Visilant: Visual Support for the Exploration and Analytical Process Tracking in Criminal Investigations

ZÁKOPČANOVÁ, Kristína, Marko ŘEHÁČEK, Jozef BÁTRNA, Daniel PLAKINGER, Sergej STOPPEL and Barbora KOZLÍKOVÁ. Visilant: Visual Support for the Exploration and Analytical Process Tracking in Criminal Investigations. IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics. IEEE, 2021, vol. 27, No 2, p. 881-890. ISSN 1077-2626. Available from: https://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TVCG.2020.3030356.

Basic information

• Original name: Visilant: Visual Support for the Exploration and Analytical Process Tracking in Criminal Investigations
• Authors: ZÁKOPČANOVÁ, Kristína (203 Czech Republic, belonging to the institution), Marko ŘEHÁČEK (703 Slovakia, belonging to the institution), Jozef BÁTRNA (703 Slovakia, belonging to the institution), Daniel PLAKINGER (703 Slovakia, belonging to the institution), Sergej STOPPEL (276 Germany) and Barbora KOZLÍKOVÁ (203 Czech Republic, guarantor, belonging to the institution).
• Edition: IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, IEEE, 2021, 1077-2626.

Other information

• Original language: English
• Type of outcome: Article in a journal
• Field of Study: 10200 1.2 Computer and information sciences
• Country of publisher: United States of America
• Confidentiality degree: is not subject to a state or trade secret
• WWW: URL
• Impact factor: Impact factor: 5.226
• RIV identification code: RIV/00216224:14330/21:00120051
• Organization unit: Faculty of Informatics
• Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TVCG.2020.3030356
• UT WoS: 000706330100073
• Keywords in English: Criminal investigation;visualization;network;exploration;interaction;tracking;diagram
• Tags: best
• Tags: International impact, Reviewed

Abstract

The daily routine of criminal investigators consists of a thorough analysis of highly complex and heterogeneous data of crime cases. Such data can consist of case descriptions, testimonies, criminal networks, spatial and temporal information, and virtually any other data that is relevant for the case. Criminal investigators work under heavy time pressure to analyze the data for relationships, propose and verify several hypotheses, and derive conclusions, while the data can be incomplete or inconsistent and is changed and updated throughout the investigation, as new findings are added to the case. Based on a four-year intense collaboration with criminalists, we present a conceptual design for a visual tool supporting the investigation workflow and Visilant, a web-based tool for the exploration and analysis of criminal data guided by the proposed design. Visilant aims to support namely the exploratory part of the investigation pipeline, from case overview, through exploration and hypothesis generation, to the case presentation. Visilant tracks the reasoning process and as the data is changing, it informs investigators which hypotheses are affected by the data change and should be revised. The tool was evaluated by senior criminology experts within two sessions and their feedback is summarized in the paper. Additional supplementary material contains the technical details and exemplary case study.

Links

• MUNI/A/1076/2019, interní kód MU: Name: Zapojení studentů Fakulty informatiky do mezinárodní vědecké komunity 20 (Acronym: SKOMU)

Investor: Masaryk University, Category A

• MUNI/A/1411/2019, interní kód MU: Name: Aplikovaný výzkum: softwarové architektury kritických infrastruktur, bezpečnost počítačových systémů, zpracování přirozeného jazyka a jazykové inženýrství, vizualizaci velkých dat a rozšířená realita.

Investor: Masaryk University, Category A

• VI20172020096, research and development project: Name: Komplexní analýza a vizualizace heterogenních dat velkého rozsahu

Investor: Ministry of the Interior of the CR, Complex Analysis and Visualization of Large-scale Heterogeneous Data