Free Criminal Investigation Essay Examples & Topics

Free Criminal Investigation Essay Examples & Topics

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189 samples

Study law, criminal justice, and any other related area? Then, you might be assigned to work on an essay on criminal investigation. Before we jump to tips on the actual writing, let us figure out some terms first.

Criminal investigation is a variety of methods by which crimes are discovered and studied. The investigator looks for the criminals and their motifs. They also search for witnesses and interrogate them. Their goal is to restore justice and prevent similar abuses.

Criminal investigation is crucial, especially in the alleged crimes that involve injuring people. The overall system includes courts, prisons, law enforcement, and counseling services. Each country is obliged to conduct investigations under international law.

In this article, our experts have gathered criminal investigation essay topics and research ideas. With their help, you can start any type of academic work on this subject. Besides, under the article, check free criminal investigation essay examples.

15 Criminal Investigation Essay Topics

Selecting the right idea is essential for composing a successful paper. A poorly defined topic can result in an unsatisfactory explanation. In this case, even a stellar outline might not save the situation. Here, we’ve combined ideas that will help you avoid this problem. Or you can use our topic generator for this purpose.

Consider these topics for your criminal investigation essay paper:

  1. Crime prevention in schools and colleges.
  2. The key causes of crime issues today.
  3. The use of DNA in criminal investigations.
  4. Stress management among police officers.
  5. What is the golden rule of criminal investigations?
  6. The fundamentals of criminal investigation and criminal intelligence.
  7. How criminal profiling works during the ongoing investigation.
  8. The philosophy of criminal law and its purpose.
  9. Are there biological causes of criminal behavior?
  10. How does the criminal investigation process help to achieve justice?
  11. Public perception of homicide and criminal justice.
  12. What are the critical events in the history of criminology?
  13. How to approach investigative writing.
  14. Is criminal investigation an art or science?
  15. Political prisoners and ethical crimes around the globe.

9 Criminal Investigation Research Topics

A criminal investigation paper can be quite a time-consuming task as it should include well-defined research. Besides, you will have to gather evidence, relevant quotes, and a substantive reference list. In this list, we’ve collected topics for investigative research:

  1. What are the most efficient methods to prevent international terrorism? Discuss counter-terrorism strategies that global communities can implement. You can give examples of the European Union and American measures in stopping terrorism.
  2. Crimes committed during natural disasters. Some reports demonstrate that hostile and criminal activity might be on the rise during an emergency. Explore crime prevention methods, emergency response, and personal safety.
  3. Gender inequalities in the criminal justice system. Start by explaining the meaning of gender disparity. Does the judicial system treat women and men equally? Think about why inequalities exist in criminal law.
  4. The mental effects of solitary confinement on prisoners. Elaborate on the prisoners’ mental turmoil. How does solitary confinement affect their brain capacity? What are some physical outcomes?
  5. Political corruption in developing countries. What are its major causes in the developing world? How can corruption be reduced? Examine the effects of governmental and political corruption.
  6. The law and criminology of drunk driving. Why is being intoxicated at the wheel considered a criminal act in some countries? What are the potential legal consequences of drunk driving?
  7. Psychological effects of imprisonment on young offenders. How does juvenile jail affect the mental health of incarcerated people? What happens to their brain? Talk about some long-term effects.
  8. Capital punishment and the issue of false imprisonment. Speak about the most common causes of the unjust death penalty. How many inmates were wrongfully executed in the US alone? What is the moral issue with capital punishment?
  9. How does the criminal justice system work? Elaborate on the eight steps of a criminal proceeding. You can touch upon the flaws and places of the American justice system.

Thank you for reading the article! We hope you will find it helpful. Plus, check the criminal investigation essay examples below.

189 Best Essay Examples on Criminal Investigation

HealthSouth Corporation Fraud Case

The SEC continued with the investigation in 2003 and its main concern was whether Scrushy's stock sale was linked to the Company posting a huge loss.
  • Pages: 10
  • Words: 2805

The Penny Parker Cold Case of Homicide

Finally, despite the high percentage of DNA matching, the investigators would need to interrogate the suspect, which would pose a question of how to act if Jennings requested to have a lawyer.
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 947

Types of Crime Analysis

The goals of tactical analysis are to recognize crime trends and to develop the best suited strategies to address them. This is a matter of great concern and the department would inquire more into the [...]
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1090

Open- and Close-Ended Questions in Criminal Investigation

While there are numerous types of questions, Bachman and Schutt elaborate on open-ended and close-ended questions. Open-ended and close-ended questions are often used during investigative interviewing to gather the needed information.
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 598

Fraud Detection and Investigation

In the above case, the director of the audit department gets an anonymous tip regarding the activities of the plant controller.
  • Pages: 5
  • Words: 1464

