A review and recommendations for the integration of forensic expertise within police cold case reviews
- Authors: Chapman, Brendan , Keatley, David , Oatley, Giles , Coumbaros, John , Maker, Garth
- Date: 2020
- Type: Text , Journal article , Review
- Relation: Journal of Criminal Psychology Vol. 10, no. 2 (2019), p. 79-91
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: Purpose: Cold case review teams and the processes that they adopt in their endeavour to solve historic crimes are varied and largely underreported. Of the limited literature surrounding the topic of cold case reviews, the focus is on clearance rates and the selection of cases for review. While multiple reports and reviews have been undertaken and recommend that the interface between investigators and forensic scientists be improved, there is little evidence of cold case teams comprised of a mixture of investigators and scientists or experts. With the growing reliance on forensic science as an aide to solvability, the authors propose that the inclusion of forensic scientists to the central cold case investigation may be a critical factor in future success. The paper aims to discuss this issue. Design/methodology/approach: To support the proposed approach, the authors conducted a review of the current literature seeking insight into the reported make-up of cold case teams. In conjunction with this, the authors reviewed a number of commissioned reports intended to improve cold case reviews and forensic services. Findings: While many of the reviewed reports and recommendations suggested better integration with scientists and external expertise, little evidence of this in practice was reported within published literature. Open dialogue and cross pollination between police investigators and forensic scientists are likely to mitigate biases, inform case file triage and better equip investigations with contemporary and cutting-edge scientific solutions to the evidence analysis for cold cases. Furthermore, with respect to scientists within academia, large pools of resources by way of student interns or researchers may be available to assist resource-sparse policing jurisdictions. Originality/value: To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first peer-reviewed recommendation for the consideration of integrated forensic scientists within a cold case review team. Multiple reports suggest the need for closer ties, but it is the anecdotal experience of the authors that the benefits of a blended task force approach may yield greater success. © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited.
Behaviour tracking : using geospatial and behaviour sequence analysis to map crime
- Authors: Keatley, David , Arntfield, Michael , Gill, Paul , Clare, Joe , Oatley, Giles , Bouhana, Noemie , Clarke, David
- Date: 2021
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Security Journal Vol. 34, no. 1 (2021), p. 184-201
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: Crime is a complex phenomenon. To understand the commission of crime, researchers must map both the temporal and the spatial processes involved. The current research combines a temporal method of analysis, Behaviour Sequence Analysis, with geospatial mapping, to outline a new method of integrating temporal and spatial movements of criminals. To show how the new method can be applied, a burglary scenario was used, and the movements and behaviours of a criminal tracked around the property. Results showed that combining temporal and spatial analyses allows for a clearer account of the process of a crime scene. The current method has application to a large range of other crimes and terrorist movements, for instance between cities and movements within each city. Therefore, the current research provides the foundation framework for a novel method of spatio-temporal analyses of crime. © 2019, Springer Nature Limited.