AC1.2 Assess the usefulness of investigative techniques in criminal investigations.
Analyse 4 of the techniques - in full detail 20 marker bang it out,
Intro or description of technique, strength do 2, weaknesses do 2 if needed, add stats and relevant
case studies, explicitly state where situation where technique would be used and type of crime
where technique used
Forensic techniques
What is forensic technique
- Most useful technique of forensic evidence is the usage of dna where the first criminal convicted,
by using dna was collin pitchfork
- Forensic techniques are explicitly used to preserve and collect and also analyse evidence.
- It would be used in situations in crime scenes or laboratory as it is more science related, forensic
technique
- The types of crime where forensic techniques would be used are, murder or rape or any crime
where dna could be left behind like semen, hair or blood.
- The dna which is left behind could be analysed by forensic pathologists to help officers solve the
crime
- An examples could be in a rape offence, the testing kit result can be matched to known offenders
to find suspects
Strengths of forensic techniques
- Fingerprints or dna left behind can directly link a suspect at a crime
- Can be used in court to prove to the jury of the suspect being present at the crime
- Will increases the chance of a conviction
- Use of forensic technique prevents any biased decisions as it is based of scientific evidence
- Prevents their being any arguments of tampered evidence as it is collected by experts like crime
scene investigators
- Collin pitchforks shows the benefits of using dna profiling as it helped secure the conviction
against pitchfork even though he asked his friend to impersonate him and provide misleading
samples
- Showing the usefulness of using forensic techniques to get scientific proof in provigjn someone
guilt
Limitations of forensic techniques
- Dna evidence could be easily contaminated or destroyed, which limits the analysis of the
evidence
- Contaminated evidence can impact the trial process and lead to delays or trial being rescheduled
- Dna evidence which is contaminated could lead to vital evidence not being deemed as reliable
and could lead to the actual guilty person, being let free
- The case of david butler shows how dna could be used to falsely prosecute someone
- Butler suffered from a skin condition which caused his skin to fall off
- His condition made it easy for dna to be found
- He was a taxi driver charged with muder
- Spent 8 months in custody for trial
- Lawyers proved that the way the dna was collected was unreliable and invalid
- Dna transferred between butler and the victim when the victim gave the taxi fee and the skin is
not his fault
- Showing the uncertainty and lack of accuracy with forensic techniques making it less useful
- Dna could be less useful in solving crime as it could be collected unethically
Surveillance
What is surveillance
- Cctv is a key investigative tool used by officers at a crime, as it offers lasting images of the crime
- Plays a crucial role in tracking someone movements and can be used to prove the suspect was at
the place where the crime occurred
- Especially in the london riots case 2011, was surveillance highly effective in identifying offenders
- Another type of surveillance which police usually use is covert surveillance
- Covert surveillance is undercover or surveillance which not easily recognisable
, - Surveillance is most explicitly used in situations in the street or police station, where surveillance
is most commonly used
- Surveillance could usually be found on the street with cctv cameras being everywhere on the
street
- Crimes in which the technique would be used are burglary, shoplifting, suspect serial offences
- Surveillance would be useful in these types of crimes because it can help track and identify
suspects involved and prove guilt towards suspects being present at the crime
Strengths
- Cases like the liquid bomb plot, show how surveillance, especially covert surveillance is effective
- Liquid bomb plot - demonstrated the intelligence and extensive planning with covert surveillance
- Liquid bomb plot - cs prevented huge loss of casualties of flights bound from north america to
london heathrow
- Law enforcement and intelligent agencies worked together
- Monitored the plotters activities and gathering key evidence to prove their intention
- Done this discreetly
- Prevented mass casualties
- Shows how covert surveillance could be used to prevent crime before it happens
- Cs allows police etc to find out what people plan to do when it comes to crime and prevent it from
occurring
- Shows usefulness of surveillance in relation to preventing and solving crime
Limitations
- Surveillance relies heavily on technology to prove someone was there or to identify suspects
- Cctv could be down and the cameras may not work
- Cctv can be easily tampered with and the footage
- Could risk delay in investigation and finding the suspects
- Cases like colling stag show limitations with surveillance
- Surveillance was deemed as misconceived
- Female officers set honey trap for stag
- Unethical and not appropriate
- Used it as a way to make him commit to murder offence
- Stagg received compensation 706,000 pounds for being wrongfully identified as Nickell's killer
- Stagg case shows the lack of consistency and how surveillance is not useful as it could be used
to wrongfully convict someone
Interview techniques - eye witness testimony
What are interview techniques - eye witness testimony
- Evidence which is given by someone who has witnessed a crime
- Reliability of ewt is high as it comes from the witness first hand account of what actually
happened
- Jury usually believe the eye witness testimony because of high reliability
- Devlin committee report 1976, analysed the identification of suspects by witnesses
- In 1973 found that there were 850 cases where suspects were identified in a line-up
- 82% conviction rate.