Jonathan Luna’s Case and Security System in the US

The present paper studies the unsolved mystery that is the case of Jonathan Luna, a US federal prosecutor who was found stabbed to death in Brecknock Township stream in 2003. The murder of Jonathan Luna [...]
  • Pages: 6
  • Words: 1698

An Inchoate Crime

Under the conspiracy element in the Wisconsin Statutes, conspiracy is defined as the agreement or combination of forces by two individuals with the intent of committing a crime.
  • Pages: 5
  • Words: 1445

Investigating Crimes against Property

According to the Uniform Crime Report of the Federal Bureau of Investigations, there are about 9,767,915 cases of property crimes reported in America annually.
  • Pages: 6
  • Words: 1642

Blood Evidence, Footprints and Toolmark Impressions

A microscope is a crucial tool for accurate identification of tool marks. Knowledge on manufacturing methods of tools is essential for a scientist to distinguish between distinctive marks and general marks.b) Dry, Dusty Shoe c) [...]
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1224

Bio-Forensic Evidence: Central Park Jogger Case

In the second section, I discuss the procedure that was used to convict the suspects. In the third section, I explain the effectiveness of recovering DNA from the scene of a crime in the Central [...]
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 614

Detectives Role in Investigation

In short, the work of a detective is not as exciting and glamorous as it is portrayed to be, and certainly not as effective as it is showed in the movies.
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1128

The Fire Investigation Process

In the case of a fire, it is crucial at the beginning to identify the area affected by the fire, explore the possibilities of access to the disaster location, and, if necessary, take additional measures, [...]
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 948

The Crimes of Charles Manson

In reality, based on the ghastly consequences of his actions and "teachings", he is generally considered a pathological liar, a shrewd manipulator and a man guilty of not only coercing others to murder in his [...]
  • Pages: 9
  • Words: 2536

Arson Investigation Methods

The investigator has to deal with the charred debris, the smoke, and the stench. It is important for the personnel to be trained and experienced in fire investigations.
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 867

Chain of Custody: Evidence

Thus, following the concept of chain of custody, it is essential for investigators to chronologically document the evidence that is present to determine how it was collected, the people who were in charge of its [...]
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1159

Geographical Profiling in the D.C. Sniper Case

The hunt for the snipers who threatened the residents of Washington, D.C.was another famous example of law enforcers exploiting the capabilities of geographical mapping to connect thirteen different hits that took place in a span [...]
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 875

Quality Control of Digital Forensics

The quality control over computer forensic products is necessary because of the growth of the Internet services. Thus, the investigator and the lab are challenged not only with solving a case but also providing the [...]
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 540

Crime Scene Investigation and Evidence Classification

They include the explanation of physical evidence to identify purposes, the discussion of the differences between class and individual characteristics of physical evidence, and the evaluation of the class characteristics' importance.
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 1131

Scientific Method in Fire Investigations

According to Cote the process refers to "the methodical quest of knowledge that involves the identification and setting up of the problem, the collection of data via observation and experiment as well as the formulation [...]
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 934

Daytime Robberies Investigation

In other words, the relevance of this problem is explained not only by particular cases of robberies, but also by a potential solution to the issue in terms of reducing the level of crime in [...]
  • Pages: 5
  • Words: 1538

Crime Scene Investigation in Criminal Justice

In the process of controlling the crowd and maintaining order with the aid of the police officers, I took some photographs of the surrounding and then approached the main spot of event. I managed to [...]
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 708

Criminal Investigation: O. J. Simpson’s Case Brief

Subsequently, the investigation was able to establish the size and model of the alleged killer's shoes. The trial also found that Simpson's foot was the same size as the bloody prints at the crime scene.
  • Pages: 1
  • Words: 351

Pre-trial Procedures in Criminal Cases

The prosecutors have the obligation to use the material evidence to defend the criminal, failure to which, the suspect would seek some lawsuit later. Therefore, the prosecutor is obliged to disclose material evidence in favor [...]
  • 3
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 861

Public Inquiry in the Soham Murders Case

The objectives of the presentation include describing the events of the Soham murders, outlining the public inquiry's details, evaluating the public inquiry process, and outlining the outcomes of the inquiry.
  • Pages: 12
  • Words: 2663

Note-Taking and Crime Scene Photography

Concerning the effectiveness of notes, generally, they should contain a high level of detail, and straightforwardness and cover all areas of the crime scene.
  • Pages: 1
  • Words: 361

Mapp vs Ohio (1961): A Case Brief

The evidence extracted in the course of the search, which did not comply with the existing law and violated the principles of the Fourth Amendment, was considered inadmissible for the use in the court proceedings.
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 896

Jack the Ripper Case in Modern Days

My job as the chief of police would be to ensure that the investigators possess all the necessary resources needed to carry out their functions.
  • Pages: 5
  • Words: 1467

