Introduction to Applied Criminology

Posted by permission of Dr. Thomas O’Connor. Copyright by T. O’Connor.

 

The field of criminal investigationshould be called applied criminology. The only better name would becriminal psychology, but psychologists call that forensic psychology. Itcan’t be called investigative science because investigative journalism has agrip on that label, and it can’t be called detective science because that refersto the “true” crime genre of fiction writing. Police science istoo broad a term, as are the terms crime science or criminal science, predecessorsof the field of criminal justice. There is a science called clinicalcriminology, but it is practiced mostly in Israel as the study ofinsanity. There is an unfortunate tendency in England, Australia, andCanada to attach applied criminology to what is called profiling, but thoseuniversity programs are more applied social science curricula than anythingelse. It is only criminology, as an interdisciplinaryfield of study that has always incorporated anthropology, biology, psychology,and sociology, and offers hope for professionalizing criminalinvestigation. Criminology and criminal investigation both got their startaround 1891 (Gross 1924).

It is probably true what policedetectives say, that criminal investigation cannot be taught; it must belearned thru years of practice (Axelrod & Antinozzi 2003). This makesit more of an art than a science, but composed of both (Morn 2000). It isalso morethan a justification for the so-called”detective mystique.” The 12% of police officers in America who holddetective rank (and all detectives hold rank, most at least Sergeant; in somedepartments, all detectives are Sergeants), are powerful, respected, and smartfor some good reasons. For one thing, they’re extremely good at elicitingconfessions, which are the equivalent of the holy grail in lawenforcement. American police detectives have an average 60% success rate in eliciting confessions, which far surpasses any othercountry in the world. Their clearance rate is notall that good, only 20% of all crimes are solved (70% for homicide), but giventhe tremendous amount of crime in America, the fact that it’s the easiestcountry in the world to be a criminal in, and their small numbers comparedto workload, it’s amazing they accomplish what they do.

HISTORY OF PUBLIC DETECTIVES

The first police detectives were created in England during 1748 (Henry Fielding’s Bow Street Runners) and in France (Eugene Vidocq’s police de surete) during 1817. Scotland Yard didn’t have a detective branch until 1842. Americans obtained their first federal investigators (revenue agents) in 1789, and first municipal detectives in 1846 (under Francis Tukey in Boston) and 1880 (under Thomas Byrnes in New York City). Early American detectives were recruited from civilian life, but soon became selected from the uniformed police force. Criminalistics and forensic science came into its own around 1910, and was adopted by law enforcement in 1932 (under August Vollmer & J. Edgar Hoover). College education preference for detectives began in 1950, but by 1975, a RAND Report showed less than half of all detectives were college educated, much less productive. Today, 10-15% of a typical police department consists of detectives, with specialization occurring in large departments, and 80% of them working on teams with non-detective personnel.

Police detectives do not workalone. They are aided by a variety of technical and professional specialists,such as criminalists, forensic scientists, and vocational criminologists (crimemappers, police planners, and analysts). There’s also a large privatesecurity sector which is twice (2x) as large as the public sector, withfour times (4x) as many personnel, and 73% more financial resources.It prevents twice as much crime as the public sector is capable of, and theLabor Department classifies it as one of the nation’s fastest growingindustries.

HISTORY OF PRIVATE DETECTIVES

The first private security agencies were started in 1852 as the Pinkerton National Detective Agency and Wells, Fargo & Co. Today, the industry includes over 4,000 separate agencies, the big ones being Pinkerton Burns, Wackenhut, Guardsmark, Wells Fargo, and Allied, and a number of more bodyguard-oriented firms with names such as Advance, Globe, Trojan, American Protective Services and Security Bureau. The big firms are involved in loss prevention, crime prevention, and mall, hospital, or nuclear security. There is a proliferation of bodyguard firms. There are about 40,000 individually licensed private detectives, and a growing number of bounty hunters. Bounty hunting has been around since the late 1600s & early 1700s with what were called thief-takers in England and France, Jonathan Wild’s group in England during the early 1700s being the most notorious.

Detective designations vary. Somepolice departments call their detectives investigators or inspectors, andfederal agencies call their investigators (all federal police are investigators)agents, special agents, or special agents in charge. Designationor rank usually signifies who takes charge of a crime scene, and carrieslittle weight, otherwise, in the chain of command. State highway patrol(decentralized) states usually have separate state bureaus of investigators, andstate police (centralized) states usually have their own state policedetectives. County and municipal detectives usually work at the squad ordivision level, as the following breakdown indicates:

Detective units or branches may beorganized on a decentralized or centralized basis.In a centralized system (like Chicago), four or five precincts equally share adetective division. In a decentralized system, each precinct will have itsown detective squad. Specialization among detectives (homicide squads,gang crimes units) usually only exists in centralized systems, where alldetectives work out of a building or office separate from a known policesite. Some jurisdictions use both decentralized and centralized systems,however.

