Beyond the Screen: The Expanding Role of Forensic Nursing in Managing Cybercrime Victimisation

Abstract

Cybercrime victimisation holds significant relevance in the present-day scenario of criminal activities around the world. Cybercrime victimisation occurs in many different ways. It may be from cyberbullying to digital stalking, revenge pornography to online sexual exploitation, and online platforms being used for human trafficking, to name a few examples. For solving these cases, forensic evidence is needed. Forensic nurses need to know how to respond to such cases when these cases are brought to them. They need knowledge about these crimes to effectively deal with them and report them. Forensic Nurses require skills to solve such cases by identifying, collecting and preserving the related pieces of online evidence. They should be able to make foolproof documentation in such cases.
They need to provide trauma-informed care to such victims and should be able to provide first aid in mental health care in such cases, in addition to their routine roles as forensic nurses. They will be required to work in collaboration with cyber experts to deal with the digital evidence, taking due care of their legal mandates as well as taking care of the ethical aspects in such cases.
Forensic nurses must have digital literacy. They should have an awareness of different types of digital crimes and how to collect online evidence of digital crime to successfully prosecute the culprits of digital crime.