Criminals especially those who are going through court proceedings may not feel comfortable disclosing certain information to someone they know to be a researcher. Typically most researchers are similar to police in characteristics, white and middle class, so acting covertly will most likely increase comfortability between the researcher and criminals, allowing more valid research to be acquired. Similarly judges and police may alter their behaviours if they know the researchers true identity in a bid to disguise any flaws in their practices and unjustified law enforcing. However, Positivists would argue that data collected by covert observations aren’t at all valid, they are biased as they are based off of the observer’s interpretations. This could be especially true in the case of researching court proceedings as it is unlikely many researchers have gone through one themselves.
In line with this, the investigative department requests warrants to search for evidence, but they must be approved by the judicial branch. (Lynch, 1998) Most defenses that invoke the exclusionary rule are based on the lack of or improper application of search warrants. Those that support the continued use of the exclusionary rule argue that there must be this line between the police officers that are often emotionally involved in a case, and an impartial third party that can objectively review the evidence. Without this safeguard, citizens would have little protection from overzealous police officers who could search their homes and persons with almost anything serving as probable cause in their opinion. The fact that officers know that illegally obtained (but true) evidence will quite possibly be thrown out, and therefore dangerous criminals will be freed, will encourage them to follow the proper procedures.
Handling evidence properly is one of the most crucial points of any investigation. Without even intentionally doing so, mishandling of evidence could mean a case thrown out of court. Some types of mishandling of evidence would be planting of evidence, removing evidence, not following the chain of custody and unlawfully obtaining evidence. Rape cases should involve specially trained individuals, if an untrained investigator was to handle a rape case the way a homicide case was handled even more issues can arise. Reducing Ethical Considerations From arrival at a crime scene the investigator must follow only the facts and remove any emotion from considerations.
Officers are also very likely to internalize powerful sub cultural norms, a main one being loyalty to other officers. There is also a lack of procedure for handling excessive force complaints against officers. The need to use force is one of the most demanding and critical decisions that a law enforcement officer must make. They may include other “non-deadly” protective instruments, like expendable batons, OC sprays, and flashlights, or any other means that can be used by an officer. With the media and
This is the definition of repressed memories used by most researchers. It is also important to note that some researchers refer to repressed memories as “Dissociative Amnesia,” and others as “false memories” due to the fact that they don’t believe the memories are real. This doesn’t mean that these researchers think that people claiming to have repressed memories are liars, only that these people have been implanted with false memories in ways that will be discussed later. Now that repressed memory has been defined and explained it is time to explore its current place in the legal system. Repressed memories are most often used in
Both prosecutors and law enforcement, sometimes knowingly ignore this behavior, in hopes that their testimony will secure a conviction in their favor. Law enforcement who work closely with the crime lab in their department will often try to influence Pathologists to tailor their analysis and testing of evidence to suit their needs in assurance of a solid conviction. Consequently, Pathologists are criminally mishandling and presenting false testimony of the evidence and tests. Regardless of their underpinning of excuses, we must find some means of addressing these issues on a broader scope within the criminal justice system. Dr. Ralph Erdmann is a prime example of one who would
This paper will discuss that topic along with if it is a conflict between the code of ethics and how law enforcement is conducted. This paper will also discuss the role physical behavior and nonverbal communication play in detecting deception. According to Skolnick and Leo (1993) the typology of interrogatory deception discusses interview versus interrogation, Miranda warning, misrepresentation of the nature or seriousness of the offense, role playing, misrepresentation of the moral seriousness of the offense, the use of promises, the misrepresentation of identity, and fabricated evidence. Police rely on deception when it comes to interrogation and at times it is the only way to find the truth. The police used severe beating and torture for years to obtain a confession out of a suspect and this type of activity was known as the “third degree” but now that times have changed mainly because of the Miranda warning, what is used most is deception.
We know that police officers use excessive force, and they also use their authority to verbally abuse people. So what causes police officers to abuse their authority, and (or) leads to brutality? One of the challenges with this is that not every citizen reports a police brutality, whether they see one happening, heard of one happening from their friends or family or if they themselves were a victim of one. Another challenging issue too is that we know some brutalities are not reported; therefore it makes it harder to measure those versus what is actually reported. Police brutality wouldn’t be an issue if we didn’t have to police our law enforcement officers.
The development of rational policies in criminal justice is complicated by conflicting values—our commitment to due process of law and our determination to fight crime. Public opinion has long held that the court system is overly concerned with the rights of accused criminals. A majority of Americans believe that the Supreme Court has gone too far in protecting the rights of defendants in criminal cases and that the courts are more concerned with protecting these rights than the rights of victims. Yet although society needs the protection of the police, it is equally important to protect society from the police. Arbitrary searches, seizures, and arrests; imprisonment without hearing or trial; forced confessions; beatings and torture; tainted
When it comes to assault, robbery, and burglary cases there will be typically more error due to eyewitness identification and circumstantial evidence. b. Most exonerations are not tracked when it comes to local and state municipalities so most cases prosecutors will say and go with the original verdict because they feel they usually are accurately right even with new evidence that could show innocence this then clouds the understanding of wrongful convictions. 3. Causes of Wrongful Convictions a.