1,720,955 research outputs found
An exploratory study of the South African Police Services (SAPS) systems in combating cybercrimes.
No full textDoctoral Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, DurbanThe rapid development of technology and computing has tremendously changed people’s lives and how crime is committed in modern societies. The digital revolution and increase in internet connectivity have created not only new opportunities for wealth creation but also the potential for transactional offending, posing a major threat to governments, business organizations, and individuals. Globally, cybercrime leads to financial losses, reputational damage, and personal information data breaches. South Africa is not an exception. In 2018, the country was ranked amongst the top ten countries on the cybercrime predator list, making the country appear to be a major attraction to cybercriminals. The country is estimated to lose about R2.2 billion a year to cyber-attacks. Although there is an increase in research output on cybercrimes, some areas of the phenomenon are least explored, particularly how law enforcement agencies in South Africa respond to the challenges associated with online crimes. The study, therefore, explores how the South African Police Services (SAPS) responds to cybercrimes and offer practical solutions. It seeks to identify the types of cybercrimes, challenges that SAPS has encountered, and measures taken to combat them. The study also aims to determine if any intervention strategies need to be reviewed and/or if new approaches must be developed to deal with cybercrime effectively. Conducted in Durban, KwaZulu Natal, the study adopted the phenomenological research design, according to which interpretive and constructivist qualitative research paradigms were deemed appropriate. They allow participants to describe their understanding, interpretations, and personal experiences of cybercrimes in South Africa. Data was collected through in-depth interviews using semi- structured interviews, with a sample of 17 participants purposively drawn from the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI) and the Commercial Crimes Unit (CCI) of the South African Police Service (SAPS). The theoretical orientations that guided the study are the Routine Activities Theory and the Structural Functionalism Theory. The study revealed that South Africa has been experiencing a variety of cybercrimes, including cyber fraud, identity theft, and phishing attacks, and most of them were perpetuated for financial gain. The study also found that South Africa has introduced laws and security strategies, such as the Cybercrime and Cybersecurity Bill of 2017, to respond to cybercrimes. The challenge, however, is that these laws and legislation are not adapting fast enough to deal with the constantly changing technological environment and the new emerging types and methods of cybercrimes. Police officers who are experts in the field and can respond to cybercrimes are limited. They also do not have enough resources and require constant training to keep up to date with technological advancements and criminal activities. Above all, it has become increasingly evident that there is a need for the collaboration of all stakeholders, including prosecutors and the judiciary, private security agencies and investigators, electronic communication service providers (CSPs), and/or Internet service providers (ISPs) if cybercrimes are to be tackled effectively
An investigative study on the perceptions of university of KwaZulu-Natal Risk Management Services (RMS) on campus safety.
Full text linkMasters Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.University institutions are already overwhelmed by academic challenges without having to worry about crimes that plague the university campuses. The provision of and daily efforts of campus protective services are therefore important in maintaining a peaceful, safe and conducive learning environment. However, constant reports and the increasing levels of crime on campus have led to the call for researchers to investigate the determining factors of these crimes. One critical aspect is that research efforts so far have been focused on the perspective of students on campus crimes and safety; and have not adequately considered to capture the perspective of the campus protective services or security officers. Security officers are often looked upon or expected to provide safety on campus and are, therefore, challenged to meet the expected standard to prevent crimes on campus. The focus of this study is, therefore, grounded in investigating the perceptions of security officers on campus safety at UKZN Howard College Campus. In order to comprehensively capture their perceptions, the following objectives were examined: the types of crime that occur on campus, the challenges encountered in dealing with these crimes, intervention remedies or response to these crimes and their effectiveness. The study adopted one-on-one in-depth interviews methodological approach to generate its data. Empirical findings from the study revealed that there are a number of crimes that disrupt the proper functioning of and daily lives of the university community. These crimes include but are not limited to property theft, assaults and alcohol use. Findings also unfolded that security officers’ that attempts to prevent these crimes have often been encountered by challenges which have, in turn, adversely affected the intervention remedies ever put in place to arrest the horrible situation of crimes on campuses. Based on the research study’s findings, recommendations were made with an intention to assist on-campus protective services in improving their measures in crime prevention
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
“Brutal murder scenes are traumatising, and they’re mostly indelible” : occupational stressors and mental health among South African police service murder detectives at a selected station in Durban, South Africa
Full text linkOccupational stress is rampant across various professions. The process of
murder case investigation culminates in a plethora of challenges, including mental
health concerns among murder detectives, which can trigger occupational stress.
Stress reduces productivity and is detrimental to a worker’s health and well-being.
This study explored trauma contributing to occupational stress among murder
detectives in the South African Police Service. The study adopted a case study
design and a qualitative approach within the constructivist paradigm. To generate
rich and thick data, participants were purposively selected. Data were collected
using in-depth interviews with eight (n = 8) murder detectives and two (n = 2)
employees from the SAPS’ Employee, Health, and Well-being Services (EHWS)
department. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. The sources of stress
identified were attributed to the nature of police work, namely long work hours and
exposure to traumatic crime scenes. Murder cases involving children and women
were among the most emotionally challenging sources of stress. Further, most
detectives reported resorting to defensive mechanisms in dealing with trauma.
Although most detectives knew EHWS, high workloads were reported to be an insurmountable challenge. The findings have important implications for intervention programmes to improve the mental health and well-being of SAPS murder detectives.https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/oass20am2023Social Work and Criminolog
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
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