Information Technology, Investigation and Evidence
Module summary
This module deals with the interaction of Artificial Intelligence and the law. It highlights the impacts, opportunities and problems arising from the use and design of AI applications for the legal domain.
The module covers the process of criminal investigation from the commission of the first crime to the point at which a charge can be brought against a suspected criminal, focusing on technology support for the gathering of evidence for crimes. It shows how technology can be used to identify links between criminals; to discern temporal or geographical patterns in crimes; to assist in identity recognition from biometrics; to help investigators consider multiple scenarios rather than focusing too closely on one hypothesis; and to understand the context of evidence extracted from databases to avoid potential miscarriages of justice.
The module also covers methods for fraud prevention and detection, and for legal compliance, in a commercial environment; the use of electronic discovery methods for analysing large volumes of online documents; searching the Internet for 'suspect' websites; and issues surrounding technologies for facial reconstruction.
Session titles
- Link analysis 1
- Link analysis 2
- Situational crime prevention 1
- Situational crime prevention 2
- Monitoring and pattern identification 1
- Monitoring and pattern identification 2
- Identity and identity fraud 1
- Identity and identity fraud 2
- Text mining
- CSI: databases
Learning outcomes
By the end of this module, you should be able to:
- critically discuss and assess the use of AI applications for the legal domain;
- describe the strengths and weaknesses of these techniques;
- identify future application areas and develop ideas for suitable software.
Assessment
One Essay, 5000 words (60%); one piece of assessed course work (20%); participation in online activity (20%).
