Cyber Criminology: Algorithmic vs. Heuristical Approaches for Analysis within the Human Trafficking Domain

Abstract

Advancing technologies afford new dimensionality to the modus operandi of cyber criminals, thereby – arguably - increasing the sophistication that is required for the investigation and profiling of criminal populations in the cyber context. Online classified adult advertising websites are leveraged to facilitate human trafficking. The problem of human trafficking is not confined geographically with more than 20 million victims of human trafficking around the world, it is an issue of global importance. The present study, inspired by the White House Tech. vs. Human Trafficking initiative, has shown that the velocity and sophistication of adaptation by cyber actors, who are disseminating images within the human trafficking domain, provide a discernible morphology. There is, therefore, a potential opportunity moving forward, for those involved in the White House Tech vs. Human Trafficking venue and the community of action-at-large, to actively collect, analyze, evaluate, and actuate upon the escalating body of publicly available Big Data and move towards Big Insights to facilitate more robust decision-making for directed interventions. The sophisticated nature of technology-facilitated human trafficking in cyberspace, continuous data creation, more intuitive software, surging cycles of adaptation, the macrotrending of online dynamism, increasing velocity, and the complexity and overall scale emphasizes the need for international collaborative information sharing, an interdisciplinary approach, activation of diverse skill sets, a heuristical as opposed to algorithmic perspective, and exploration of innovative structured scientific investigative methodologies.