We live in a society characterized by various forms of crimes that are classified into four distinct categories; personal, financial, property, statutory, and inchoate crimes. All these crimes, when prosecuted, are punishable under the court of law. However, before prosecution, the police and other investigative officers are faced with the obligation of investigating the crimes, thus coming up with the reliable information that can be presented in the court of law. There are various sources of information on an offense that needs to be validated before use by the police, and they include; physical evidence witnesses and suspects.
In case of a murder, police can receive the relevant information from any physical evidence portrayed. Some of the physical evidence that can be collected in this scenario include; murder weapons, fingerprints, and blood. Physical evidence is significant as it may exhibit various elements of the crime, such as fingerprints on the murder weapon used. Also, physical evidence can be used to establish links in the crime conducted. Before usage, various methods can be used to validate the physical evidence; they include the conduction of DNA and the Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS). In DNA, the specimen from the physical evidence is compared against the genetic makeup obtained from human fluids such as blood and saliva. For AFIS, the fingerprints are examined from the collection of other prints in the database.
Another source of information that is widely utilized by the investigative officers is information from witnesses. There are two major categories of witnesses; primary and secondary witnesses. Primary witnesses refer to the people who have direct knowledge of the crime, including the victims. On the other hand, secondary witnesses refer to individuals who might be having information on the offense. Validation of data from the witnesses is done through the conduction of both cognitive and hypnosis interviews. Both the very inquisitive meetings aim at enhancing the recall of an incident by a witness. For record-keeping, the discussions are usually videotaped.
Also, information on criminal investigations can be obtained from the suspects of the crime. By definition, a suspect is any person who, in the process of the inquiry, may be deemed to be responsible for the particular crime. To verify the information provided by the suspect of a specific crime, psychological profiling is used. Psychological profiling refers to a technique where the personality, behavior, and background characteristics of an individual that may have a link to the crime committed are examined. Thus, the main goal of psychological profiling is to establish a relationship between other aspects of the life of an individual and the crime committed. In profiling, the probability is examined as reflected by other crimes that could have been committed by the suspect in the past or even the crime patterns surrounding the suspect. This technique is essential in fastening the process of investigation through a reduction of the number of suspects.
In conclusion, for the criminal justice system to be able to deliver justice to all in a fair manner, police have a very critical role to play in obtaining crime-related information. There are various sources of information that the police officers receive information from, and they include physical evidence, suspects, and witnesses. Before this information is presented, validation is usually done. For tangible evidence, validation is done through fingerprints analysis and DNA; for suspects, psychological profiling is done, and for the witnesses, different forms of interviews such as cognitive and hypnosis interviews are conducted.