DEFINING CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION

The general process of investigation isthe systematic and thorough looking into someone or something. Dempsey(2003) adds the importance of making a report, since investigators must alwayshave an end product. Criminal investigation has the end product of bringingsomeone to justice; that is, arresting, prosecuting, and convictingperpetrators of crimes. It must not usurp the role of prosecutor, judge,and jury in doing this, however, and court systems bestow a heavy presumptionof truth in what criminal investigators say is the truth. Thatenormous responsibility is why ethics must be the first and foremostcharacteristic of criminal investigation (Weston & Lushbaugh 2003).Never, never, never should the wrong means be used to attain an end, no matterhow good the end. Detectives get used to seeing guilty people go free, andthey don’t get emotionally distressed by it.

This personal characteristics approachto defining criminal investigation has some value, and ethicsshould not be underrated. The field’s history is filled with stories aboutdetectives being recruited from the criminal underworld, Vidocq’s motto “Ittakes a thief to catch a thief” still has some currency today, anddetectives have always stood as a kind of buffer between the politicians andpolice force. Being street savvy, or able to talk to people from all walks of life is an importantcharacteristic.It helps to have some familiarity (but not too much, intimate familiarity) withthe criminal underworld. It’s important not to have any personal biasagainst any type of criminal. A detective who feels a strong sense ofmoral revulsion at child molesters is useless, for example. Another important skill ispaperwork. Detectives duplicate alot of paperwork in a police department, and they add some too. They’re good at it.In some cases, that’s how they got to become a detective. There’s a kind of game played intrying to present the perfect appearance of a good crime fighter by getting recorded as”reporting officer”, “complaining officer”, “arrestingofficer”, and so forth. This is known as getting credit for the collar, and there’sall kinds of ways to get credit. Another important skill ispresentation ability. Detectives are frequently called to testify incourt, and represent the whole police department. Calm, poise, and the abilityto keep cool, as well as deal with the news media are important skills.Thoroughness is the last characteristic we’ll talkabout. By this is meant a stubborn, bull-headed, full-speed ahead, go after every lead andfollow every clue work ethic. It’s this persistence, diligence, andfollow-up that characterizes detectives, whether it’s inborn or learned from thejob. Most detectives triage their cases, however, and tackle themedium difficulty problems first. There’s been research studies on it, and triage works. It’s statisticallysignificant as well as practically sound. Most detectives develop aworking philosophy based on the following:

DETECTIVE’S WORKING PHILOSOPHY

1 – No two crimes are alike, 2 – Most crimes are solved in 48 hours, 3 – Most crimes are solved by guesswork and luck, 4 – The law provides guidelines as to what happened, 5 – The M.O. provides clues as to whodunnit, 6 – Criminals always make mistakes, 7 – Evidence is always present, 8 – People always lie to you, 9 – Learn to work with others, 10 – Know when to give up, 11 – Public opinion is important, 12 – You can never receive too much training, 13 – There’s never enough time, 14 – The proper ethic is to put behind bars, but not by any means, 15 – Think like a “native”, not a criminal, 16 – Document everything, 17 – Establish credibility in court

Another way of defining criminalinvestigation is the process approach. This involves outlining theresponsibilities of an investigator as they go about performing their job duties(Osterburg & Ward 2000). There’s nothing really all that wrong withusing a job description to define a process, but there’s an unfortunate tendencyfor this approach to dovetail with the purposes of crime scenereconstruction. Some would even say that the ultimate purpose ofcriminal investigation is to reconstruct the crime scene (Axelrod &Antinozzi 2003). Many other experts and professionals, from fields likeengineering, criminology, and other behavioral sciences, are skilled at crimescene reconstruction. This makes the following investigative processes the stepsof applied criminology:

STEPS OF THE INVESTIGATIVE PROCESS

1 – Determine if a crime has been committed, 2 – Verify jurisdiction, 3 – Discover all facts and collect physical evidence, 4 – Recover stolen property, 5- Identify the perpetrator or perpetrators, 6 – Locate and apprehend perpetrators, 7 – Aid the prosecution by providing evidence of guilt admissible in court, 8 – Testify effectively as a witness in court

