“This isn’t your father’s police force”: Digital evidence in sexual assault investigations
| Author | Rose Ricciardelli,Dale Spencer,Dale Ballucci,Alexa Dodge |
| DOI | 10.1177/0004865819851544 |
| Published date | 01 December 2019 |
| Date | 01 December 2019 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
“This isn’t your father’s
police force”: Digital
evidence in sexual assault
investigations
Alexa Dodge and Dale Spencer
Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada
Rose Ricciardelli
Memorial University, St. John’s, Canada
Dale Ballucci
Western University, London, Canada
Abstract
Digital evidence, once regarded as existing only in a portion of criminal cases, in our digitized
world commonly appears within all crime categories and is a factor in many (or arguably
most) cases of sexual assault. In this article, we draw from 70 interviews with sex crime
investigators from across Canada to demonstrate that the infusion of digital evidence into
sexual assault investigations results in new opportunities and challenges for police and both
negative and positive impacts on victims’ experiences within the criminal justice system. We
show that while digital evidence certainly provides more opportunities for documenting the
context and content of acts of sexual assault, police perceive this evidence as a double-edged
sword that provides both more evidence and new challenges for police and victims. While
officers express that digital evidence may provide more conclusive proof in the notoriously
difficult pursuit of proving sexual assault charges, they are also concerned that this evidence
provides new challenges for already overburdened sex crime units and makes cases more
lengthy and invasive for victims. This article contributes to emerging research on the chal-
lenges of policing in the digital age and to the dearth of research on the potential and pitfalls
of digital evidence in sexual assault investigations.
Corresponding author:
Alexa Dodge, Department of Law and Legal Studies, Carleton University, D581 Loeb Building, 1125 Colonel By
Drive, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K2G6C9.
Email: alexandra.dodge@carleton.ca
Australian & New Zealand Journal of
Criminology
2019, Vol. 52(4) 499–515
!The Author(s) 2019
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/0004865819851544
journals.sagepub.com/home/anj
Keywords
Digital criminology, digital evidence, digital forensics, policing, sexual assault, sexual violence
Date received: 6 November 2018; accepted: 29 April 2019
Introduction
Digital information increasingly acts as valuable evidence in cases of sexual violence
(Carimico, Huynh, & Wells, 2016; Diss, 2013; Dodge, 2018; Hlavka & Mulla, 2018). For
instance, text, email, or social media messages sent between the complainant and the
accused before or after an alleged sexual assault, security camera footage or cellphone
photographs/video providing context for an alleged sexual assault, or even cellphone
video/photo documentation of the alleged assault occurring each document the context
or content of criminal activity (Bluett-Boyd, Fileborn, Quadara, & Moore, 2013;
Dodge, 2018; Powell, 2010; Powell & Henry, 2018). Digital evidence, once regarded
as existing only in a portion of criminal cases, in our digitized world commonly appears
within all crime categories (Arnes, 2018; Horsman, 2017; Scanlan, 2011; Yar, 2013)
and—according to our interviewees—is a factor in many (arguably most) cases of
sexual assault. The notoriously difficult investigative process for sexual assault cases
and the well-documented negative impacts of these investigations on victims (Jordan,
2008; Randall, 2010) warrant a better understanding of the particular potential and
pitfalls digital evidence creates for sex crimes investigations.
Due to the ubiquity of digital technology, our everyday actions and interactions now
frequently leave a wake of digital information (e.g., text message conversations, GPS
tracking, and internet search histories) (boyd, 2010), resulting in the infusion of digital
evidence into many cases of sexual violence (Hlavka & Mulla, 2018; Powell & Henry,
2018). In consequence, a need for new investigative tools and strategies for police
investigations emerges. While the need to digitize the policing of primarily “cyber”
sex crimes such as online child pornography and online child luring is widely accepted
(Powell & Henry, 2018; Scanlan, 2011), much less scholarly and policy attention is
focused on the role of digital evidence in the investigation of acts of sexual assault.
Powell, Stratton, and Cameron (2018) assert in their theorization of digital criminology
that digital technology has “had significant effects for everyday life and for everyday crimes”
(Powell et al., 2018). While other advances in science and technology (e.g., DNA
1
)havehad
substantial impacts on criminal investigations, digital technology’s ubiquity has changed the
very fabric of our lives and, thus, our crimes (Powell et al., 2018). While theories of cybercrime
(Chaikin, 2006; Clifford, 2006) have grappled with the specific challenges for policing crimes
committed online or using computer technology, we now understand the need to assess
digital technology’s impacts on all criminal investigations (Powell et al., 2018; Vincze,
2016; Yar, 2013). Thus, drawing from 70 semi-structured interviews and two focus groups
conducted with sex crime investigators from across Canada, in this article we demonstrate the
impact of digital evidence on the investigation of sexual assault.
We divide the article into three sections. First, we review the literature on the chang-
ing nature of evidence and policing in the digital age. We then describe the methodology
500 Australian & New Zealand Journal of Criminology 52(4)
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