http://worldcat.org/entity/work/id/5730422

Criminal investigation

This book follows the actual chronology of a police investigation, provides detailed analyses of offense and offender typologies, and distinguishes between the roles of the uniformed officer and the detective. An introductory chapter presents an overview of crime and its investigation; the importance of investigation, essential qualities of the investigator, and organization of the investigative function are covered. The examination of the investigative process begins with the crime scene search and the collection, care, and submission of evidence found there. Sketching and photographing the scene are also treated. Different types of physical evidence, including soil, paint, glass, fibers, rope, fingerprints, hair, blood, human secretions and excretions, firearms evidence, and toolmarks, are discussed and illustrated. Conducting and documenting interviews with witnesses are described, as well as types of witnesses and their motivations and perceptions. A section on field notes and reporting encompasses the importance and use of reports, writing effective reports, report formats, aids to information-gathering, and supplemental reports. The initiation of a latent investigation, which takes place after the original report and before the case is ready for prosecution, and techniques for conducting such an investigation are presented. Methods of interrogating suspects, admissibility of confessions and admissions, documentation of interrogations, and suspects' rights are discussed in another chapter. Crime laboratories are examined in detail, and their capabilities and limitations are described. Mobile crime units and the federal bureau of investigation crime laboratory are among the laboratories treated. Aspects of injury and death investigation discussed are primarily forensic in nature; the medicolegal examination, autopsy, victim identification, time-of-death determination, and types of wounds are among the topics. Separate chapters on specific crimes cover burglary, robbery, sex-related offenses, larceny, and drug abuse investigation. The decision to initiate the criminal process is viewed in terms of the arrest. A section is devoted to the rules of evidence; subjects examined include proof, testimony, admissibility, relevance, materiality, competence of evidence and witnesses, weight of evidence, presumptions, inferences, burden of proof, types of evidence, the hearsay rule, and evidentiary privileges. Giving testimony in court is the focus of a chapter on the investigator as witness, in which understanding the jury, the trial process, and appearing on the witness stand are discussed. The role of behavioral science in criminal investigation is illustrated through psychological profiles of offenders and the modus operandi file, consultation with behavioral scientists, and sociological and psychological perspectives on the rapist. Each chapter is followed by questions relating to the material presented, and the crime-specific chapters contain sections on the investigator's educative/preventive responsibility. Appendices on locks and the u.s. system of weights and measures and a glossary on drugs supplement the chapters on burglary and drug abuse. An index is provided.

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