Today’s Investigative Special Report – January 30, 2013 “Dealing With Todays Law Enforcement Specialized Investigations” “The “Fingerprints” Of A Child Sexual Assault Investigation – Part IV”

sexual assault awareness month display (table) (Photo credit: carmichaellibrary)

By Lawrence W. Daly, MSc

ForensicExpert – Senior Author

The type of perpetrator who sexually assaults children are not profiled as the same or come wrapped in a box they are different and are classified individually. They are ruthless and whatever name of classification they are given the bottom line is if they sexually assaulted a child, they need to be identified, classified, prosecuted, incarcerated, and if they are ever released from prison they will be one of the million registered sex offendersin the United States.

Individuals who sexually assault children can be profiled in that they can be anyone beginning their sexual assaults as early as the age of nine years of age; sometimes even younger. These young pedophiles generally sexually assault other children because they were sexually assaulted and begin preying on children their age or younger.

The reactions of being sexually assaulted may find the child acting out sexually or regressing into having psychological and physiological problems, most of the time dealing with depression, suicidal ideations, and so forth. Sometimes a child who is sexually assaulted believes that if they were inappropriately touched and their body enjoyed the feelings of the touching, touching others is something they may want to explore thoroughly.

If this occurs the type of touching may become aggressively intense, violent, and may lead to a child murdering another child. It happens more often than Americans realize. Children are easy targets and they should be classified as innocent and vulnerable; easily preyed upon by older and stronger individuals who seek them out because they know they can intimate, threaten, and control the child.

The seventh characteristic of “Daly’s Twelve Investigative Characteristics To Finding The Truth” is Classifying. Once a fingerprint is located, identified, processed, analyzed, the fingerprint expert will classify what type of fingerprint it is. In child sexual assault investigations (CSAI) the type of crime is classified as being a specific law was violated. The common classifications of crimes are:

1.      Child Molestation

2.      Rape

3.      Communicating With A Minor

4.      Assault With Sexual Motivation

5.      Other

These five criminal laws classifications provide specify elements for each crime to have been committed. Under each law in order to prove that the perpetrated committed the specific crime, the State must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the perpetrator committed the specific crime and in the process sexually touched the child on her genitilia with his hands for the reason of sexual gratification.

Depending on the amount of force used during the sexual assault will determine the classification of this crime e.g. forcible rape, indecent liberties, and etc. If the perpetrator by word or actions threatens or assaults the child in any manner during the sexual assault the classification is raised to a higher level of crime with serious consequences.

California Coalition Against Sexual Assault (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Classifying - The District Detective will classify the case as a specific crime

The District Detective must identify who the victim was who was sexually assaulted. In interviewing the child victim the detective must ascertain the 7 w’s i.e. when, where, what, which, who, why, and how reference questions about the crime. Further, the detective must ask the following type of questions in order to properly classify the crime:

1.      If the child was unable to disclose that a crime occurred then the District Detective will close the case for whatever reason is presented to the detective

2.      If circumstances prevent the criminal investigation from occurring then the District Detective will place the case into his inactive files

3.      If the child was penetrated then the criminal charge is generally a Child Rape charge depending on the force used and the age of the victim

4.      If the child was not penetrated then the criminal charge is generally a Child Molestation depending on the force used and the age of the child

Sometimes when a child is sexually assaulted things go sideways for the pedophile. He my becomes too aggressive which may eventually cause the child to be seriously injured or murdered.

Jessica Lunsford Act (sometimes referred to as Jessica’s Law) enacted in 2005 by Congress and currently enacted in 43 States, with additional States seeking to pass it at this time, is a national movement to incarcerate pedophiles for twenty-five plus years depending on the type of sexual assault committed upon the child.

The response by Congress and the State Legislatures and Governors in these 43 States sent a message to those who sexually assault children that there will be a loss of freedom for life if they commit a sexual assault against a child. No longer will there be a slap on the hand attitude or response by the courts of men and women who sexually assault children.