People vs. O’Neil Supreme Court Desicion

In addition to the murder and involuntary manslaughter charges, the jury also charged the individual and corporate defendants with reckless conduct. Secondly, the defendants argued that the murder charges were inconsistent with the involuntary manslaughter [...]
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 548

Searching and Recording the Crime Scene

Therefore, based on the nature and size of the scene, it is best recommended for the zone and grid search method to be used in the location and collection of evidence.
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1195

Forensic Toxicology, Its Role and Context

Postmortem drug testing involves the investigation of death to establish whether the cause of death or one of the contributing factors of the death was drugs.
  • Pages: 8
  • Words: 2248

Prostitution as a Victimless Crime

The association in the law and morality in the subject of prostitution is been a wide concern as prostitution can be considered as one of the oldest phenomena of humankind in a way of practicing [...]
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 813

Shoe Impression at a Crime Scene

It is the transfer of material from the shoe to the surface. The print results from the static charges between the sole of the shoe and the surface.
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1169

Unethical Practices in Criminal Investigation

For example, police or other members of the justice system may resort to lying as the means of tricking the criminal or the person linked to the crime directly to disclose the information about the [...]
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 821

Cybercrime – Do Definitions Matter?

While the debate is healthy, some scholars argue that the lack of a standard definition hampers how security experts react to the range of crimes committed in the virtual environment.
  • Pages: 12
  • Words: 3304

Effects of Technology in Criminal Justice Systems

In the United States, a policy was made in 1967 about the Law Enforcement and Justice Administration by the president's commission, and the aim of the policy was to stop crimes in society.
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1155

Crime Investigations and Their Representation in the Media

As a recent case of a school shooting in Nashville, Tennessee, demonstrates, the political tensions within the U.S.community have led to striking differences in media representations of the police's refusal to release the shooter's manifesto.
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 580

The Role of Report in Investigation

After four years, a longstanding person of interest in the investigation of vanished Westmoreland County woman Cassandra Gross has been charged with her murder. This document is used as a summary of everything an investigator [...]
  • Pages: 1
  • Words: 312

Criminology: Short Tandem Repeats in Forensics

In a crime scene with DNA that includes all these STRs, the probability of an individual other than the perpetrator matching all is around one in one trillion. Amplification technology in STR analysis facilitated the [...]
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1191

Criminal Investigation: Impact of Technology

The process of study is short and performed in one place by the same people that do all the duties such as sample collection, analysis, interrogation, confronting the criminals, and testify before the court.
  • Pages: 1
  • Words: 275

Diversity in Criminal Justice: Criminal Investigation

The data analysis was based on the state of Ohio and compares the number of citizens disenfranchised due to felony convictions based on race and gender, as presented in Appendix. Thus, data for the state [...]
  • Pages: 1
  • Words: 307

Emerging Technologies Regarding Criminal Activities

It is expensive for criminal investigative agencies to acquire and maintain digital computer technology as digital software and hardware advance quickly. Therefore, it is important for law enforcement agencies and all affiliated parties to be [...]
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 961

Crime Scene Investigation Techniques

Digital GPS evidence refers to the location data that is collected and stored on digital devices such as smartphones, laptops, tablets, smart watches, and others.
  • Pages: 1
  • Words: 413

State vs. Anderson: Supreme Court Summary

With its main purposes to obtain, store, and review information received from fingerprints, the AFIS system is fundamental in the investigation of criminal cases.
  • Pages: 1
  • Words: 404

Media Journal Assignment: Elijah McClain’s Death

The death of a young Elijah was quite a shocking revelation about injustice that is taking place in the country. It demonstrates the social solidarity of people on the injustice that has taken a place.
  • Pages: 1
  • Words: 321

Searches of Homes and Vehicles

The Constitution has always protected the rights of people, and the matters that pertain to private domiciles and vehicles are no exception.
  • Pages: 1
  • Words: 312

Police Corruption: A Crime With Severe Consequences

Police corruption is a severe crime that can lead to adverse consequences for the officer-criminals and society. The documentary "Seven Five" shows the story of one of the most criminal police officers Michael Dowd.
  • Pages: 1
  • Words: 378

Importance of Haptics in Forensics

However, replicating the study to verify the findings may prove a challenge due to the high cost of assembling all the specimens and equipment utilized therein.
  • Pages: 1
  • Words: 368

Civil Justice Legal Case: Tanzin v. Tanvir

Later, the plaintiffs appealed the Court's decision, claiming that the RFRA provides the opportunity of seeking "appropriate relief" for violation of one's religious freedom.
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 831

Digital Forensics Tools and Software

One of the most famous software programs for digital forensics is Autopsy, a toolkit that examines the images present on a device's hard drive.
  • Pages: 1
  • Words: 302

