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Northumbria Uni to research ‘dark web’ policing

Academics from Northumbria University will collaborate with other leading researchers on an international research project to improve how the dark web is policed. The growth of cyber crime, including illicit trading on the Dark Web, is creating new challenges for the police and the courts. The research team, which will also include academics from The Netherlands Open University, The Norwegian Police University College and Stockholm University, will study tensions between privacy and crime fighting on the TOR-network – a free software that allows anonymous communication. Criminal activity on the TOR network will be explored and related theories of crime examined. Adam Jackson, of the Northumbria Centre for Evidence and Criminal Justice Studies (NCECJS), said: “It is important to ensure that when evidence is gathered without the traditional indications of geographical origin and is wholly dependent on the integrity of digital capture it will be accepted as reliable by the courts. We shall also be looking at how police activity against cybercrime can strike the right balance between protecting society and respecting legitimate privacy rights.” Professor Chrisje Brants added: “Criminal activity on the Dark Web requires international collaboration between police forces and the cross border use of evidence to obtain convictions. This requires mutual knowledge of, trust in and recognition of differing criminal justice systems and laws and the evidence they can produce. There may also be problems concerning the limits of the freedom of expression, differing substantive laws (e.g. pornography, terrorism) and consequently different boundaries to the use of intrusive police powers.”

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