Classifying a fingerprint, a crime, the type of victim, witness, perpetrator or evidence allows the criminal justice system to be structured in such a way that it is easy for those who work within in the system to accomplish and perform their roles and responsibilities.

If public employees are capable of realizing and grasping that their job is part of a chain of responsibilities then the system works. If along the way there is a failure by these employees to produce or commit to their jobs then it is possible that a child sexual assault victim may be re-victimized by the same perpetrator or an alleged perpetrator who did not commit the crime is found guilty and sent to prison.

Public servants must realize that there is significance to their position and the ramifications which occur when they fail the community that they serve. No one should believe the entire burden of whether a child is sexually assaulted in the future is theirs to worry about. However, they need to be concerned about their function and the impact their decisions will have on the individual and ultimately the community.

It is vital that everyone does their part and if the criminal justice system has positive and successful leadership, then classification will occur and be beneficial to those who become engulfed into the system.

Of the twelve characteristics classifying is one of the most important aspects of determining if a crime did or didn’t occur. If law enforcement agencies educate and train their personnel in understanding the relevance of classifying evidence and type of crime they are dealing with, then the parties involved and the community should be satisfied with the performance of their public employees and law enforcement agency.

With the use of the newest technology gadgets, classifying will provide law enforcement and those who work in the criminal justice system multiple avenues to innovate and create tools which will take classification of evidence, testimony, and criminal behavior to another level.

In the end, a law enforcement officer who clearly understands the laws and understands how to classify and apply the classification adequately and properly will become a leader who is intelligent and competent in the law enforcement community. Further, this new mindset should bring about an intense accountability against those who work outside the law i.e. pedophiles, and commit sexual assault crimes against children.

Lawrence W. Daly

www.onedaly.com

206-650-0229

onedaly@onedaly.com

Kent, WA

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Today’s Investigative Special Report – December 20, 2012 “Dealing With Today’s Law Enforcement Specialized Investigations” “ Clean Your Lens - Rise Above The Investigative Distortions Which May Be Blocking Your Vision - Investigating Child Sexual Abuse Allegations?”

Among more than 1,400 adult females, childhood sexual abuse was associated with increased likelihood of drug dependence, alcohol dependence, and psychiatric disorders. The associations are expressed as odds ratios: for example, women who experienced nongenital sexual abuse in childhood were 2.93 times more likely to suffer drug dependence as adults than were women who were not abused. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

By Lawrence W. Daly, MSc

Forensic Expert – Senior Author

The word Astigmatism is not a common word used in a conversation nor could most people if asked would be able to spell it. Astigmatism has relevance when it comes to investigating child sexual assaultallegations. Although a medical term, an investigator if intellectually capable will be able to parallel how they have any commonality and how understanding it is of benefit to law enforcement.

According to Web-MD defining what exactly is Astigmatism is as follows:

Astigmatism is a condition in which the cornea, the transparent layer that covers the front part of the eyeball, is not symmetrical. The cornea bends or refracts light rays to focus the light onto the retina in the back of the eye, but when it doesn’t cover the eyeball evenly, the light rays are not focused on a single point. The result can be blurry vision.

The definition provides some insight into how it relates to an investigation which becomes distorted for many reasons. These reasons may be:

1.      The law enforcement officer has lost sight of his responsibilities of his role as a fact finder.

2.      The law enforcement officer has lost sight that the investigation was to be performed in an objective and neutral manner.

3.      The law enforcement officer has lost sight that there are more than one hypothesis which should be considered when an allegation of child sexual abuse has been made.

4.      The law enforcement officer has lost sight that the manner in which he conducts his interview of the alleged child victim may demonstrate his bias and prejudice in his approach to the case. Bringing about questions of the credibility and reliability of the child’s testimony. This further questions the ability of the officer to perform the investigation in such a manner that outsiders looking in have doubts about his competence and intelligence.

5.      The law enforcement officer has lost sight that there are two sides to an allegation and that it is important to listen to both of them without coming to a conclusion prior to obtaining all of the information.

