Högskolan i Skövde

In today’s information technology-driven world, most criminal acts leave digital evidence. In such cases, cooperation through the handover of digital devices such as mobile phones from victims is a success factor that enables evidence-seeking through digital forensics. Unfortunately, forensic examinations of devices can become an additional negative consequence due to privacy invasion. Privacy invasion can make crime victims less cooperative and less willing to report crimes. To address this problem, we surveyed 400 Swedish adults to identify their hypothetical willingness to report certain crimes. The survey examined the impact a mobile phone handover made on the willingness to report a crime. Our findings demonstrate that mobile phone handover resulted in a significantly lower willingness to report crimes. However, the data could not show privacy as a common tendency cause. The presented results can be used as a reference for further research on attitudes and behaviours regarding the subject.