Murder, She Modeled: Modeling to Support Crimino-Forensic Processes

Abstract

Digital technologies are increasingly used by law enforcement in forensic processes. This opens the door to new opportunities for the use of conceptual modeling techniques to support pro-active collection and modeling of crime scene evidence-especially for the more challenging case of soft evidence. As opposed to digital evidence and other 'hard' evidence (such as finger prints and DNA samples), 'soft' evidence refers to heterogeneous meta-data on the crime scene (such as modus operandi, victim's background, etc.), which challenges the automation and support of both collection and modeling processes for such evidence. Using homicide crime scene staging (HCSS) as a case study, we explore the challenges and opportunities that an approach applying conceptual modeling techniques offers to support crimino-forensic processes in the collection and systematic modeling of soft evidence.