6.      The law enforcement officer has lost sight when his interrogation methods and techniques become accusatory instead of investigative in nature. Although this is generally the preferred style of interrogating a perpetrator, in sex abuse cases, the investigator needs to approach the interrogation with a soft approach at the beginning, then escalating to a confrontation type style.

7.      The law enforcement officer has lost sight of the investigation when he alleges crimes occurred that the facts and evidence collected do not support.

8.      The law enforcement officer has lost sight of the investigation when he becomes personally involved turning his role as an investigator into being that of an advocator. This is a common occurrence as everyone wants to be a supporter of children whom may have been sexually assaulted. This is not his role, his role is to keep his attitude and state of mind in the center, until such time the evidence proves beyond a reasonable doubt that it is more than likely that the perpetrator committed the crimes which have been alleged against him. Commonly if a child states that a specific individual sexually assaulted her the weight given is viewed as credible and reliable without a competent and intelligent investigation occurring. The old saying that the investigator has placed the cart before the horse is fitting. This ideology provides the opportunity for those who commit crimes against children to be freed to assault other children or to put men/women into prison for crimes they didn’t commit against children.

9.      The law enforcement officer has lost sight of the investigation when the facts become blurry and foggy and he is incapable of finding his way back to the facts and evidence in a clear manner. This generally occurs when the case becomes complicated and the officer is incapable of doing investigative tasks which are complicated and more than that which is obvious.

10.  The law enforcement officer has lost sight of the investigation when the investigator suffers from investigative refractive errors i.e. the investigator cannot properly see the facts and evidence of the case as a whole because the light isn’t sufficient enough for the investigator to evaluate and examine what the case presents. Failure to be able to observe the information obtained by the investigator properly, the investigator must use corrective investigative methods in order to consider what the next investigative Case Action Plan (CAP) will be.

As seen above Astigmatism’s definition does parallel the ability for a law enforcement investigator to be presented with a set of investigative circumstances and how they need to react to them. The reaction of the investigator is so important to properly investigate the allegation as the investigator will have the opportunity to see clearly.

The evaluation and examination of the facts and evidence comes full circle when the investigator takes the time to be cautious and careful. Sometimes an investigator will stumble and fall as they failed to perceive what was coming in reference to the information they receive from witnesses and the evidence.

The investigation gains strength for the investigator in knowing what steps are taken when investigating an allegation of child sexual abuse are the proper and correct investigative steps. This strength brings about clarity for the investigator which allows him to predict and plan how to continue building their case. However, this does not mean that the evidence will prove that a crime did or didn’t occur. Instead the results will assist the investigator in determining what the truth is.

Wipen’N Clear are alcohol swabs which an individual may use to clean their glasses. The dust, debris, and clutter which the lens picks-up can be cleaned away by using specific tools such as the swabs do. The investigator also utilize specific cleaning tools either physically or visually to also clean and clear the way so potential physical, trace, biological, and direct testimony evidence can be located, identified, collected, stored, and later analyzed.

Sometimes no matter how things appear to a well-educated, trained, and experienced investigator sometimes the wrong diagnosis will occur because instead of basing their findings on the facts and evidence the officer relies too much on his intuition. Intuition is very important in an investigation because sometimes this may be all an officer has available to them during an investigation.

Even though an investigator is capable of clearing the obstacles and barriers in their way during an investigation doesn’t indicate they didn’t attempt to pull out all the stops in order to find the truth. Sometimes competent and intelligent investigators who are complete and thorough can’t reach a positive and successful conclusion. It happens from time to time and when it does the officer must be conscience to tell others of his findings. Things may be blurred from the beginning, but if the officer is patient and utilizes the proper tools to clear the way and obtain the proper light in order to see and determine if a crime did or didn’t occur.

