CriminologyJustice: Real evidence

Tabetha Cooper

When investigating a homicide or rape there are certain techniques that need to be used and issues that need to be avoided. An investigator needs to be aware of the proper techniques in each investigation process and the ethical issues involved. In this paper the proper investigative techniques for

Ethics and Technology (Photo credit: Center for the Study of Ethics at UVU)

homicide and rape along with the ethical issues, how to reduce the ethical problems, the problems that a prosecutor will face if an investigation isn’t handled ethically, and what ethical issues are directly related to the prosecutor will be discussed.

As stated by Morris and Zuluaga (2006), in any crime the investigative process can be summed up in approximately five steps: interview, examination, photographing and sketching, processing, and interrogation. The responding officer determines if a crime has been committed then he immediately sections off the crime scene, calls in the proper detectives, and separates then interviews victims, witnesses, and suspects if there are any present. The responding investigators will re-interview any victims, witnesses, or suspects. They then will go into the crime scene and make photographs, notes, and sketches of the entire scene and then examine everything. The investigator then collects evidence and takes it to the proper chain of custody for processing. From the information gathered at the crime scene through victims, witnesses, and evidence the investigator develops theories about what had happened and determines motive from each individual suspect. Through interrogation the investigator will eliminate theories, motives, and suspects until the most likely scenario and person is all that is left. The detective will then go to the prosecutor to see if there is sufficient evidence and information for a conviction and if so an arrest of the suspect is made.

http://openclipart.org/clipart/people/magnifying_glass_01.svg License: PublicDomain Keywords: people Author: AbiClipart Title: Magnifying Glass (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

All the investigative techniques are the same in the event of a rape or homicide but further steps and care needs to be taken. In a rape the investigator is responsible for transporting the victim to a hospital or an assault lab where physical evidencecan be collected. No matter the age of the victim a councilor needs to be present during the second interview of the victim, but if the victim is a minor a child councilor is a definite must and a parent may also need to be present. Other than those additions to the interview process no one else should be present, just like any other interview the less people present the more comfortable the victim is going to be when it comes to talking about the crime that has been committed against them. Something else to note in a rape case is the inconsistency in statements does not necessarily mean that the victim is lying, when a person has been subjected to trauma of that extent, events can blur together, things can be hard to remember, or the sheer embarrassment brought on by the crime can keep a victim from telling the entire set of facts of the crime. Also, the investigator should be one that is familiar with sex crimes and has experience interviewing those victims. In a homicide the biggest different in investigative techniques is that the victim can’t verbally tell you what happen to them, but with a thorough medical examination of the body the victim may be able to tell you how everything happened. As said by The National Institute of Justice (2009), an examination of the body can give unbiased information about the “victim’s physical attributes, his/her relationship to the scene, and possible cause, manner, and circumstances of death.” Most of the information in regards to a suspect is going to come through interviewing family and friends of the victim. In both a homicide and rape there is much more physical evidence that needs to be collected and processed.

National Institute of Justice logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

There are ethical issues that need to be taken into account when it comes to an investigation. Just as with other professions you do run across law enforcement personnel that aren’t the most truthful. When an investigator is certain of which suspect perpetrated a crime but doesn’t have enough evidence to charge him/her with it things can be frustrating. If a less than honest investigator is put in this situation there can be the temptation to fabricate or falsify evidence, not turn in information or evidence that may indicate a different suspect, or misrepresent themselves to the suspect in order to obtain incriminating evidence (www.cwu.edu). All of these things are unethical and cause problems for the prosecutor in court proceedings. Some of these unethical behaviors can be committed inadvertently from a very honest investigator as well. Take not reporting information or evidence that may indicate another offender, for example. The investigator may run across information or evidence that doesn’t seem important to the investigation and disregard it without taking the necessary procedures to record and preserve it. Another issue that may cause problems for the prosecutor would be the mishandling of evidence. Whether it hadn’t been sent through the proper chain of custody or it was improperly stored, contamination becomes an issue. This can become an issue at trial, and the evidence will then lose its integrity. Just one unethical event can happen in the investigation of the case that can cause the entire investigation to be called into question. An offender may get off because of this either at the initial trial or through a court of appeals.

