Criminal Investigations

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Criminal Investigations are ways that crimes are looked at and criminals arrested (In Encyclopædia Britannica, 2011). It is a huge part of getting criminals off the street. Investigation is a crucial aspect for many different crimes such as, but not limited to, theft, robbery, burglary, arson, murder, and assault. Criminal Investigations can take days or up to many years to solve; some cases are never closed. Not only can investigations last for extended periods of time, the lives of those working on such cases can be put in danger.

Crime scene processing plays a large part in bringing a victim justice. However, crime scene processing is also an area that needs improvement due to some errors that come from this tedious process. This is a lengthy process that needs to be documented at every point. First, there will be a walkthrough of the crime scene. Following that, criminal investigators will go inside the crime scene and start taking photographs, but will not touch anything. As soon as that process is completed, investigators will walk through the scene, yet again, bagging all the evidence to send to the lab. Errors can be made during this step, which could include documented evidence getting lost or altered if not documented properly. Finally after evidence is sent to the lab and processed, the results will be sent to the top detective. The investigation continues and the investigators on the case must be sure to document everything that is discovered or carried out; if details are not recorded correctly errors can be made and important facts missed. A chain of evidence must be kept as investigators continue to collect information. This collected evidence will be given to one person to keep track of, who would als...

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...p://www.policechiefmagazine.org/magazine/index.cfm?fuseaction=display_arch&article_id=1136&issue_id=32007

Criminal investigation. (2011). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/143110/criminal-investigation

Disposable temporary e-mail address. (2011). Retrieved from http://www.guerillamail.org/

Ganguly, M. (2001, October 5). A banking system built for terrorism. Time. Retrieved from

http://www.time.com/time/world/printout/0,8816,178227,00.html

Harris, W. (2011). How DNA evidence works. HowStuffWorks. Retrieved from

http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/life/genetic/dna-evidence4.htm

Johnson, A. (2010). Already under fire, crime labs cut to the bone. MSNBC. Retrieved from

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35319938/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/t/already-under-fire-crime-labs-cut-bone/#.TmF2IY6Scl9

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