Annotated Bibliography
Adcock, James M., and Stein, Sarah L. Advances in Police Theory and Practice: Cold Cases:
Evaluation Models with Follow-Up Strategies for Investigators, Second Edition (2). London, GB: CRC Press, 2014. Web.
In the book Advances in Police Theory and Practice: Cold Cases: Evaluation Models with Follow-Up Strategies for Investigators, Second Edition, the authors explain that many agencies do not have the time or resources to delve into solving or revisiting cold-cases. The book provides guidelines for whether or not a cold case is solvable, and if so, explains how the investigators should go about the process.
Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook,
2016-17 Edition, Forensic
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Science Technicians. Web. 5 Dec. 2016. This source explains the necessary training and education required to become a Crime Scene Investigator or Homicide Detective, otherwise known as a Forensic Science Technician. Additionally, the website also explains other numerous jobs that play a large part in solving crimes, especially murders. Davis, Robert C., et al.
"Policies and Practices in Cold Cases: An Exploratory Study." Policing
38.4 (2015): 610-30. Print.
This article discusses the interest that police have developed towards solving cold cases. Further, the article describes how these agencies conduct, organize, and begin investigating cases that have gone cold.
Hargrove, Thomas. "Murder Accountability Project." Murder Data. Murder Accountability
Project, n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 2016.
The "Murder Accountability Project" provides statistics and tracks unsolved murder cases in America. They exist because they believe America does not keep record of all of its unsolved cases. In addition, this website displays how many cases are cleared in a community.
Kaste, Martin. "Open Cases: Why One-Third Of Murders In America Go Unresolved." NPR.
NPR, 30 Mar. 2015. Web. 16 Nov. 2016.
NPR delivers national and world news. The article "Open Cases: Why One-Third Of Murders In America Go Unresolved" has its main focus on the fact that one-third of murders are unresolved in America. The percentage of solved murder cases has decreased to about 64%, whereas the rate was almost 90% fifty years ago.
Schneider, H., Sommerer, T., Rand, S., & Wiegand, P. (2011). Hot flakes in cold
cases. International Journal of Legal Medicine, 125(4), 543-8. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00414-011-0548-7 “Hot flakes in cold cases” is an article which puts an emphasis on the importance of DNA evidence and analysis. In addition, the article expresses that improvements in technology have greatly impacted DNA evidence. Before certain technology, scientists could not separate DNA from a mixed group of suspects, whereas now they can.
Marques, O. (2013, October 23). Issues in Policing [Lecture]. SSCI 1000 Introduction to Criminal Justice. University of Ontario Institute of Technology . Retrieved November 18, 2013
Because police investigators are usually under pressure to arrest criminals and safeguard the community, they often make mistakes. Sometimes, detectives become convinced of a suspect 's guilt because of their criminal history or weak speculations. Once they are convinced, they are less likely to consider alternative possibilities. They overlook some important exculpatory evidence, make weak speculations and look only for links that connect a suspect to a crime, especially if the suspect has a previous criminal record. Picking Cotton provides an understanding of some common errors of the police investigation process. During Ronald Cottons interrogation, the detectives did not bother to record the conversation “But I noticed he wasn 't recording the conversation, so I felt that he could be writing anything down”(79) unlike they did for Jennifer. They had already labelled Ronald Cotton as the perpetrator and they told him during the interrogation “Cotton, Jennifer Thompson already identified you. We know it was you”(82). Jenifer Thompson 's testimony along with Ronald Cotton 's past criminal records gave the detectives more reason to believe Ronald committed the crime. Ronald Cotton stated “ This cop Sully, though, he had already decided I was guilty.”(84). Many investigative process have shortcomings and are breached because the officials in charge make
I wanted to look at the investigative and criminal procedures following the arrest of an alleged criminal and the powerful effects via testimonies and evidence (or lack thereof) it can have on a case.There is an importance of the courts in regards to crime that can’t be over looked. The primary function of the criminal justice system is to uphold the established laws, which define what we understand as deviant in this society.
Rutkin, Aviva. "Policing The Police." New Scientist 226.3023 (2015): 20-21. Academic Search Premier. Web. 17 Oct. 2016.
& Forst, L.S. (2016). An Introduction to Policing (8th Edition). Boston, MA USA: Cengage Learning. p.243 (245). Retrieved June 6, 2017, from https://www.betheluniversityonline.net
Hickey, T. J. (2010). Taking Sides: Clashing Views in Crime and Criminology, 9th Edition. New York, NY: The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Walker, S., & Katz, C. (2012). Police in America: An Introduction (8th Edition ed.). New York:
Many police departments have researched the effectiveness of using solvability factor checklists as screening process to ensure detectives devote their time to important cases that possess a realistic chance of being solved (Dempsey & Forst, 2016). Due to effectiveness of these checklists and point scoring many police departments have adapted their crime reports to emphasize solvability factors (Dempsey & Forst, 2016). I agree with using solvability factors to determine case assignment and manage investigative caseloads, especially when it pertains to property crimes. Solvability factors cannot be used as an elimination process in all cases due to officers’ concern, for political reasons, public safety, and some cases are so important or serious they will require a follow-up investigation despite an improbable chance of solvability (Dempsey & Forst,
Lyman, D. Michael; Criminal Investigation, The Art and Science; 3rd edition, 2002 Prentice Hall. Pgs. 188-200.
There are major problems with our criminal justice system. In the last one hundred years, there have been more than 75 documented cases of wrongful conviction of criminal homicide. According to a 1987 Stanford University survey, at least 23 Americans have been wrongly executed in the 20th century. For this very reason, the State of Illinois imposed a moratorium on the state?s death penalty in 2000 when it was discovered that 13 inmates on its Death Row were wrongly convicted. Anthony Porter, one of the 13, spent 15 years on Death Row and was within two days of being executed, before a group of Northwestern journalism students uncovered evidence that was used to prove his innocence.
How many deaths and robberies do you think happen each year? In the US alone, there are about 11,208 gun shot murders, and at least 3.7 million robberies each year. At least 2,200 of them are teens sentenced to life without parole. How do you feel about this? Do you think that every person caught, actually did the crime? Some people just put off then numbers and don't think about them. They also believe what the see on the news, and read on the internet or in the paper. But, do you ever have doubts that they might not have committed the crime? The novel Monster and the documentary “Murder on a Sunday Morning” prove that not everyone caught actually did the crime. This makes them very much alike, but their also alike because of
West, S. L., & O'Neal, K. K. (2004). Project D.A.R.E. outcome effectiveness revisited. American Journal of Public Health. doi:10.2105/AJPH.94.6.1027
...T., Reiner, R. (2012) ‘Policing the Police’ in The Official Handbook of Criminology. Ed. By Maguire, M., Morgan, R., Reiner, R. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 806- 838
Schmalleger, F. (2009), Prentice Hall, Publication. Criminal Justice Today: An introductory Text for the 21st century
The RAND study sought to determine if differences in training, staffing, workload, or procedures had an effect on arrest or clearance rates. The research was a form of natural variation analysis, not an experimental design (Greenwood, P 1979).The finding that received all the attention was that rather than the embodiment of Sherlock Holmes, detectives were “glorified clerks for the district attorney” (Hoover, 2014). The researchers could find no linkage between investigative effort and clearance rates. Subsequent analysis and several evaluative settings have by and large confirmed the RAND results there is no clear relationship between investigative technique and clearance rates (Greenwood, P and Hoover, l 2014).