Unpacking the evidence elasticity of digital traces

Abstract

Digital traces are sought in most criminal investigations, due to their usefulness in shedding light on the case circumstances and evidential themes. They are often trusted to be value-neutral and credible. However, a recent study on digital forensic (DF) decision-making revealed that the human factor greatly influences the construction of digital evidence. The study found that DF practitioners were biased by contextual information and produced inconsistent results during DF casework. This article applies a qualitative lens to explore how the statistically determined variance materialises in DF reports. The article examines the role of interpretative flexibility when the DF practitioner constructs the digital evidence. It develops “evidence elasticity” as a concept for describing the mutability of digital traces as knowledge objects. The article explores the role of evidence elasticity for constructing narratives involving digital evidence and how this sometimes may result in misinformation with the propensity to mislead actors in the criminal justice chain, such as the investigators, prosecutors or judges.