Clues from the digital world: A survey of clinicians’ reliance on social media as collateral data in forensic evaluations.

Abstract

Access to and use of social media has increased throughout the United States. In parallel, information gleaned from social media is often available as part of discovery packets provided to clinicians conducting forensic evaluations. As social media continues to be a primary mode of communication, forensic evaluators are likely to grapple with decisions to use information from these sites to inform psycholegal opinions. However, professional commentary on obtaining, interpreting, and integrating data from social networking sites (SNSs) in forensic practice began only recently. There have been few empirical efforts thus far to better understand whether and how forensic mental health evaluators use SNSs to inform their opinions about various psycholegal issues. Thus, the current study sought to address this gap in the professional literature by surveying practicing forensic evaluators (N ϭ 102) regarding their use of SNS data in civil and criminal legal contexts. Quantitative and qualitative findings from our survey are presented and discussed to provide an overview of current practices and concerns among forensic clinicians. Overall, SNSs are used with some frequency in forensic mental health assessments and are generally perceived as a useful source. Findings are integrated with previous professional commentary about Internet-based data to facilitate greater understanding of how SNS data may be best incorporated into assessments and to identify emergent legal and ethical issues when such data are included.

NLP-Based Digital Forensic Analysis for Online Social Network Based on System Security

“…[ 32 ]. The data provided from social media is more understandable and easy to access for users [ 33 , 34 , 35 ]. To use this type of data, it is required to follow the legal and formal process [ 36 ].…”

Homicide and Criminal Maturity of Juvenile Offenders: A Critical Review

“…Because history is paramount, the understanding of the individual defendant should be informed on the case investigative level. Full access to the smartphone of the defendant and other related actors, for example, provides abundant, critically relevant and valid contemporaneous data uncorrupted by adversarial positioning and is the most diagnostic source material available to emotional, cognitive, and behavioral understanding today (Coffey et al, 2018).…”

Forensic e-mental health: Review, research priorities, and policy directions.

“…Although forensic mental health scholars have begun to discuss the risks and benefits of Internet-derived data (see Batastini & Vitacco, 2020), there has been little empirical investigation into the matter. In a survey of 102 forensic evaluators, 63.7% reported using social media as collateral information, most often in mental state and child custody evaluations (Coffey et al, 2018). In general, evaluators reported that social media information was not as helpful in developing their forensic opinion as were hospital and police records, clinical interview, surveillance tapes, support staff, and family members.…”