Lawrence W. Daly

www.onedaly.com

206-650-0229

onedaly@onedaly.com

Kent, WA

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Today’s Investigative Special Report – November 26, 2012 “Dealing With Today’s Law Enforcement Specialized Investigations” “When Incompetence Makes a Difference in the Investigation”

English: Rib fractures in an infant secondary to child abuse (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

By Lawrence W. Daly, MSc

Forensic Expert – Senior Author

A crime occurs and generally there are three types of people involved in an alleged crime; the complainant who is generally the victim, the perpetrator who is generally the individual who committed the crime, the witness who by one of his senses (e.g. saw the crime occur, heard it, and etc.) became involved in the alleged crime. Law enforcement is called to respond to the event and investigate the alleged event to determine if a crime occurred. Depending on the evidence and facts of the case the officer begins to compile any and all information about the alleged event. Depending on the seriousness of the alleged event the first responder may request assistance from other reactive patrol units, supervisors, and the major crimes division.

The first responder will either handle the investigation or turn the case in for additional follow-up. Once the information is gathered by the first responder he will have to make immediate decisions about what steps he must take to protect evidence and those individuals who may have either participated in the alleged crime or became involved because they were in the right spot at the wrong time.

When it comes to serious crimes such as robberies, homicides, child rapes, and arson the first responder would request his sergeant to respond to the scene, advise him of his findings and request the sergeant to call out the detective(s) who work within the specialized area of expertise i.e. the type of crime. If the detective decides to respond to the alleged crime scene, then upon his arrival he will take charge of the investigation.

It will take many hours for the detective to perform his functions as a thorough, competent, and intelligent investigator. The detective will need to understand all aspects of the alleged crime. One of the first tasks the detective must determine is if in fact a crime was committed. If the facts and evidence do not support that an event which did occur but wasn’t criminal the investigator will close out the case.

The decision of which investigative steps should be taken by the detective is predicated upon what is apparent, obvious, easy to understand, and presents little to no critical thinking. The investigative steps the detective will take generally is acquired from the basic crime scene investigation workshop. Detectives are generally required to participate in these types of workshops if an officer intends on becoming a detective.

The areas which need to be explored and developed specifically deal with the information retrieved from the parties at the event that a crime did or didn’t occur. However, in child sexual abuse cases, there will be witnesses who are involved in the case. This is where a competent and intelligent detective can make a difference in ascertaining the facts about the allegations. One of the greatest 

problems are detectives believe they only are to interview the complainant, the suspect, and a witness.

In gathering the facts most law enforcement officers make the mistake by failing to understand, identify, or reasonably conclude when the actual complaint began. In a recent child sexual abuse allegation where a man was criminally charged for allegedly raping his granddaughter law enforcement began their investigation at the middle of the complaint. The training and education law enforcement officers do not instruct them in how to develop what the ‘motive’ was for the child and complainant to make such serious allegations. Failure to understand the ‘motive’ puts the integrity of the case at risk.

In serious crimes such as child rape or molestation law enforcement begins their investigation at the time the guardian or professional reports the alleged abuse. During the investigation the first responder will take the basic information from the complainant, obtain the witnesses names, telephone numbers, addresses, and a brief sketch of what they know.

The key for the first responder is to gather any and all evidence at the crime scene which is visible. If the crime scene is a scene which needs to be processed, then the first responder will have a crime scene unit (technicians) come to the location where they made contact with the complainant. In investigations the first responder has only one opportunity to protect, identify, gather, and store all evidence. The analysis of the evidence will eventually be sent to the State Crime Laboratory. The transfer from the law enforcement agency to the Laboratory is generally performed by the detective assigned to the case. Sometimes the crime scene technicians who collect the evidence at the crime scene will take the evidence directly to the crime lab. Everything in law enforcement is performed for a reason. Most importantly the sole reasons are to protect physical, biological, and trace evidence which may link the perpetrator to the crime.

child abuse (Photo credit: Southworth Sailor)

In the child abuse case discussed above, the child was interviewed by a multitude of professionals. The goal is to keep any and all child victim interviews to a minimum. Unfortunately, this is a high standard which is rarely achieved because each professional is responsible to obtain information for their specific role and responsibilities. In this case the circumstances were no different than those of most child abuse investigations. The problem which is not unusual in child sexual abuse cases is people who were identified by witnesses were not contacted nor were they interviewed. This creates a situation where the detective only understands a portion of the crime. Remember, most detective can only handle an investigation is where everything is right in front of them. Thinking outside the box is rarely accomplished because they never received the training, nor would they understand how to perform this function of the investigation.