- 347 of these convictions were prosecuted
- 74% were found guilty showing a jury relies on such identification
- Interview techniques usually used in situations in police stations and crime scene
- At crime scene, officers can take eye witness testimony of what they say
- Police stations cuz of during interrogation they can use EWT as evidence to interrogate the
suspect
- Eyewitness testimony usually used in crimes of assault, murder burglary
- Their crimes which EWt can be used in order to figure out the suspect's identity
- Useful in investigation as seen from the Devlin report, very reliable in identifying offenders
- Useful in proving that someone is guilty as evidence if from victim first hand account of what they
saw
Strengths
, - Eyewitness testimonies are beneficial in investigation based of
- EWT being directly given by witness view of what happened
- EWT helps identify facial features of the suspect when scientific evidence is not clear enough
- EWT provide a starting point for investigations to begin and where to look first
- EWT strengthens the evidence in a case, as it proves the suspect was the main offender
- EWT speeds up the process in securing a conviction as witness statement can help prove guilt
- EWT are taken after the events occur, so their memory will be reliable
- EWT is useful based on the accuracy and reliability it gives police to start an investigation
- EWT useful because it gives police the ability to if someone was present at the crime
Limitations
- EWT can tend to lack reliability as victims could potentially lie
- The testimony could lack accuracy as witnesses does not the true intention of the suspect
- EWT could lead to someone being wrongfully imprisoned as seen in the ronald cotton case
- Roanld cotton was wrongfully imprisoned for 10 years on a rape offence
- Cotton was sentenced based on eyewitness testimony of the victim
- He was only released after DNA evidence was fully developed which cleared him off all the
charges
- Cotton case shows how EWT can lack accuracy and can lead to a miscarriage of justice showing
the lack of usefulness as it could lead to wrongful convictions
Profiling techniques
What are profiling techniques
- Based of the belief that you can predict the features of an offender who is unknown
- Examining the crime and victims can help narrow down the features of an unknown offender
- Physical evidence can be left behind by the offender like dna and finger prints
- Behavioural evidence can be left behind
- Behaviour evidence could be like how the victim was murdered and the way the body was left
- Offenders could have a sadistic nature and lay the body in a specific way
- 3 types of profiling, geographical, typological and investigative
- Geographical profiling focuses on the crime scene location of the offender
- Typological profiling focuses on behaviour evidence that could indicate the offender personality
- Investigative psychology focuses on applying psychological principles and scientific research
methods to criminal investigation
- Explicitly used in situations like crime scene where geographical and typological applied
- Csi can analyse the behavioural evidence left behind and the location of the scene as well
- Techniques used in crimes like murder and serial offenders as they display most deviant
behaviours like disregard to human life
- Useful in investigation as it helps understand the offender even tho he is unknown and could lead
to a profile being formed to give a starting point for the investigation
Strengths
- Focuses more on why the offender is the way he is, insteading of just wanting to arrest them asap
as shown by typological profiling
- Can give the police a picture of what the offender looks like by focusing on specific characteristics
like age or habit
- Saves time and resources by eliminating any unlikely suspects, and only focus their effort on
promising leads
- Consistent as it uses offenders' interactions with their victim to create a realistic profile for police
to use
- Profiling is useful as it saves time and resources in following false leads
- creates a profile on the offender's personality
- How the offender operates for the police to use in finding the suspect and predict his next move
- Useful in preventing future crimes from occurring from the offender
Limitations
- Inconsistent in regards to offenders behaviour
- Offenders behaviour can change and it may not fit the pattern of their crimes
- Makes the profile unreliable and not useful for officers to use
- Profiling open to human errors as personal bias or cultural differences influence the process
Analyse 4 of the techniques - in full detail 20 marker bang it out,
Intro or description of technique, strength do 2, weaknesses do 2 if needed, add stats and relevant
case studies, explicitly state where situation where technique would be used and type of crime
where technique used
Forensic techniques
What is forensic technique
- Most useful technique of forensic evidence is the usage of dna where the first criminal convicted,
by using dna was collin pitchfork
- Forensic techniques are explicitly used to preserve and collect and also analyse evidence.
