ABSTRACT
Digital forensics (DF) has emerged as an important policing resource. This chapter first provides a brief historical overview of DF, outlining how it emerged in conjunction with technological developments, before its use in a wider array of investigations. The chapter then addresses framings of DF as profession and practice. Assertions about DF based on sociology of professions literature are compared and contrasted with ethnographic studies. The latter suggest that formalizations of DF as a profession may not fully capture the extent to which practitioners manage the contingencies and pressures of policing environments. The chapter then compares DF with other forms of forensic practice in terms of the reasoning frameworks and scientific standards which may be applied. Other challenges in terms of police and legal perceptions, and the role of machine learning, are also addressed. Finally, the chapter considers proposals to reorganize DF practice via the concept of ‘digital forensics as a service’ (DFaaS). It is suggested here that such plans represent significant projected reconfigurations of actors, data and objects into new sociotechnical networks. The chapter suggests that these plans will need to address a host of technological and organizational factors.