Security Threat Groups: Illegal Activities

The people involved in the crimes formed groups due to their common interest ending up in the emergence of the gangs. They have to keep data on all the activities of the gang and testify [...]
  • Pages: 1
  • Words: 400

Potential Outcomes of the Attorney Motions

In the case of Badboy, there is also a high chance the motion will succeed, because the law enforcement agencies have broken into the defendant's house without a warrant and used the collected evidence in [...]
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 791

Aspects of Fingerprint Technology

Although the term latent means hidden it is used in the forensic world to refer to accidental impressions that are left by friction ridge skin after touching a surface, regardless of the print being visible [...]
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1172

Chimel v. California

He objected to the evidence retrieved from his bedroom, arguing that it was the outcome of an unconstitutional search. The court also concluded that the warrantless search was reasonable because there was a valid reason [...]
  • Pages: 1
  • Words: 366

Taylor and Garrett Case Study

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the actions of Taylor and Garret in terms of such felonies as breaking and entering, burglary, and battery.
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 672

Serial Killers in Modern American Society

Based on the above-stated arguments, this paper forms research for evidence from some of the serial killers in modern American society and various tactics utilized by the investigative departments to determine and differentiate between serial [...]
  • Pages: 7
  • Words: 2098

Ahmaud Arbery Case: Shooting Analysis

The recent case of Ahmaud Arbery, who was shot by two white supremacists, is a clear example of the outcome of the citizens' bias against people of color.
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 852

Offender Profiling as an Investigative Tool

Therefore, it is critical to identify the benefits of offender profiling, the major challenges associated with it, the most effective techniques and methods, as well as ways to improve the existing approaches to profiling or [...]
  • Pages: 6
  • Words: 1666

Homicide in Criminal Investigation

The cases of criminal homicide are further separated into murder and manslaughter, with the key difference laying in whether the law determines the presence of malice in the act.
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1094

The Chain of Custody in Criminal Investigation Concept

Putrefaction is one of the stages in the decomposition of a dead body. According to Middleton, putrefaction is the decomposition of a dead body, which involves the breakdown of the proteins in the dead organism.
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1082

Forensic Science: Insect Evidence

In addition, it also documents the chronological order of persons relating to the physical evidence from the time of acquisition to the time of submission to a court of law.
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1101

Profiling and Analytical Skills in Crime Detection

In the society, members commit various crimes, which are usually categorised on a different basis such as the nature of the crime, the amount of force that is applied, and the intentions of the crime [...]
  • Pages: 14
  • Words: 3900

State of Connecticut v. Eric Amado

However, if the death of the victim had occurred in the home of the defendant, the claim of self-defense would have been admissible in court. Therefore, the defendant's claim of self-defense is not admissible in [...]
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 558

Lipstick Analysis in Crime Detection

The modern analytical methods enable the detection team to analyze the constituents of the chemicals in the lipstick and the traces of smear extracted from the victims lips of eyelashes.
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1063

Tom Joyce: Closing the Case

Public records are quite reliable when police officers need to verify information gathered from a scene of the crime, as well as streamline the whole process.
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 377

Police Effectiveness Analysis

At that, effectiveness is the ability to achieve the goal set whereas efficiency is the ability to accomplish certain tasks in the shortest time and with the use of minimum effort, funds, and so on.
  • Pages: 5
  • Words: 1390

O.J. Simpson Guilty of Double Homicide

For his "dream team" defense group, he was a re-launch into the limelight as the case of the century for they had after all managed to make names for themselves in the profession and now [...]
  • Pages: 11
  • Words: 3059

Karen Ulane, Plaintiff vs. Eastern Airlines, Defendant

Ulane, as a transsexual, brought a lawsuit against Easter Airlines for dismissing her from her role as a pilot. The Court maintained that the company discriminated against Ulane based on her sex as a transsexual [...]
  • Pages: 9
  • Words: 2581

The Criminal Justice System in the US

The statutes of Texas require the criminal justice system to carry out an inquest into the causes of deaths that occur mysteriously to ascertain the cause of death.
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 587

White Collar Crime-Enron Corporation

If the degree of accuracy obtained in the data is found to be inadequate for the use in the current research, they will be termed as insufficient and hence unsuitable to be used by the [...]
  • Pages: 11
  • Words: 3069

Criminal Identification Procedures in the 21st Century

It has emerged that these advances have significant effects on the efficiency of the criminal justice system, particularly from the perspective of crime control. Databases for DNA are in the custody of the government in [...]
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 521

Law Enforcement Relation to Health Law

Law enforcement officers on the other hand rush to the scene to get people to help them in gathering information required in taking into custody of the persons responsible for the mishap and offer proof [...]
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 822
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