Once the behavioral profile is done, the profiler can then compare this to other criminals or mental patients with the same basic characteristics. It is generally very difficult to get professional hands-on experience on how to be a profiler. Police have been able to catch a wide array of people using profilers, including serial killers. Once criminals have been taken into custody, profilers can learn even more about the criminal mind and can find possible motives, verify motives, and/or assess the defendant's state of mind. The police psychologist does more hands-on work with officers and victims as opposed to criminals.
Criminal investigations are usually responsible for the collection of information about crime potentials. Detectives who investigate crime will talk to people- victims, suspects, witnesses- then they have to identify the nature of cases and collect sufficiently evidence to arrest and prosecute suspects with reasonable likelihood of conviction. Detectives also deal with a lot of paperwork. The third big job that police undertake is the regulation of motor-vehicle traffic. The traffic police accounts for about 10% of officers.
First and foremost, the job duties of a forensic are far more complex than that of a detective’s. Forensic scientists perform tasks such as examining fingerprints, testing DNA and interpreting laboratory findings. They basically carry out a criminal investigation through a scientific approach only. Unlike forensic scientists, detectives uses a more logical and observant approach to solving a crime. Detectives observe criminals’ actions, develop sources of information, and conduct interviews.
In the U.S., crime laboratories are operated both at public and private levels. Generally, crime labs have two types of people working under it: a. Field analysts - Investigators who go to crime scenes to collect evidence, and process the scene. Most crime labs in the U.S. are under the police or prosecution control which opens the door for a number of problems with corruption as the headliner. Crime labs are subject to being victims of incentives.
Official statistics is the name given to the numbers of crimes reported to or unveiled by the police themselves, which lead to a conviction, caution or are dealt with in some formal way by the law. Only offences which are dealt with by one of the above are actually recorded in official statistics. These offences can vary from minor incidents such as a window being broken to, an offence of a more serious nature such as rape or murder. These are social problems that are constructed by society, something that goes against the 'normal' runnings of society. The statistics can give us an understanding as to the levels of these crimes and as to why or where they are most likely to occur.
Victim Services Role of policing: * Detect Crime * Enforce Law * Protect Public * Maintaining Law and Order Specialist Police Functions: * Crime investigation departments (CID) * Murder, Rape, Violence, Paedophilia, Abduction, etc. Role of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS): * The decision to charge somebody is no longer a police responsibility – It is undertaken by CPS. * Police work with CPS in stations Role of the courts: * Oversee criminal trials, in which guilt or non-guilt is decided. * Jury trial, judge acts as an umpire. * Sentence offenders – punishments.
Forensic Science Technician Criminal investigations involve a series of actions performed by many people in order to find the culprit of a crime, but one of the most important positions of a criminal investigation team is the forensic science technician. A forensic science technician is the person who tests and analyzes any evidence from a crime scene to figure out who committed the crime. “The most important part of this field is that it is so dynamic and always changing. Also, you are always contributing to society” (Moore). This field offers such a wide variety of studies, so a person earning a degree in forensic science does not have to be a forensic science technician, because there are multifarious branches of forensic science such as forensic nursing and many more.
Once a law enforcement agency has established that a crime has been committed, a suspect must be identified and apprehended for the case to proceed through the system. Sometimes, a suspect is apprehended at the scene; however, identification of a suspect sometimes requires an extensive investigation. Often, no one is identified or apprehended. In some instances, a suspect is arrested and later the police determine that no crime was committed and the suspect is released. (Bureau of Justice Statistics) If the justice system fails then any crime can be committed such as rape, burglary, murder, driving under the influence, etc.
Organization Structure of the Police - Peel borrowed the military style of structuring the police. Peel’s operation consisted of police officer in uniform, rank, and an authority system of crime prevention. Today the system is a little different as they were first in place. There are many more crimes being committed now than the 1900’s. Although police officers are authority figures for which who should be trusted, police officers are not trusted today.
The British Crime Survey also includes crimes which are not reported to the police, therefore is an important alternative to police records and provides criminologists, the police, the courts, the media and anyone else who has an interest with the statistics, two different types of data: Firstly trends on crime over time chartered, Details are compiled from offenders who are eventually found guilty or cautioned; details gathered include sex and the age of the offender. Information is gathered on the “Known offender”, in this case the “Typical offender”, (Maguire 1997). Official crime