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Month: July 2017

Best Practice Recommendations for Eyewitness Evidence Procedures

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Abstract

This article provides “best practice ” recommendations for collecting and preserving evidence using eyewitness identification procedures. Suggested procedures are based on decades of social science research as well as the recommended practices found in the recent report on the Robert Sophonow case in Manitoba and in a 1999 U.S. National Institute of Justice document distributed to all police services in the U.S. These recommendations currently guide training programs for several police services in Canada, the U.S., and around the world, and experienced criminal investigators will recognize many of the procedures as practices they have employed in their own cases. The overarching goal of this article is to accumulate these recommendations in one place in order to allow investigators to take advantage of them and achieve a maximal level of accurate eyewitness identifications while minimizing the rate of inaccurate choices.

New Ideas for the Oldest Way to Solve a Case

Criminal investigators know that it often takes many pieces of converging evidence to solve a complex case....

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Propofol Sedation: Who Should Administer?

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PROBLEM: Using propofol (DIPRIVAN) to sedate patients during endoscopic and other diagnostic procedures is gaining momentum in a growing number of hospitals, outpatient surgery centers, and physician offices.1 In trained hands, propofol offers many advantages over other drugs used for sedation because it: Has a rapid onset (about 40 seconds) and a short duration of action Allows patients to wake up, recover, and return to baseline activities and diet sooner than some other sedation agents Reduces the need for opioids, thus resulting in less nausea and vomiting.2 Trained nurses in most critical care settings often administer propofol safely to patients who are intubated and ventilated. However, some practitioners have been lulled into a false sense of security, allowing the drug’s good safety profile to influence their beliefs that propofol is safer than it really is. In untrained hands, propofol can be dangerous, even deadly; administration to a nonventilated patient by a practitioner who is not trained in theuse of drugs that can cause deep sedation and...

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Information Attracts Attention: A Probabilistic Account of the Cross-Race Advantage in Visual Search

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Abstract

People are better at recognizing faces from their own race than from different races (Shapiro & Penrod, 1986; Bothwell, Brigham, & Malpass, 1989), an effect commonly known as the other-race effect. The causes of this effect have been attributed to the fact that people have more experience with faces from their own race during development (Feingold, 1914; Chance, Turner, & Goldstein, 1982; Shepard, 1981; Valentine, Chiroro, & Dixon, 1995). However, in visual search tasks, cross-race (CR) faces are found faster than same-race (SR) faces (Levin, 1996, 2000). This advantage of CR faces in visual search tasks seems at first to be inconsistent with the advantage of the SR face in recognition tasks. To account for this discrepancy, Levin proposed that there is a race feature, which is active only for CR faces. By explicitly assuming this feature, the face search data fits into a visual search paradigm in which the search asymmetry can be explained. In this paper, we will present an alternate

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Criminal Groups and Transnational Illegal Markets

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Abstract

In the study of organised crime, the traditional view of criminal groups as centrally controlled organisations has been replaced by the notion of criminal networks. However, little use has been made of concepts and theories of social networks that have developed in other social sciences. This paper uses concepts from social network theory to describe and tentatively explain differences in social organisation between criminal groups that perform three types of transnational illegal activities: smuggling and large-scale heroine trading, trafficking in women, and trading stolen cars. Groups that operate in the large-scale heroin market tend to be close-knit, cohesive and ethnically homogenous. Groups active in the trafficking of women have a chain structure, while those that operate in the market for stolen cars are characterised by three clusters of offenders in a chain. Both groups are less cohesive than criminal groups in the large-scale heroin market. The differences in social organisation between the three types of illegal activities appear to be related to the legal...

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Contract Killings in Australia

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Introduction

The typical homicide in Australia is that of a male aged in his early to mid thirties who in an uncontrollable rage following some type of menial argument stabs another person, usually another male friend or acquaintance, to death. In such one-on-one interactions, the lethal outcome is rarely premeditated, but rather the spontaneous overreaction to a conflict situation. Moreover, there is the direct link between the victim and offender and most importantly, why the offender may have wanted to kill the victim. Important in understanding the context of homicide are the many reasons or motives associated with it, as well as the offender-victim relationship (Mouzos 2000; Polk 1994; Wolfgang 1958). Often a reason or motive can be derived from the offender-victim relationship. A proven motive, whilst not necessary to secure a conviction for murder, provides a sound basis for proving intent to kill and for contextualising the crime. Similar to the scenario described above, a traditional notion of homicide invokes the thought of ...

