Janette Nichols Seminar 8

 This unit explores the various strategies that law enforcement uses to investigate serial murder. The unit also delves into the problems encountered during serial murder investigations, and it examines response strategies used by law enforcement agencies throughout the United States.

Write a 2 to 3 page paper responding to the following:  Identify the ethical issues within the field of criminal investigation as applied to wrongful conviction based upon tainted or faulty line-ups.  In recent years we have seen many criminal convictions overturned for various reasons. One such reason is the “Eyewitness Account”.  Address the ethical responsibilities of law enforcement in their requirements for fairness, and responsibility to ensure there are no wrongful convictions based upon false identification.  Identify the processes utilized by law enforcement in the identification of suspects.  Consider individuals making identifications, do so in error at times, others intentionally, or are led by law enforcement through improper actions, i.e.; Prejudicial line-ups or photo arrays.

Criteria: Ask yourself the following questions.YesNo PURPOSE FOR WRITING THE ASSIGNMENT Did you identify what is meant by wrongful conviction based upon a faulty identification? Have you identified the differences between faulty and a legitimate identification? Did you identify the ethical issues within the field of criminal investigation as applied to wrongful conviction based upon tainted or faulty line-ups? Have you been able to incorporate the research to an article correctly in this paper? RESEARCH Have you found the current article to discuss? Did you list the source of your article? Does your research correlate with your documentation? CONTENT Is the content accurate and correct? Did you identify enough sources to accurately and comprehensively discuss the topic? Other than the book have you found enough information to support your position? Remember the paper will be submitted to turnitin.com FORMAT Have you used Microsoft Office word document to save your document? Did you name the document and place into a file? Have you checked that your document meets the APA format requirements? Is this in your own words, and properly cited? Grammar and spelling, did you check for accuracy? Is the paper going to meet the length requirements?

 Someone who has an extraordinarily vivid recall of visual images is said to have an eidetic memory, and anyone with the ability to have complete recall of information (photographic memory) is considered to have hypernesia.

 Linkage blindness occurs when law enforcement agencies at the federal, state, and municipal levels are unable to consider crimes beyond their own jurisdiction. This creates a communication barrier that can delay the capture of a serial killer, and in many cases has resulted in additional murders.

 The strategies include: (1) Holding conferences; (2) Creating information clearinghouses; (3) Developing a task force; (4) Maintaining central coordination without forming a task force; (5) Profiling; (6) Involving investigative consultants; (7) Involving forensic consultants; (8) Ensuring that major incident room procedures are used; (9) Soliciting information from the public; (10) Using a computer analysis system; (11) Centralizing investigative work; (12) Hiring psychics; and (13) Providing offender rewards.

1. Hunter—identifies a specific victim in his home area. 2. Poacher—prefers to travel away from home area for hunting victims. 3.Troller—an opportunistic killer, he attacks victims while carrying out his regular activities. 4.Trapper—a spider-and-fly scenario in which an offender enjoys laying a trap for a victim.

 Problems in Profiling:  “Profiling can be very useful, but caution must be exercised to avoid constructing hasty or poorly grounded profiles that may lead investigators in wrong directions. This inevitably places a strain on resources, and, most important, additional lives may be lost. Errors in the information transmitted to NCAVC (National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime), mistaken assessments by the evaluation team, and other potential glitches mean profiles can and do go wrong.”

 Behavioral Analysis Unit 1 (counterterrorism/threat assessment);  Behavioral Analysis Unit 2 (crimes against adults);  Behavioral Analysis Unit 3 (crimes against children); and  Behavioral Analysis Unit 4 (Violent Criminal Apprehension Program-ViCAP).

 Behavioral Analysis Unit 4 (ViCAP): Resources are focused on actual and attempted homicides— especially those that involve an abduction, are apparently random, motiveless, or sexually oriented, or are known or suspected to be part of a series; sexual assaults, especially those committed by a stranger, or those known or suspected to be part of a series; missing persons where the circumstances indicate a strong possibility of foul play; and unidentified human remains where the manner of death is unknown or suspected to be homicide. BAU- 4/ViCAP also develops and maintains ViCAP Web, the national repository for these criteria cases.

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