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(with the faculty’s social responsiveness call always in
mind) the National Responsible Gambling Programme;
studies on trust‚ risk‚ inequality, and economic growth;
research that examined the relationship between
addiction and reward among smokers and non-
smokers; and one that investigated risk-aversion and
risk-taking in a classroom setting.
As befits a first-of-its-kind unit, RUBEN will dedicate
resources for training to both its scholars and
postgraduates.
Another new unit that is attracting attention in the faculty
is the Unit for Digital Forensics Research. Founded on
the long-running work of Adrie Stander in the Department
of Information Systems, who has been running a
postgraduate diploma course in digital forensics for
the past five years, it is the only unit of its kind on the
continent. Graduates of the original programme have
included members of the South African Police Service,
banks, insurance firms, and legal and big-name audit
firms. Ninety-three applications poured in for the 38 spots
that could be accommodated in 2012.
Cybercrime, whether conducted on PCs or cellphones,
doesn’t just include financial crimes – itself conservatively
estimated to stand at around R50 billion a year in South
Africa. Digital forensics has also become standard in the
tracking of child exploitation, human and drug trafficking,
and even cyberterrorism.
“The legal people are beginning to see the value of this
kind of work because,” says Stander, “for all practical
purposes it is impossible to commit a crime now without
an electronic component to it.”
But that work needs further human capacity. The unit will
next aim to build research at both master’s and doctoral
level. The unit will also include a dedicated, non-shared
facility that will help with the development of tools –
software included – to tackle problems unique to Africa,
covering areas such as psychological profiling, quality
control, and national and international law.
SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC RELEVANCE
“I t is scaffolding on which we can
integrate research and social
responsiveness from across the
facul ty.”
Researchers want to paint a picture of the particular choices that people make in Africa.