NCJ Number
168625
Date Published
1998
Length
329 pages
Annotation
This book has been written to provide future law enforcement officers with a basic understanding of the criminal investigative process and merges two areas that are crucial to the successful completion of a criminal investigation, criminal and procedural law and criminal investigative techniques.
Abstract
Beginning chapters of the book are configured to help the student investigator walk through the steps of a complex criminal investigation. The remaining chapters of the book provide specific information on the investigation of particular crime types. Following the introductory chapter on criminal investigation goals, the relation between criminal investigation and criminal law, the investigative process, and investigation types, subsequent chapters focus on the management of criminal investigations and the intelligence function, the collection and preservation of evidence (crime scene searches, fingerprints, firearms and biological evidence, and underwater search and recovery), investigative leads, interviewing, and suspect interrogation (confessions and polygraphs). Additional chapters consider the investigation of specific crime types, including assaults, sex offenses, robbery, burglary, and drug offenses. Other chapters detail procedures to be followed in death, arson and bomb, and fugitive investigations. The book concludes with a chapter on criminal investigations in the 21st century, with emphasis on media relations, community policing, crime trends, technology advances, and attitudes toward the law enforcement profession. An appendix contains supplemental information on expanding the police patrol officer's role in criminal investigations and case assignment. References, tables, figures, and photographs