child sex offenders (FCSOs; do not meet with youths) using statistical discourse analysis (SDA). Past studies suggest that CCSOs share their experiences and emotions with targeted youths (self-disclosure grooming tactic) and encourage them to reciprocate, to build trust and closer relationships through a cycle of self-disclosures. In this study, we examined 36,029 words in 4,353 messages within 107 anonymized online chat sessions by 21 people, specifically 12 youths and 9 arrested sex offenders (5 CCSOs and 4 FCSOs), using SDA.