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Afro-Lineal Organized Crime

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INTRODUCTION

The public, media, and even most law enforcement officials, have traditionally associated the term “organized crime” with Italian ethnic criminal syndicates, commonly called La Cosa Nostra (LCN) or the Mafia. To counter this narrow point of view, the State Commission of Investigation (SCI or Commission) has, for some time, emphasized that LCN, while a serious problem, represents only part of the organized underworld which preys on New Jersey and the rest of the country. Among the criminal groups which should receive more attention than they have in the past are those of African ethnic background. Such Afro-lineal organized crime -- composed exclusively or predominantly of persons of African ancestry -- includes criminal syndicates of African-Americans, Jamaicans, Nigerians and others. The neglect of this problem stems, in part, from the erroneous stereotype that African ethnic groups lack the stability to organize and are not capable of structuring a syndicate of any consequence. In addition, law enforcement resources are limited, and they have been devoted...

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Criminal Networks | Canada

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Introduction

This report on criminal networks is divided into three parts dealing with the following elements:
Criminal organizations are both networks and businesses. This report, however, deals more with criminal networks than with businesses
Criminal organizations, when viewed as networks, have characteristics common to other social networks, but also have specific characteristics that largely relate to the fact that these organizations are criminal businesses
The self-protection measures undertaken by criminal networks, as well as the limiting of knowledge, make combatting the networks difficult. The fact remains, however, that strategic elements for this fight have been suggested by criminal network specialists.

Criminal Businesses and Networks

In his article on organized crime, McIllwain (1999) claims that three paradigms have been used to define and understand this phenomenon. The first paradigm suggests that organized crime consists of viable organizations, which reflects the institutional approach that was dominant in the 1960s. The second is opposite to this institutional approach, instead portraying organized
crime as being...

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Media Interaction With The Public In Emergency Situations: Four Case Studies

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Emergency situations arise from a wide variety of natural and man-made events ranging from earthquakes and hurricanes to domestic disturbances and terrorist strikes to nuclear power accidents and airplane crashes. Information about these events can be disseminated by several means, but one of the most important channels for communicating information about emergency situations is the modern mass media. Despite reservations that may be expressed about their ability to play the role of communicator impartially, the media transmit considerable information about the circumstances and hazards of emergencies to a wide audience. In attempting to understand how the media function, it may be useful to describe journalists' work in terms of three types of "games."1 These "games" help conceptualize the ways in which the media generally handle the information they pass forward to the public. The first game may be termed the "gatekeeper game" in which a newsroom, as an organization, sets the rules and packages "the news" for its readers. Journalists decide what...

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Crime, Media, Culture

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Abstract

An unresolved research question regarding crime and justice policy is the relationship between an individual’s media consumption and their support for punitive and preventive criminal justice policies. The relationship between media, crime, and justice is under-examined in countries other than the United States and Britain and the relationship between media and criminal justice policy support remains less than fully understood in all locales. In response, an examination of a media policy relationship in a Western democracy not previously studied was conducted. Based on data from an October 2005 national telephone survey of Trinidad and Tobago residents, this study measured support for punitive and preventive criminal justice policies in association with crime and justice media consumption and worldviews. Multivariate analysis showed that, for Trinidadians, support for punitive policies was significantly related to perceiving television crime dramas as realistic and crime news as accurate. For preventive policy support, the same media factors plus the level of exposure to crime dramas on television were significant. Overall, media were found...

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The Effective Use of the Media in Serious Crime Investigations

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1. Introduction

Media handling in serious crime investigations is a complex issue. On the one hand, the media provide excellent access to the general public and can help generate important information for an enquiry. On the other hand, the media can sap the resources of an investigation, mislead the public, and interfere with the investigative and legal processes. As with other areas of policy-making in a serious crime investigation, it is the Senior Investigating Officer (SIO) who is ultimately responsible for deciding the overall media strategy. Even though the SIO will be advised by the relevant media specialist and guided by force policy, the handling of the media in the broadest sense has been identified as a critical skill of the SIO (Adhami and Browne, 1996). This report examines media handling in major crime investigations and the development of effective media strategies, so as to produce useful advice for future SIOs. The study forms part of PRC’s Serious Crime Research Programme, which is... .

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