There are other issues that can cause ethical dilemmas, such as, when an inexperienced investigator is sent to investigate a victim of a rape and doesn’t proceed with the necessary sensitivity that a rape victimneeds, improperly conducting the interview. This could cause vital information to be lost because the victim just wants to be finished the interview. There are also ethical issues when it comes to interrogating a suspect. An investigator may intimidate a suspect into confessing to a crime that he/she may or may not have committed. The investigator may put the suspect in conditions less than optimal or promise them thing such as a reduced sentence in order to obtain the confession. The defense can bring these things up at trial, which will pose a problem for the prosecutor. Once an investigator has fumbled an investigation in any form their integrity in future investigations and in past convictions can and most likely will be called into question.

Detectives at crime scenes (Photo credit: Boston Public Library)

According to Morris and Zuluaga (2006), steps can be taken to eliminate the ethical problems that may arise through the course of an investigation. After the victims, witnesses, and suspects (if applicable) have been identified and the facts of the case have been given an investigator should evaluate the situation for any moral or unethical problems that may become present in a case. The principles that may be jeopardized and their necessity in the case should be clarified. The investigator should evaluate possible ways to get around these problems or come up with a solution to the dilemma. This should all be clearly noted in case it becomes an issue at trial, there will be proof that the situation was thought about and the best means to take care of the situation was executed.

When a person chooses to become an investigator, there are several things that need to be taken into account. An investigators main goal is to solve the crime and get a perpetrator off the street. There are several thing, if not handled properly, can keep this from happening. Once proper investigative techniques have been learned then ethical situations need to be evaluated. Now that certain situations have been listed, as well as how these things can affect the investigation, and then the prosecution of the suspect an investigator can use the steps mentioned to keep these from being an issue.

References

Morris, E. & Zuluaga, C. (2006). Investigating Ethical Crimes. International Journal of

Education and Development using Information and Communication Technology

(IJEDICT). Vol. 2, Issue 1, pp. 22-33. Original Article @: http://ijedict.dec.uwi.edu//viewarticle.php?id=116&layout=html

National Institute of Justice. (2009) A Guide to Death Scene Investigation: Documenting and

Evaluating the Body | National Institute of Justice. Retrieved February 23, 2010, from

http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij/topics/law-enforcement/crime-scene-guides/death-

investigation/document-body.htm

Osterburg, J.W. & Ward, R.H. (2007) Criminal Investigation: A Method for Reconstructing the Past (5^th ed.) Newark, NJ. Mathew Bender & Company, Inc.

www.cwu.edu/~jefferis/PEHL557/phel557_ethics.html

by Tabetha Cooper

English: A crime scene. . (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Before becoming a criminal investigator, there are several things that you need to know. There are many concepts that need to not only be learned but must also be applied properly. Being able to use the concepts of the methods of inquiry, the proper mindset to be an investigator, the scientific method, the different sources of information, is a necessity when striving to be a great investigator.

Knowing the methods of inquiry is the first step to learning how to apply them. The methods of inquiry are determining if a crime has been committed, as well as where, when, why, and how it committed, and what was used to do it. After the answers to most of these questions have been answers it is important to find out who committed the crime. After it has been decided that a crime has indeed been committed, an investigator must find out the additional information such as where, when, why, and how it happened in order to lead the investigators to potential suspects and eventually to the perpetrator of the crime. Finding out this information starts at the scene. Once at the scene it can be determined if the crime was actually committed at that location. If it was, you can then try to determine when it happened. You can also search the location for physical evidence that can lead you to the answer of what exactly happened, why it had happened, and how it happened. You can also talk with witnesses and victims if there are any in an attempt to receive the answers to these questions. According to an article called Crime Detection (2010), victims and witnesses provide most of the facts regarding when, where, how, why, and who committed a crime.

