Technological Research and International Crime (From Transnational Crime: Investigative Responses, P 125-132, 1989, Harold E Smith, ed. -- See NCJ-120383)

• NCJ Number: 120398
• Author(s): E Kube
• Date Published: 1989
• Length: 8 pages
• Sale Source: University of Illinois at Chicago
• Publication Type: Report (Technical)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Paper presented at the 3rd Annual Symposium on International Criminal Justice Issues, University of Illinois at Chicago

Annotation

West Germany has developed technological means for investigating international criminals, particularly for organized crime and drug trafficking.

Abstract

International crimes are classified as organized crime with profit as the motive, transnational terrorist activities, economic offenses involving operations and transactions in more than one country, and illicit activities that affect the ecological balance and environmental viability of other countries beyond the one in which they originate. At West Germany's Research and Training Institute, technological research to deter international crime encompasses the development of new procedures for evidence analysis and the use of x-ray, mass spectrometry, and data processing techniques to detect and solve crime. The institute has introduced three new technical disciplines: methods of automatic pattern recognition (artificial intelligence); information theory; and cybernetics. Specific research projects focus on computer-aided identification of handwriting, voices, text, and photographs, as well as on computer-aided image restoration and drug detection and identification. Drug investigations are facilitated by dielectrical procedures, mobile mass spectrometry, x-ray technology, and sonographic detection. 3 references.