A Discussion on How the Current Environment Could Affect the Way Criminal Investigations Are Conducted

A criminal investigation is an ancient science that is referred back in the 1700BCE according to the codes of Hammurabi (Tong, 2009). The codes suggest states that the accused and the accuser have the right to produce the evidence each of them conducted. A criminal investigation is, therefore, the study of facts that are used to locate, identify prove beyond doubt the guilt of the accused person. A thorough criminal investigation may involve, search, interrogation, evidence presentation and interrogation

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Criminal investigations, particularly in homicide, are profoundly affected by the current environments such as the media, incidences of police-involved shootings and cases of police misconducts in various ways that include. First, there is the provision of inaccurate information concerning specific occurrences. This may happen in a situation whereby there is a case of mishandling of evidence due to police misconduct. The investigating officers may contaminate or even plant evidence at the crime scene resulting in inaccurate results or outcome of the investigation. An example is the case of the Baltimore police officer who was seen in camera footage planting evidence in a police-involved shooting scene (Palmiotto, 2012). On the other hand, the media may also get involved in the provision of inaccurate information as people share the details of a specific crime scene, thus creating different theories on the cause of the incidence.

Secondly, the current environment also affects the amount of time that is needed to conduct an investigation, at some instances the investigating officer may be faced by a tough situation in solving a case due to various disputes. For example, cases involving police misconducts or police shootings, the police officer involved may tend to withhold information during interrogation thus making it hard for the investigator to come to a conclusive decision on the case. However, the social media may also delay an investigation mainly the high profile cases. This occurs since when the police are conducting investigations they have to consider any reasonable lead, this includes internet posts. Therefore, it takes time for the officer to review all the available leads

Thirdly , the current environment assists in the criminal investigation through providing crucial information that plays an important part in the investigation. For example, with the rate at wish social media is developing, the law enforcement is using social media professionally, positively and responsibly thus acting as a method of supplement to the first person investigative method for the investigating officers (Newburn, et al 2012). Social media also helps in the provision of crucial first-hand information that the investigating officers may not have discovered at the scene for example witness, and other information recorded in videos taken at the scene by the witnesses.

References

Newburn, T., Williamson, T., & Wright, A. (Eds.). (2012). Handbook of the criminal investigation. Routledge.

Palmiotto, M. J. (2012). Criminal investigation. CRC Press.

Tong, S., Bryant, R. P., & Horvath, M. A. (2009). Understanding criminal investigation (Vol. 49). John Wiley & Sons.