Thoughtful Discussion on Data Mining Trends and Applications in Criminal Science and Investigations

This chapter provides an overview of the various topics discussed in the chapters presented in this edited book, considering the fact that achieving crime reduction and criminal apprehension targets in resource-constrained settings require a paradigm shift in the minds of crime data mining researchers. Current trends indicate that several challenges, such as developing scalable programming models, as well as efficient and effective hybrid approaches for strategic or tactical crime analysis, persist in this domain and need to be addressed. Such challenges necessitate the development of more intuitive intelligence investigation techniques for crime pattern and situation recognition, in order to foster proactive safety solutions by the security agencies, public safety and law enforcement authorities. The aim of producing an edited book on data mining trends and applications in criminal science and investigations is motivated by the need to understand the nature, scope and limitations of existing crime mining solutions across different domains and suggest new intervention strategies for a more inclusive solution for public safety improvement. This is particularly important for resource-constrained environments as it is noted, from observational evidence, that the ever growing population and assets, often times, tend to overshadow the available security and public safety agencies. In addition, the advancement in information and communication technology has led to the emergence of a wide set of applications, in order to meet up with daily operational needs across different domains. For example health-care applications, which sometimes exhibit significant security weaknesses as rightly pointed out by the authors, Ellouze et al., In Chapter 8. These applications also give room for offenders to perpetuate different kinds of crime such as cyber-crime, Denial of Service (DoS) and intrusion related offences. These developments have necessitated the need to develop more intuitive solutions for deterring crime across domains. Furthermore, empowering future criminal justice systems requires better insight into the Modus Operandi of criminals, as well as the dynamic mode of offenders behaviour as explained by Ghaziasgar et al. in Chapter 5. The authors 335