- It would be used in situations in crime scenes or laboratory as it is more science related, forensic
technique
- The types of crime where forensic techniques would be used are, murder or rape or any crime
where dna could be left behind like semen, hair or blood.
- The dna which is left behind could be analysed by forensic pathologists to help officers solve the
crime
- An examples could be in a rape offence, the testing kit result can be matched to known offenders
to find suspects
Strengths of forensic techniques
- Fingerprints or dna left behind can directly link a suspect at a crime
- Can be used in court to prove to the jury of the suspect being present at the crime
- Will increases the chance of a conviction
- Use of forensic technique prevents any biased decisions as it is based of scientific evidence
- Prevents their being any arguments of tampered evidence as it is collected by experts like crime
scene investigators
- Collin pitchforks shows the benefits of using dna profiling as it helped secure the conviction
against pitchfork even though he asked his friend to impersonate him and provide misleading
samples
- Showing the usefulness of using forensic techniques to get scientific proof in provigjn someone
guilt
Limitations of forensic techniques
- Dna evidence could be easily contaminated or destroyed, which limits the analysis of the
evidence
- Contaminated evidence can impact the trial process and lead to delays or trial being rescheduled
- Dna evidence which is contaminated could lead to vital evidence not being deemed as reliable
and could lead to the actual guilty person, being let free
- The case of david butler shows how dna could be used to falsely prosecute someone
- Butler suffered from a skin condition which caused his skin to fall off
- His condition made it easy for dna to be found
- He was a taxi driver charged with muder
- Spent 8 months in custody for trial
- Lawyers proved that the way the dna was collected was unreliable and invalid
- Dna transferred between butler and the victim when the victim gave the taxi fee and the skin is
not his fault
- Showing the uncertainty and lack of accuracy with forensic techniques making it less useful
- Dna could be less useful in solving crime as it could be collected unethically
Surveillance
What is surveillance
- Cctv is a key investigative tool used by officers at a crime, as it offers lasting images of the crime
- Plays a crucial role in tracking someone movements and can be used to prove the suspect was at
the place where the crime occurred
- Especially in the london riots case 2011, was surveillance highly effective in identifying offenders
- Another type of surveillance which police usually use is covert surveillance
- Covert surveillance is undercover or surveillance which not easily recognisable
, - Surveillance is most explicitly used in situations in the street or police station, where surveillance
is most commonly used
- Surveillance could usually be found on the street with cctv cameras being everywhere on the
street
- Crimes in which the technique would be used are burglary, shoplifting, suspect serial offences
- Surveillance would be useful in these types of crimes because it can help track and identify
suspects involved and prove guilt towards suspects being present at the crime
Strengths
- Cases like the liquid bomb plot, show how surveillance, especially covert surveillance is effective
- Liquid bomb plot - demonstrated the intelligence and extensive planning with covert surveillance
- Liquid bomb plot - cs prevented huge loss of casualties of flights bound from north america to
london heathrow
- Law enforcement and intelligent agencies worked together
- Monitored the plotters activities and gathering key evidence to prove their intention
- Done this discreetly
- Prevented mass casualties
- Shows how covert surveillance could be used to prevent crime before it happens
- Cs allows police etc to find out what people plan to do when it comes to crime and prevent it from
occurring
- Shows usefulness of surveillance in relation to preventing and solving crime
Limitations
- Surveillance relies heavily on technology to prove someone was there or to identify suspects
- Cctv could be down and the cameras may not work
- Cctv can be easily tampered with and the footage
- Could risk delay in investigation and finding the suspects
- Cases like colling stag show limitations with surveillance
- Surveillance was deemed as misconceived
- Female officers set honey trap for stag
- Unethical and not appropriate
- Used it as a way to make him commit to murder offence
- Stagg received compensation 706,000 pounds for being wrongfully identified as Nickell's killer
- Stagg case shows the lack of consistency and how surveillance is not useful as it could be used
to wrongfully convict someone
Interview techniques - eye witness testimony
What are interview techniques - eye witness testimony
- Evidence which is given by someone who has witnessed a crime
- Reliability of ewt is high as it comes from the witness first hand account of what actually
happened
- Jury usually believe the eye witness testimony because of high reliability
- Devlin committee report 1976, analysed the identification of suspects by witnesses
- In 1973 found that there were 850 cases where suspects were identified in a line-up
- 82% conviction rate.