English: A U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command special agent processes a crime scene on an Army installation. Thirty new sexual-assault investigators will be assigned to various major Army installations worldwide to assume the lead in forming special victim investigative units in support of the Armyâ€™s Sexual Harassment/Assault Prevention and Response Program known as SHARP. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A great investigator has a certain mindset that enables them to have a good work performance. According to Osterburg and Ward (2007), an investigator must be intelligent, curious, energetic, sensitive, discrete, tactful, persistent, honest, outgoing, well spoken, and have observational skills. With intelligence a criminal investigator will have the ability to think in unconventional ways, use technical devices, and be able to testify appropriately in court. Curiosity, energy, persistence, discreteness, tactfulness, and observational skills are great resources when investigating a crime. Sensitivity, honesty, outgoingness, and being well spoken are crucial aspects for an investigator when it comes to talking to victims or the families of victims. Most investigators prove that they have this particular mindset prior to becoming an investigator, while working as a law enforcement officer. It will be apparent on the first case an investigator works whether or not he is going to have the essential skills to be a detective.

The scientific method is applied in every case that comes across an investigator’s desk. The scientific method is “an analytical technique by which a hypothesis is formulated and then systematically tested through observation and experimentation” (Garner, 1999). To make this explanation simpler, in the aspect of how it is applied to a criminal investigation, it can be broken down into five steps. First a problem needs to be stated, in the case of an investigation it is determining whether or not a crime has been committed, and if so what type of crime. Then a hypothesis needs to be made, such as, a murder has been committed with what appears to be a knife, but it appears this is a dump site and we still need to find a crime scene. After the hypothesis has been made the collection of data through observation and experimentation is the next step, in a criminal investigation, this is where an investigator goes through the crime scene and collects evidence and interview witnesses and/or victims. After the data has been collected the next step would be to interpret it. This is when a criminal investigator would send the evidence they have collected back to the local laboratory to be analyzed and would go over the testimony from witnesses/victims and call some of them to the station for a more extensive interview. The last step of the scientific method is to draw a conclusion, which in a criminal investigation is when an investigator has determined who has committed the crime, with certainty. In a scientific experiment as well as a criminal investigation the “starting point is induction but the process is completed through deductive logic” skills (Osterburg, 1981).

English: Footwear impressions left at a crime scene (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The article Crime Detection (2010) states that there are three important sources of information for criminal investigators, physical evidence, people, and records. Physical evidence is the items collected at a crime scene or through additional investigation of a crime. Weapons, bodily fluids, hair samples, fibers, impressions, fingerprints, bullet casings, and tool marks are just a few things that fit into the classification of physical evidence. People as sources can come in the form of victims, witnesses, or informants. Victims are the people that the crime happened to and witnesses are the people that have seen the crime first hand. Informants can either be people on the street that have heard details of a crime and use the information to help themselves when facing legal repercussions of their own, people who know something about a crime and are willing to tell what they know for monetary gain, people who know thing and out of jealousy or rage are willing to divulge that information, or just concerned citizens who know something and are doing what is right. Useful records include employment records, background records, tax records, phone records, utility records, military records, computer records, bank records, MO files, Rogue Galleries, wanted files, rap sheets, criminal files, penal records, and probation/parole files.

Every investigator wishes to be the best at their job. It has been determined that in order to do so there are several things that have to be known. Now that you have been introduced to the methods of inquiry, the required mindset of an investigator, the scientific method and how it applies to criminal investigations, and sources of information, you can evaluate yourself and determine if you have what it takes to become an investigator. If think you do, let the learning begin!

References

Crime Detection,.(2010). History.com Retrieved Feb. 4, 2010, from http://www.history.com/encyclopedia.do?articleID=206774

Editor & Chief Garner, B.A. (1999). Black’s Law Dictionary. West Group, St. Paul, Mn. Retrieved Feb. 4, 2010

Osterburg, J.W. (June 1981). Journal of Police Science and Administration. Vol. 9 Iss. 2 pg. 135-142, Retrieved Feb. 5, 2010, from www.ncjrs.gov/App/Publications/abstract.aspx?ID=78300

Osterburg, J.W. & Ward, R.H. (2007) Criminal Investigation: A Method for Reconstructing the Past (5^th ed.) Newark, NJ. Mathew Bender & Company, Inc.