Optimal Foraging Theory’s Application to Internet Sex Offender Search Behavior: A Theoretical Model for Computer Forensic Investigations

Abstract

Previous literature involving Optimal Foraging Theory has largely been focused in the biological sciences with only limited studies examining its affect in a criminal context. Those studies have successfully demonstrated foraging patterns in criminals selecting targets for burglary and motor vehicle theft. Evidence from official sources and forensic computing indicates a substantial rise in the number of sexual crimes facilitated by Internet sexual predators. Understanding the behavior of this population could result in better investigation and prevention methods. This paper presents a model of Optimal Foraging Theory applied to the behavior of Internet sexual predators. It draws from the literature in ecology, criminology, Internet foraging, and sex offender behavior. It also draws on investigations of sex offenders and their behavior in searching for and selecting targets. The result of the discussion is a theoretical framework of search behaviour of Internet sex offenders.

The foraging perspective in criminology: A review of research literature

“…In addition, it is possible that bias occurred due to our choice of just two bibliographic databases. The decision to include only empirical research resulted in the loss of some interesting theoretical work on crime-foraging (Burgason and Walker, 2013) and a number of OFT-inspired ABM studies of crime (Brantingham and Tita, 2008;Malleson, 2012;Malleson et al, 2012Malleson et al, , 2013Pitcher and Johnson, 2011). Although these studies were not the focus of this review, they could inspire future crime researchers.…”

“…Finally, there is a focus on acquisitive crime, neglecting other crime types (but see Braithwaite and Johnson, 2015; Hering and Bair, 2014). This is unsurprising because it is more straightforward for acquisitive crime than for other crime to define the currency components of the crime-foraging problem (but see, for example, Burgason and Walker, 2013, who discuss an approach to identify the currency for Internet sex offending). Taken together, it seems evident that OFT was most influential for the study of repeat acquisitive offending.…”

“…This challenges crime researchers to establish currencies or adopt sensible proxies thereof. In doing so, crime researchers could learn from the iterative approach that OFT researchers adopted to establish valid currencies (Burgason and Walker, 2013; Pyke, 2019b). In light of these concerns, we suggest referring to future OFT instalments in crime research as OFT-inspired instead of considering them as strict tests of the application of OFT to offending and law enforcement.…”

“…Although these studies were not the focus of this review, they could inspire future crime researchers. For example, Burgason and Walker (2013) articulate how crime researchers might establish the optimization components central to a foraging-inspired model of Internet sexual offenders, and Brantingham and Tita (2008) demonstrate how OFT-inspired mathematical models and ABMs generate quantitative predictions of offender movement. Keeping these limitations in mind, the divergent focus of the selected foraging studies, combined with the observation that OFT is still peripheral to criminology, leads us to believe that this review was adequate to provide a comprehensive overview of the current state of the field.…”