- 347 of these convictions were prosecuted
- 74% were found guilty showing a jury relies on such identification
- Interview techniques usually used in situations in police stations and crime scene
- At crime scene, officers can take eye witness testimony of what they say
- Police stations cuz of during interrogation they can use EWT as evidence to interrogate the
suspect
- Eyewitness testimony usually used in crimes of assault, murder burglary
- Their crimes which EWt can be used in order to figure out the suspect's identity
- Useful in investigation as seen from the Devlin report, very reliable in identifying offenders
- Useful in proving that someone is guilty as evidence if from victim first hand account of what they
saw
Strengths
, - Eyewitness testimonies are beneficial in investigation based of
- EWT being directly given by witness view of what happened
- EWT helps identify facial features of the suspect when scientific evidence is not clear enough
- EWT provide a starting point for investigations to begin and where to look first
- EWT strengthens the evidence in a case, as it proves the suspect was the main offender
- EWT speeds up the process in securing a conviction as witness statement can help prove guilt
- EWT are taken after the events occur, so their memory will be reliable
- EWT is useful based on the accuracy and reliability it gives police to start an investigation
- EWT useful because it gives police the ability to if someone was present at the crime
Limitations
- EWT can tend to lack reliability as victims could potentially lie
- The testimony could lack accuracy as witnesses does not the true intention of the suspect
- EWT could lead to someone being wrongfully imprisoned as seen in the ronald cotton case
- Roanld cotton was wrongfully imprisoned for 10 years on a rape offence
- Cotton was sentenced based on eyewitness testimony of the victim
- He was only released after DNA evidence was fully developed which cleared him off all the
charges
- Cotton case shows how EWT can lack accuracy and can lead to a miscarriage of justice showing
the lack of usefulness as it could lead to wrongful convictions
Profiling techniques
What are profiling techniques
- Based of the belief that you can predict the features of an offender who is unknown
- Examining the crime and victims can help narrow down the features of an unknown offender
- Physical evidence can be left behind by the offender like dna and finger prints
- Behavioural evidence can be left behind
- Behaviour evidence could be like how the victim was murdered and the way the body was left
- Offenders could have a sadistic nature and lay the body in a specific way
- 3 types of profiling, geographical, typological and investigative
- Geographical profiling focuses on the crime scene location of the offender
- Typological profiling focuses on behaviour evidence that could indicate the offender personality
- Investigative psychology focuses on applying psychological principles and scientific research
methods to criminal investigation
- Explicitly used in situations like crime scene where geographical and typological applied
- Csi can analyse the behavioural evidence left behind and the location of the scene as well
- Techniques used in crimes like murder and serial offenders as they display most deviant
behaviours like disregard to human life
- Useful in investigation as it helps understand the offender even tho he is unknown and could lead
to a profile being formed to give a starting point for the investigation
Strengths
- Focuses more on why the offender is the way he is, insteading of just wanting to arrest them asap
as shown by typological profiling
- Can give the police a picture of what the offender looks like by focusing on specific characteristics
like age or habit
- Saves time and resources by eliminating any unlikely suspects, and only focus their effort on
promising leads
- Consistent as it uses offenders' interactions with their victim to create a realistic profile for police
to use
- Profiling is useful as it saves time and resources in following false leads
- creates a profile on the offender's personality
- How the offender operates for the police to use in finding the suspect and predict his next move
- Useful in preventing future crimes from occurring from the offender
Limitations
- Inconsistent in regards to offenders behaviour
- Offenders behaviour can change and it may not fit the pattern of their crimes
- Makes the profile unreliable and not useful for officers to use
- Profiling open to human errors as personal bias or cultural differences influence the process
