Computational Forensics

For decades, forensic sciences have produced valuable evidence that has contributed to the successful prosecution and conviction of criminals, the exoneration of innocent people, or the identification of cadavers. However, reasoning and deduction are usually performed on the basis of partial knowledge, approximations, uncertainties and conjectures. This fact extremely complicates the forensic daily work, originating wrong conclusions that demonstrate the potential risk of giving undue weight to evidence and testimony derived from imperfect testing and analysis.

Computational Forensics (CF) is an emerging interdisciplinary research domain1. It is understood as the hypothesis-driven investigation of a specific forensic problem using computers, with the primary goal of discovery and advancement of forensic knowledge. When computing capabilities are endowed with human-like intelligence, i. e. Computational Intelligence (CI) techniques, the resulting systems are able to process a large amount of uncertain, imprecise, and incomplete information in a reliable, unbiased, and automatic manner. The development of intelligent systems has attracted significant amount of attention recently from academia, industry, and government as well. Among many efforts toward this objective, CI research could provide important technical innovations to help the society to accomplish this goal.

The specific topics solicited for this special issue will be mainly focused on the new CI methods and techniques for applications in forensic sciences. The CI paradigms considered here are evolutionary computation, neural networks, fuzzy systems, or hybrid approaches of these paradigms.

The main areas of the SI include, but are not limited to:

• Ballistics
• Forensic genetics
• Biometrics (fingerprint, iris, face, voice, among others)
• Intrusion detection
• Digital Forensics
• IT security
• Crime scene reconstruction
• Malware detection systems
• Digital crime scene investigation
• Metaforensics
• Document examination
• Pathology
• Fire investigation
• Profiling
• Forensic anthropology, odontology, pathology, and entomology
• Steganography
• Facial composition
• Toxicology
• Forensic photography
• Tool marks