When conducting an investigation for a criminal case there are many guidelines you would need to follow. A preliminary investigation is an inquiry or proceeding to determine whether there is sufficient ground to endanger a well-founded belief that a crime has been committed. Preliminary investigation is to be conducted before the filing of a complaint or information for an offense where the penalty said by the law is at least 4 years, 2 months and 1 day without mentioning the fine. When investigating a preliminary case officers should approach crime scene and protect, initiate preliminary survey, attend to injured parties first, evaluate physical evidence, prepare narrative description, depict scene photography, prepare sketch, conduct search …show more content…
They may be able to provide some information about the assailant even if they were masked. This crime was committed against a person were they were physically and emotionally abused while arson most of the time takes the life of a physical thing. Also most arson cases may not have a lot or even only witness when it occurred. A criminal investigation must have (3) most important characteristics of an effective criminal investigator and discuss the importance of each characteristic you determined. The (3) most important characteristics are patience, knowledge and persistence as a criminal investigator. An investigator will need patience because in some cases there are many times you may want to give up due to it is a lot of stress on you or you just having a hard time dealing with the subject. If you try to rush the victim when interviewing them you will miss important information that may be imperative for the case. An investigator must be knowledgeable about a variety topics especially things that pertain to the type’s of crimes that they investigate. An investigator needs to be persistent and not give up on any cases. They have to be willing to continue looking for leads witnesses and evidence even when the investigator is on the brink of
From a trial strategy point of view, you always start with the piece(s) of evidence you believe are most damaging to the client's case and work backwards looking for an exploitable flaw in the search and seizure procedure that would make that or those item(s) inadmissible. The further back in the series of events you can argue a fatal flaw, the more likely that the evidence and any additional materials which flowed from that particular item of evidence will be excluded. This is the practical analysis of all the times we see or hear of law enforcement arguing that there was some technical item which drew their attention and suspicion and justifies their hunch that criminal activity is afoot.
The following paper explores a homicide scene at a convenience store / gas station at 3 a.m. The material of the investigation is represented with a number of visible evidence, the dead body with an apparent gunshot wound in the chest and the testimony of the first officer at the scene. The paper is divided into four parts, including the general overview (introduction), latent impression processing, people’s involvement investigation procedure and evidence package for the further fingerprint analysis. The crime scene investigation protocol used in this paper includes interview, examination, photographing, sketching and processing itself (Castleman, 2000: 23). Observing the homicide scene we omit the analysis of the preliminary procedures as security of the scene, integrity precautions, photographing and sketching.
The most important thing to remember when called to a crime scene is that no situation is textbook. Guidelines may be in place to help investigators get started, but the methods of securing and processing will vary by crime scene. Outside factors may make it hazardous for investigators to do their job – inclement weather, safety hazards such as a downed power line, fire hazards, etc. These factors will dictate how investigators approach the scene, so they must remember to be adaptable and willing to compromise when needed. They may also have to wait until the scene is safe to approach before examining it.
Lyman, D. Michael; Criminal Investigation, The Art and Science; 3rd edition, 2002 Prentice Hall. Pgs. 188-200.
In today’s time, modern Crime Scene Investigation has increased rapidly. From throughout the late 1900’s and in the early 2000’s (Taylor 1). For all of the evidence that they find, a solid foundation has formed over the thousands of years of Crime Scene
The police conduct a preliminary investigation then later conduct a secondary or follow up investigation. The primary goal of the preliminary investigation is to secure the crime scene to protect the integrity of the evidence. The follow-up investigation is when they thoroughly collect, preserve and relinquish the evidence to the evidence tech in the lab with a chain of custody form.
Denise Moore 's criminal report starts the investigation. A police investigation of a crime is the entryway into the criminal justice system, once Denise Moore reported the crime, Detective Riley and Detective Clay conducted a photo lineup, an investigative tool used when the suspect is unknown and not in custody, to identify the suspect (Burns, 194).
