Illicit Activity and Criminal Justice

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Analyzing the Effectiveness of Chatbots vs. Webforms for Suspicious Activity Reporting
(2024-01-03) Elson, Joel; Schuetzler, Ryan; Pintar, John; Kearns, Erin; Vitro, Callie
Crime prevention requires the public to provide information about suspicious or illicit activity to authorities, typically through either a webform or a telephone hotline. Yet, these technologies have myriad problems in design, accessibility, and usability – all of which decrease reports and hinder prevention efforts. To address these limitations, we developed a prototype chatbot to improve reporting. In a lab experiment, participants watched a video containing a suspicious activity scenario and were randomly assigned to report it through either a standard webform or our prototype chatbot. We then compared multiple dimensions including report quality, user perceptions of the technology, and user experience/system utilization including eye-tracking data. Results indicate that the chatbot may encourage increased report accuracy in some cases. Differences in the sentiment of the report were also identified. Findings provide guidance for both the development of SAR technologies and the decision of when to deploy a chatbot vs a webform in a more general case.
Introduction to the Minitrack on Illicit Activity and Criminal Justice
(2024-01-03) Petter, Stacie; Bichler, Gisela; Fullilove, Michael H.; Giddens, Laurie