It’s not enough to just collect andanalyze evidence. Investigators need to apply the logic ofreasoning or the methodology of scientific researchinvestigation. They need what can only be called working theories,which are sufficiently flexible to allow for new information but stilldemonstrate clear patterns of inference or cause and effect. These workingtheories are called abductions (in logical reasoning) and hypotheses (inscientific research methodology). We’ll discuss logic in a later lecture,but for now abduction (as an alternative to inductive anddeductive reasoning) is the process of proposing a likely explanation for anevent that is then tested or followed up on, as in keyless entry probablyimplies the victim did not know the perpetrator (Nordby 1999). An hypothesisis an if-then statement that implies a variable level of certainty, as in if thevictim was mutilated, the perpetrator is most likely disturbed. Steps ofthe scientific method of investigation include: 1- Identify the questions anddefine the key variables, 2 – Specify the simplifying assumptions, 3 – formulatea hypothesis, 4 – Test the hypothesis with data, 5 – Retest the hypothesis withadditional data to validate.

TYPES OF CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION

The different types of investigations can be classified as proactive or reactive, and ascovert or overt. A proactive investigation isusually covert (secret), and a decoy (police posing as victim) or sting(police posing as buyers or sellers) operation. A reactiveinvestigation is usually based on a citizen complaint, and involves apreliminary and follow-up (or latent) investigation. A preliminaryinvestigation is the early reporting of all known facts, usually done bythe patrol officer or first responder. A follow-upinvestigation is always done by detectives, and generally involves one ofthree (3) activities: (1) a walk-through of the crime scene, not so muchto gather evidence, but to think about and refine one’s theory about a specificsuspect; (2) where-are-theys, where the detective uses sources ofinformation to find the location of any and all suspects; and (3) and whodunits,where the detective is developing suspects from where there are none apparent(Kuykendall 1989). The following are some oversimplified examples ofpreliminary and follow-up reports:

Preliminary investigations are normally done by the first responder, usuallythe patrol officer, but there may be times when the detective is involved in a preliminary investigation.First responders should rush to the crime scene, and in doing so, should remainvigilant for any getaway vehicle or other suspicious things along the way.BOLO, or Be on the Lookout, orders may be given at this time. The first responder shouldassist inpreservation of the crime scene, separation of witnesses, andrequests for warrants. All this in addition to any crimescene analysis (photographing, sketching, searching) responsibilities that thefirst responder might have, but generally, these duties are assigned by the superiorofficer at the scene.The acronym, PRELIMINARY, summarizes most of the duties expected at apreliminary investigation:

DUTIES OF PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATION

P roceed to scene promptly and safely,
R ender assistance to injured,
E ffect arrest of the criminal,
L ocate and identify witnesses,
I nterview complainant and witnesses,
M aintain integrity of crime scene and protect evidence,
I nterrogate suspects as necessary,
N ote conditions, events, and remarks,
A rrange for evidence collection or collect it yourself,
R eport the entire incident fully and accurately,
Y ield responsibility to follow-up investigator or superiorofficer

Follow-up investigations usually begin by reading over all the original reports andpaperwork, and looking for leads. Secondly, the evidence is gone overand subjected to every kind of analysis necessary. Thirdly,victims, witnesses, and suspects are contacted to see if theirstory changes. Fourthly, a stakeout or surveillance technique may be used on a suspect. Finally, a meeting is scheduled with theprosecuting attorney to make sure everybody’s on the same pagewith this case. If a citizen-initiated case is to be dropped, theinvestigator is usually the one who calls the citizen. There are atleast six major pieces of police paperwork involved in a follow-upinvestigation:

POLICE PAPERWORK IN A FOLLOW-UP INVESTIGATION

1. incident reports (also called complaint or field reports) that are made available to citizens in copy form for insurance purposes 2. warrants (for search and arrest) which contain the probable cause information 3. follow-up reports (like the example above) which recreate the history of the investigation 4. property reports (cross linked to incident and follow-up reported) which describe where and how found 5. lab reports (requests for & results of) for anything analyzed by a criminalist 6. review reports (or supervisory review reports) signed by other department personnel

Agency procedures for casemanagement or computerprograms known as Records Management Systems (RMS) will assign a CaseCode to the case, and there are numerous other codes,such as the many codes found on rap sheets (computerized criminalhistories which investigators run on all principle parties in a case).There are also a variety of forms, based primarily on what large departmentsused to call turn-backsheets. These forms usually requiredetectives, by a certain time such as seven days, to indicate the status of theinvestigation. There are threegeneral categories of codes:

• Suspended — a great many cases (nearly 80%) end up with one of these codes; e.g., NFI (No Further Investigation), UNF (Unfounded), or VCI (Victim Cancelled Investigation)

• Closed — the case is brought to solution or a terminal point in the system; e.g., WPA (Warrant Pending Arrest), COP (Closed Other Prosecution), or PRF (Prosecutor Refused to File)

• Open — this category of codes is used to refer to cases that the detective thinks is still promising, and has had a supervisor sign off on this

When the follow-up investigation is comingnear an end, the Case File (folder or dossier) will be prepared for the purpose of turning it overto the prosecutor. It will contain the following components from front toback:

• Synopsis – a cover page showing a table of contents and a suggestive list of which pieces of evidence make the strongest case for the prosecution

• Summary of Facts – a short one or two paragraph description of the crime committed by the perpetrator. This goes in the prisoner’s jacket when they enter the correctional system.