The optimal mindset of an investigator is to look for possible motives while remain open to all possibilities while focusing on the easiest evidence that can be gathered from the scene (Osterburg 2010). An investigator also has to be willing to keep an open mind and be able to change and adapt to the different evidence that might present itself. An investigator cannot be dead set on something or a certain way they conduct work, they must also be unwilling to change their approach. It is important to avoid tunnel vision while investigating a crime scene. I think that an optimal mindset is where the investigator can make the best of their job and help them process all the evidence possible, it might help them come to a conclusion of what happened. I also feel that the state of mind that is required to be a successful investigator can be taught through training and experience.
When arriving at the crime scene Geberth (1997) notes that there are certain procedures the investigators and forensic teams must abide by. When they arrive they have to document just about every thing, especially the important things. They have to go through a checklist, like the time of day, the weather, and interviews with officers, suspects, witnesses, and family members. When examining the body the forensic investigators record name, address, and the sex of the victim, determine the death, and they have to take pictures. Also they must stabilize the scene with barriers of rope or whatever is necessary. Collecting evidence is also important. They must make sure they do not get their fingerprints and other things like hair, saliva, etc… on the evidence. There is a whole lot to do when arriving, but those are the main and important ones.
Collecting evidence from a crime scene is a crucial aspect of solving crimes. Before evidence can be seized, there must first be a court order approving the search of the crime scene and the seizure of the evidence found at the scene. Standard protocol for officers is for them to always use latex gloves, avoid plastic bags, double wrap small objects, package each object separately, and to collect as much evidence as possible. It is better to have too much evidence than to not have enough. There are countless amounts of evidence that can be found at a crime scene.
Officers are sent out to interview possible witnesses, neighbors, family members, friends, and possible foes of the individual. This would include activities they might be known for in the neighbor...
There are many steps that have to be taken when leading a criminal investigation and investigating a crime scene. Firstly, detectives have to try and figure out why and how a crime was committed. They examine a crime scene looking for information or clues such as fingerprints, weapons, and DNA. They investigate the victims’ history to define why someone would want to harm them. After they have formed a hypothesis, they try to find proof that somebody committed a crime so that they can arrest the suspects. They look at both the cause and the actual evidence of the crime and try to see if their hypothesis makes sense. The suspects then enter the criminal justice system where they are tried using the evidence collected at the crime scene.
Law enforcement officers come across a plethora of cases each year. Every case which is investigated and DNA collected should not be sent to a lab. Every crime that is investigated meets different requirement and elements. For instance, when investigating a burglary and blood is found at the scene, DNA is collected and attached to the case file. If the burglary had no other crime involved such as rape or a homicide, just stolen goods, why would the agency spend the resources to just to catch a petty theft at night. Crimes are committed each day and there are priorities for crimes, most server crimes that involve life and or sexual related crimes should be investigated and all DNA sent to the lab to be analyzed and compared to I the database. In a perfect world we would be able to catch all criminals with DNA because in away every criminal leaves DNA at the scene, whether it be hair, saliva, sweat, blood, mucus, and finger prints, Locard's exchange principle.
Crime scene investigation is the use of physical evidence at the scene of the crime committed, also reasonable and unreasonable reasoning to gain knowledge of the events surrounding the crime. Criminal investigators pursues to establish the methods. Motives, and identities of criminal. This paper will go into great depths of how to conduct an investigation and the proper way to obtain the information. After reading this paper you should be able to know step by step how to keep notes, take accurate photos and a variety of other things that will allow you to conduct a successful investigation.
In these two cases an investigator has to make sure that they ask the right questions in order to get the answers they need to process the suspect. Unlike, murder a kidnapping or a rape normally have witness to the crime and they can be interviewed to find out what they saw take place. One example of information they can give you is what type of car the suspect may have been driving during a kidnapping or a rape if they saw the person leave the crime scene, what they were wearing, their height and weight, as well as hair color or eye color if they are close enough to see them. Other questions that could be asked of a witness would be what type of clothing the suspect was wearing, did it seem as if the victim knew the suspect and did they see the suspect around the victim or following the victim. All of these things are very important because the smallest details can lead to the biggest crime solving tool in a case. Therefore, as detectives you want to make sure to ask all of the questions that will give you particular details about everything they saw as a witness or