Processing the crime scene is one of the main parts of the investigation process and policy management. While it is obviously a victim’s crime to burglarize a house, it is not a victim’s crime merely to think about and plan such a burglary. Nor is it a victim’s crime to “stake out” the house to find the most vulnerable point of entry, or even to buy a gun to threaten anyone who might be encountered. Nevertheless, these preparatory processes are a part of committing burglary that most individuals favor, and legislatures enact, laws against such acts almost as if they were victim crimes themselves. In this way, the net of criminal rule in most communities comes to be cast beyond strictly victimizing acts. Legal statutes in many communities and states have even been extended to behavior that is widely believed to be associated with victim offending
The process of crime scene investigation involves such tools as examination, photographing and sketching. Studies have suggested that criminal behavior patterns be characterized in terms of two major behavioral tendencies: (1) tendencies toward manipulative, callous, and non-empathetic reply patterns in one’s social interactions, and (p. 2) tendencies to be impulsive, irresponsible, and criminal in one’s everyday activities (Wilson, p. 77). No matter what behavioral criteria one follows in identifying the crime causes, it should be kept in mind that, like most clinical classification categories, there is not simply a group of individuals displaying all the symptoms and another group who lack all those symptoms (Wilson, p. 21). The concept of criminal behavior refers to offenses but also encompasses acts that reflect a universal lack of concern for the long-term welfare of others. Also, numerous legal studies indicated that all of the above behavioral correlates of criminal behavior are positively correlated with one another. Overall, not only did this broad-ranging research topics review provide impressive support for arousal theory in explaining criminal behavior, but it also suggested that there are several essentially non-criminal behavior patterns that are universally correlated with victim criminal behavior (Fisher, p. 43).
Processing the crime scene involves techniques of identification, evaluations, and documentation of process and collection of physical, testimonial and fingerprint facts. Processing the crime scene has accumulated confidently for one to give an affirmative answer, at least when the focus is on serious victim crimes. Because more universal correlates of criminal behavior are likely to be found (see Ellis, 1985), and several of those herein identified may be either subdivided or subsumed under other, more general variable names, it is not likely that criminologists will (or necessarily should) ever agree on the exact number of universal correlates of criminal behavior (Wilson, p. 54). Yet, the general correlates of victim criminal behavior can be categorized as behavioral variables and demographic variables. This processing crime scene process contends that individuals most prone to criminality have nervous systems that crave more than a normal level of sensory stimulation. Theoretically, persons who are most criminally prone are seeking higher-than-normal levels of stimulation in a variety of situations. Some of these situations are so obnoxious and even threatening, too many of those with whom they interact that criminal laws have been passed to curtail their behavior (Sutherland and Cressey, p. 31).
The processing of the crime scene process is one associated with high rates of risks occurring after a short period of gestation that is followed by minimal parental care for each offspring. While it is certainly true that the human species is highly K-selected, humans could still show significant genetic variation in terms of their exact location along the continuum. If that is so, and if victim criminal behavior tends to reflect r-selection, then those who commit violent and property crimes most often should exhibit selected characteristics to a greater degree than those who are least prone to criminal behavior. The police officer takes into account possible demographic variables that were universally correlated with criminal behavior — sex, age, social status, race, family intactness, and a number of siblings — can be predicted theoretically. In summary, processing crime scene proposes that to understand the occurrence of behaviors involving substantial risks and only modest external rewards, such as most street crimes, one must postulate that such behaviors receive endogenous biological reinforcement. Researchers argue that processing the crime scene should take into account possible behavior patterns of victims and offenders based on the knowledge about the human brain constructed so as to support behaviors that are risky or arduous or both, even though they do not lead to a quick or certain payoff. Police officers accept as a fundamental premise, that external stimuli produced by operant actions can be, and often are, reinforcing in important ways, and that they can manifest a high level of control over operant behavior (Saferstein, p. 87).
Processing crime scene requirements, in which the suspect, having been cautioned, would be asked whether he wished to confirm, deny, or modify any earlier statement or silence, is in line with the approach recommended by Commission on Criminal Justice. Processing the crime scene should be seen as a complex and multi-dimensional process based on careful data analysis and data collection methods. The collected facts and materials will determine the success of further investigation processes and criminal responsibility issues related to a particular individual. So, the police officer should pay careful attention to details and crime scene-setting in order to ensure an objective and impartial investigation process.
Works Cited
- Fisher, Barry A. J. Techniques of Crime Scene investigation. CRC Press; 6th edition,2000.
- Sutherland Edwin H. and Cressey, Donald. Principles of Criminology, 7th ed. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 2001.
- Saferstein, R. Criminalistics: An Introduction to Forensic Science (College Edition). Prentice Hall; 9 edition, 2006.
- Wilson, Margaret. The Crime of Punishment. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 2000.