• Police Paperwork – all police forms and reports, starting with the incident report to the supervisory review report, but leaving out until later any lab or crime scene notes

• Testimonial statements – the transcripts, video, or audio of any interrogations and the arranged statements of any witnesses or others interviewed or contacted along with an evaluation of what they will testify to and what they may not testify to

• Records checks – the rap sheets, credit histories, bank statements, or printout from any sources of information done on the backgrounds of principle parties to the case

• Crime Scene information – photographs, sketches, notes, and a summary of all evidence collected, processed, and analyzed, including any expert analysis or criminalist reports. Any coroner or medical examiner’s report goes in the back of the dossier as an appendix

• Chain of custody — the paperwork showing a legal and adequate chain of custody for all physical evidence. The actual evidence is stored with the police unless the prosecutor specifically requests it. This section will also indicate any demonstrative evidence the police assisted in making, and any material which was shared with defense counsel under a Brady-type pretrial discovery process

THE LINGO, JARGON OR “CRAFT” OFCRIMINAL INVESTIGATION

When something is both an art and science,it’s usually called a craft, implying skillfulness androom for individuality. While some creativity is encouraged in detectivework, most individuality is constrained by the policies and procedures of police departments. The following terms are rather consistently used bydetectives because of those policies.

Case file — a binder or dossier ofmaterial about a criminal case that contains notes, sketches, reports,photographs, or videotapes, among other things. Each case file may have one ormore unique identifiers because each agency involved will assign its own code
Chain of custody — documents that indicate who collected,handled, or transferred evidence
Class characteristics — evidence that allows the examinerto say similarities outweigh differences
Close-up photograph — a photograph taken without regardto the scale of measurement
Comparison standard — when objects from a crime scene(unknown or questioned sample) are compared to objects from a known sample(suspect, standard, or exemplar source)
Contamination — the transfer of material from a knownsample to an unknown sample
Control sample — when a sample is taken from a crimescene near the location of the unknown sample, such as an unstained piece offabric six inches away from the bullet hole
Cross-contamination — the transfer of material betweentwo or more items of evidence
Elimination sample — when a sample is taken from known,non-suspect sources, such as the footprints of officers who have worked thescene
Exemplar — a representative portion of a known sample,such as the suspect’s handwriting
Individual characteristics — evidence that allows theexaminer to say there’s a match
Investigative clue — evidence that is consistent with the corpus delecti or elements of the crime
Investigative leads — clues or breaks that help move an investigation forward toward asolution
Investigative patterns — similarities that indicate asuspect or modus operandi
Investigative theories — beliefs that take you in one direction, mostly excluding other directions
Linkage — the connecting of a suspect to the victim orcrime scene
Match — the legally admissible standard of proof thatknown and unknown items are the same
Pathway — the indirect route in and out of crime scenesfor first responders and other personnel
Presumptive test — a non-confirmatory field test for thepresence of something, such as drugs
Questioned (unknown) sample — samples taken from thecrime scene or other places the suspect might have been
Reconstruction — an interpretation of what took placebased on the evidence
Reference sample — samples kept on file, or in a lab, astypical exemplars of particular crimes
Sketch — a diagram or drawing with or without attentionto scale of measurement
Standard sample — samples obtained in a lab on evidencesimilar to a known sample, such as a bullet fired from a gun similar to the onethat cannot be found
Transient evidence — evidence that will lose its valueunless collected quickly
Zones of possibility — areas of the crime scene wheresignificant elements of the crime most probably occurred

REFERENCES

Axelrod, A. & G. Antinozzi. (2003). The Complete Idiot’s Guide to CriminalInvestigation. Indianapolis: Alpha Books.

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McKenzie, I. (1996). The History of Criminal Investigation. NY: ThomsonLearning.

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Nordby, J. (1999). Dead Reckoning: The Art of Forensic Detection. BocaRaton: CRC Press.

Osterburg, J. & R. Ward. (2000). Criminal Investigation. Cincinnati:Anderson.

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Weston, P. & C. Lushbaugh. (2003). Criminal Investigation. UpperSaddle River: Prentice Hall.

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