regions, however, note insufficient numbers of forensic examiners, differences between capacity at federal and state level, lack of forensics tools, and backlogs due to overwhelming quantities of data for analysis. One half of countries report that suspects make use of encryption, rendering access to this type of evidence difficult and time-consuming without the decryption key. In most countries, the task of analyzing electronic evidence lies with law enforcement authorities. Prosecutors, however, must view and understand electronic evidence in order to build a case at trial. All countries in Africa and one-third of countries in other regions reported insufficient resources for prosecutors to do so. Prosecution computer skills are typically lower than those of investigators. Globally, around 65 per cent of responding countries report some form of prosecutorial cybercrime specialization. Just 10 per cent of countries report specialized judicial services. The vast majority of cybercrime cases are handled by non-specialized judges, who, in 40 per cent of responding countries, do not receive any form of cybercrime-related training. Judicial training on cybercrime law, evidence collection, and basic and advanced computer knowledge represents a particular priority. Over 60 per cent of responding countries do not make a legal distinction between electronic evidence and physical evidence. While approaches vary, many countries consider this good practice, as it ensures fair admissibility alongside all other types of evidence. A number of countries outside of Europe do not admit electronic evidence at all, making the prosecution of cybercrime, and any other crime evidenced by electronic information, unfeasible. While countries do not, in general, have separate evidentiary rules for electronic evidence, a number of countries referred to principles such as: the best evidence rule, the relevance of evidence, the hearsay rule, authenticity, and integrity, all of which may have particular application to electronic evidence. Many countries highlighted challenges of attribution of acts to a particular individual, and commented that this was often dependent upon circumstantial evidence. The challenges facing both law enforcement investigators and prosecutors mean that ‘brought to justice’ rates are low for cybercrime offenders. Suspects identified per policerecorded offence are comparable for child pornography offences to other sex offences. However, suspects per recorded offence for acts such as illegal access and computer-related fraud or forgery are only around 25 per 100 offences. Very few countries were able to provide data on persons prosecuted or convicted. Calculations for cybercrime offences in one country, however, show that the ratio of persons convicted to recorded offences, is significantly lower than for other ‘conventional’ crimes. International cooperation Countries responding to the study questionnaire report that between 30 and 70 per cent of cybercrime acts involve a transnational dimension, engaging issues of transnational investigations, sovereignty, jurisdiction, extraterritorial evidence, and a requirement for international cooperation. A transnational dimension to a cybercrime offence arises where an element or substantial effect of the offence is in another territory, or where part of the modus operandi of the offence is in another territory. International law provides for a number of bases of jurisdiction over such acts, including forms of territory-based jurisdiction and nationalitybased jurisdiction. Some of these bases are also found in multilateral cybercrime instruments. While all countries in Europe consider that national laws provide a sufficient framework for the criminalization and prosecution of extraterritorial cybercrime acts, around one-third to over one-half of countries in other regions of the world report insufficient frameworks. In many countries, provisions reflect the idea that the ‘whole’ offence need not take place within the country in order to assert territorial jurisdiction. Territorial linkages can be made with reference xxiv

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