Final Project: In at least four (4) pages, identify a category of crime, provide a specific example of the elements of the offense from your state (or state of your choosing) and discuss the investigative approaches and choices that an investigator would most likely consider when conducting an investigation.
In your paper:
(1) identify the category of crime that you will be exploring: Crimes Against Persons; Crimes Against Property; or Crimes Against Society;
(2) identify at least ONE statute from your state (or state of your choice) associated with that crime category and explain the major elements of that offense that need to be investigated and proven;
(3) discuss the type of crime scene you may encounter with that type of offense and how you would handle that crime scene – will it be a large complex scene with many witnesses, lots of physical evidence, or a small scene with no witnesses, etc; OR is this the type of crime that requires special investigation techniques like confidential informants, undercovers, surveillance, etc?
(4) discuss the type(s) of evidence you are likely to be collecting from that scene – is it mostly witness statements, or forensic evidence like DNA, fingerprints, computer evidence, etc – and how you would best handle that evidence;
(5) for the type(s) of evidence you are collecting, what are the potential challenges you may be expected to overcome? Is contamination an issue? What types of witnesses/victims to you potentially come across that would potentially cause reliability issues?
(6) do you think the type of crime you are investigating will likely lead to search warrants? If so, what would you be searching for, where would it be, and what level of evidence do you need to obtain that search warrant?
(7) for the type of investigation you have selected, discuss the clearance rate of offense in general (see reading below) and give an opinion as to if that rate can be improved or not. If you believe it can be improved, explain what additional resources or techniques would lead to improvement. If you do not believe the clearance rate can be improved, give an opinion as to why not.
NOTE: If you chose to discuss Crimes Against Society, discuss what you think the biggest challenge is associated with detecting/investigating the type of offense you selected and what types of additional resources or techniques could lead to more successful investigations of that type of crime.
Submission Requirements
- APA Style elements required
- Separate Title Page with Name, class, date and topic/title
- At least four (4) pages of your writing on this topic that includes using in-text citations (NOT including title page and reference page)
- 12 point font
- Times New Roman or Arial
- Separate Reference Page – List detailed source information for all references (NOT JUST LINKS TO WEBSITES)
- You should include AT LEAST THREE (3) sources in your reference page in your final project. The class text plus two additional sources would be appropriate.