When defense professional child abuse experts interviewed the lead detective responsible to investigate the allegations, she had no reason or could she logically explain why potential witnesses were not contacted.

Interviews conducted by the defense professional child abuse experts took the investigative steps to identify any and all witnesses and interviewed them.

The detective in the case began the investigation in what she thought was the origin of the complaint. Truly she was correct that the mother of the child called law enforcement and reported that 

she had allegedly received a disclosure from her six year old daughter. Her thoughts, belief, and opinion was how would her six year old daughter have so much information about multiple detailed sexual acts. These detailed sexual acts according to her thinking only could have come from the child being sexually abused by the grandfather.

The witnesses the detective failed to interview had information which was relevant and material to the case. The mother and father of the child were never married and had other relationships at the time of the alleged disclosures.

Behind the scene and unknown to the detective, the father’s girlfriend was a child sexual abuse victim. When she was very young a man sexually assaulted her and committed multiple sexual acts on her. The girlfriend’s statement to the defense experts were, “I wanted her to know that it wasn’t right for anyone to touch her in her vaginal area, unless it was her father, mother or doctor.” Further, she admitted that she told the child about these acts during multiple bedtime discussions, including a couple with the father being present. She said she just wanted to make sure the child was safe. The father never told the detective or defense experts about the bedtime discussions. The detective didn’t know to ask these questions because she failed to interview the girlfriend stating she didn’t believe she had any relevant information.

A Crane for Each Child; Students Seek End to Child Abuse (Photo credit: ct senatedems)

The defense experts asked the father about any and all conversations and his response was he never talked to his daughter about it as it upset him. A slippage in memory; or just a convenient memory lapse?

The discussion with the father’s girlfriend and the child happened over a two month period. The child reporting to her mother that she had been sexually abused by her grandfather came shortly thereafter.

Thinking outside the box takes a special law enforcement officer who spends his time educating himself as much as possible. This would include attending workshops, conferences, webinars, any other training and education events; reading specialized books on investigations, child sexual abuse; interviewing of children; the collection of evidence and the significance of the evidence; interrogation techniques; critical thinking; psychology; memory and etc.

A well-rounded law enforcement officer may make a formative, thorough, competent, and intelligent detective. The amount of effort anyone especially a law enforcement officer takes the reasonable and logical time to become the best they can be will bring integrity to their reputation as being an outstanding officer.

In the case discussed above you need to ask yourself if a competent and intelligent detective would have been assigned to this case would the grandfather would have been criminally charged with a crime he didn’t commit. The amount of money he has paid to prove his innocence is unbelievable. All because a detective believed that all that was required were the interview of the child, mother, father, grandmother, and the grandfather.

Too many times law enforcement agencies and administrators are never made aware of these types of officers in their agency and the damage they cause to the citizens in their community. When it comes to child sexual abuse allegations law enforcement need to have the best educated and trained detectives investigating allegations of abuse. There are no national or state law enforcement child sexual abuse investigative standards Child advocate groups have led the way in this area, but they are as untrained as the detective described above.

The future must provide law enforcement national and state child sexual abuse investigative standards which advocate the need for consistency in the manner in which law enforcement investigates abuse allegations. Law enforcement administrators need to evaluate the type of education and training programs which are seriously and immediately needed to bring integrity to these professional specialized investigations. The answers are available to resolve the problems in this area but it will take leadership by everyone involved to begin changing the current ideology and standards.

Lawrence W. Daly

www.onedaly.com

206-650-0229

onedaly@onedaly.com

Kent, WA

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