Criminal Investigation

Book excerpt: The seventh edition of Criminal Investigation presents the fundamentals of criminal investigation and provides a sound method for reconstructing a past event (i.e., a crime) based on three major sources of information — people, records, and physical evidence. In addition to covering fundamental practices such as surveillance, interrogation, and eyewitness identification, this volume is updated with the latest techniques available. Students and beginning professionals in criminal justice will find new ways of obtaining information from people, including mining social media outlets; navigating the labyrinth of records and files available online; and fresh ways of gathering, identifying, and analyzing physical evidence. Special topics in terrorism, organized crime, and white-collar crime round out this complete guide to the discipline of criminal investigation practice. Expanded material on fraud, international crime, and the influence of technology on criminal investigation New full-color presentation, including dozens of photographs, graphics, tables, charts, and diagrams Key terms and discussion questions stress important concepts in each chapter