Scientific Method and Criminal Investigator

Methods Used as a wretched Investigator Cynthia Scaff Kaplan University CJ210 Crime Scene Investigation Professor Post March 26th, 2013 Unit-5 Methods Used as a Criminal Investigator Throughout its history, criminal investigation has been built upon a orderological foundation that has sour increasingly refined and reliant on science. Moreover, a good research worker often adopts a event mindset when approaching criminal investigations. Among the most effective approaches to investigation involves the use of the scientific method, which is simply a time-tested means of meeting reliable facts.Gathering information is the key to all good investigations, and so fellow feeling the three sources of information is of great concern to any police detective. All of these items add up to a all-around(prenominal) and thorough investigation, and thus they will all be addressed herein. First, an exposition on the methods of inquiry argon in order. The 2 overarching methods of inquiry ar e 1) those that reconstruct and examine outgoing events and 2) those that discover or afford new information (Osterburg & Ward, 2010). These two are actually interrelated, and there is a good deal of point of intersection between them.Any number of disciplines in both the unenviable and soft sciences can be employed in the service of an investigation, including those, which would not necessarily seem related to a legal philosophy investigation, like entomology, meteorology, etc. Thus, brain the behavior of insects that inhabit a luggage compartment or the effects of weather on a body might provide crucial details more or less the precise date and time of a murder, for example. In fact, a wide array of disciplines is often applied to a complex investigation when apply in conjunction, can provide a great deal of information slightly a case.As well as utilizing the methods of inquiry, the best criminal detectives likewise broadly speaking approach a case with a particular mi ndset. In essence, the investigative mindset is part schema (innate perspective based on a broad acquaintance of the world) and part active thought process. What it amounts to is an open-mindedness and (preferably unbiased) skepticism that allows the investigator to remain open to anything unusual in a case or anything that leads to a better understanding of the facts and circumstancesevidencerelated to or surround a case (Osterburg & Ward, 2010).The investigator with this mindset will therefore approach a case tone for evidence that seems contrary to how things should be according to his or her knowledge about the world and understanding of how things generally go under normal circumstances. She is also looking for information that fits what is already known about the case, provided the investigator must be careful here not to come at it with preconceived notions about the guilt or innocence of anyone directly involved in or a tangential to the case.For the gathering of evidence , the best approach is usually the application of the scientific method, defined as such a method of investigation in which a problem is first identified and observations, experiments, or other relevant data are thus used to construct or test hypotheses that purport to solve it (Scientific method, 2009). The problem to be identified in this case is the investigators hypothesis about what took place at the discourtesy scene and who was involved in it. Ergo, a good investigator moves from inductive reasoningguesswork, hunches, suspicions, etc. toward deductive reasoning, which is the use of specific data applied to the situation to see if everything fits with what she believes to have happened. In Osterburg and Wards Criminal Investigation, the authors give an example in which a woman was murdered in her apartment in conjunction with a romantic dinner. Going on a hunch, the investigator suspects an ex-boyfriend to be the culprit. He and so gathers data to see if his suspicions ar e reinforced by the facts available to him (Osterburg & Ward, 2010).There are three sources of evidence that an investigator whitethorn draw from. The first of these is people. The relevant sources here are all of the people directly connected to a case (witnesses, suspects and of course surviving victims) and friends, relatives and various associates of suspects and victims (Osterburg & Ward, 2010). Although people can be open and accommodative in a case, some of them may lie distort facts or even refuse to sustain altogether, creating a conflict for the investigator.Witnesses may also be confused about what they actually observed as memory is not always reliable and can even be biased by personal, master or societal schemas. Learning how to get people to cooperate with police and sorting out lies, half-truths, mistakes or previously overlooked information is essential to criminal investigation. Ongoing surveillance of the people involved may also shed light on a case. The seco nd source for investigators to consider is natural evidence.In police work, the two main disciplines employed in the examination of this data are forensic medicine and criminalistics. The condition, post and position of human remains materials and fibers located at the crime scene the trajectory of bullets and the type of bullets used the pattern or spatter of blood impressions made by fingerprints, shoes or tires the presence of black-market (such as illegal drugs or drug paraphernalia or illegal weapons)these are all types of physical evidence that might be used to reconstruct a crime or other past event (Osterburg & Ward, 2010).In considering this evidence, the investigator will ask herself questions related to the crime, such as What is this item doing here? wherefore is the blood pattern directed this way? Does this evidence support or contradict my hypothesis about a suspect? And so on. Finally, records and documents are a prime source of evidence for most investigations. Although technically records are physical evidence, they are a special form of physical evidence, in that they are in widespread use and are used, stored and accessed both privately and professionally specifically for their informational value.It is no wonder then that they often contain or form important, highly specific evidence for an investigator. Documents such as a drivers license, social security card or state ID card will foster the police identify an unknown murder victim, for example. Criminal records of a murder victim may also provide clues about the nature of his murder, such as whether or not he was involved in the illegal drug trade, which may lead to a suspect. Phone records may even indicate that two people have been in contact when one or both have denied that they know separately other (Osterburg & Ward, 2010).Records may be stored as a hard copy on paper, plastic or some other medium, or they may be stored digitally, as on a computer hard drive or CD. In the en d, it is apparent that science and a scientific perspective are highly important to police investigations. The two methods of inquiry provide a basis for understand what happened and how it happened. Encountering an investigation with the strait-laced mindset will offer a higher success rate. In addition, of course, the application of the scientific method is indispensable, as is understanding and exploiting the three sources of evidence.With a strong foundation in these principles, a criminal investigator is well on her way towards making headway in an investigation. References Osterburg,J. W. , & Ward,R. H. (2010). Criminal investigation A method for reconstructing the past. Albany, NY LexisNexis/Anderson Pub Scientific method. (2009). Collins English Dictionary Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition. Retrieved March 29, 2013, from Dictionary. com website http//dictionary. reference. com/ straddle/scientific method