NCJRS Abstract Database Paper

The purpose of this paper is to discuss and analyze the practices conducted by law enforcement during the investigation of the murder of Ashley Smith. The following pages will discuss the crime scene investigation, the evidence collection, the investigative steps following the initial crime scene investigation, the interviews of witnesses and suspects, and other strategies performed by the acting case investigators. Constitutional challenges have surfaced regarding specific pieces of critical evidence and a section of this paper will analyze the admissibility of this evidence. Lastly this case’s law enforcement processes will be contrasted with textbook processes in an effort to determine the validity of the case’s outcome.

Throughout every state and county across the United States there are various means for offering assistance to victims of crime. Each municipality has its own victim advocacy program. For smaller areas such as rural counties they use the next organizational level up as their victim advocates. For the purpose of this paper I sat down with Ms. Mari Dennis of the Colorado Springs Police Department (CSPD). Ms. Dennis is employed as the Victim Advocacy Unit Coordinator and is embedded within the Investigations division of the department. CSPD employs four staff victim advocates and around 35 volunteer advocates.

The annual National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) has been the primary method for gathering data and providing these staggering statistics. The NCVS provides information gathered from the victim, which includes information on crimes that went unreported to the police. The Uniform Crime Report (UCR) is also a valid reference for gathering crime information within the United States. The UCR only has information regarding crimes that were reported to the police, as well as arrests. Both forums are used by the FBI. In addition, researchers use this information for their research. Even Taylor and

There are different agencies in the criminal justice system. Courts, corrections, law enforcement, and prosecution are all a part of the criminal justice system. It may not seem as if they cooperate with one another but they are all in the same system. Since all of the agencies are in the same system, the agencies have an organizational structure. Throughout this paper interesting information pertaining to corrections in different states will be discussed. Do we know Michigan’s and Florida’s correctional system? Many states run their corrections inversely and some may operate the same.

ARD collects data that identifies all deaths occurring during incarceration and in the process of arrest. As well, information about the circumstances surrounding the death is gathered. The data is analyzed to understand the nature and frequency of arrest-related deaths. They are required to submit CJ-11 summary of incidents and CJ-11a incident reports. SRCs oftentimes take an active approach when it comes to identifying deaths (opposed to relying on voluntary reporting). Majority of SRCs reported open-source searching (data available to public) as a strategy. About half of these individuals as well took on another strategy—such as law enforcement survey, database search, medical examiner data request, prosecutor survey. SRCs use a variety of sources when it comes to obtaining information on the death. The CJ-11 form is a state-level count of ARD. The CJ-11a report includes specific details about the death. Once collecting is complete, SRCs send all data to BJS either quarterly or annually. (Planty & Burch,

In beginning my research on females in the juvenile justice system, I was shocked to see how many of the new female juvenile statistics had increased and were gradually catching up on the juvenile male statistics. The numbers have been growing every year, and may soon surpass the numbers the boys have held for so many years. It makes me sit back and wonder what in the world is going on with our female youth in today’s society to cause such a slight, in some cases, to drastic increase depending on the offense. In this research paper, I want to examine the statistics for female youth over the last ten years to discuss what offenses are increasing over others, investigate the reasoning behind this increase in order to try and understand where these teens are “coming from”, and if there is a way for our society to be proactive in our female youths lives in order to prevent them from entering the juvenile justice system and one day adult prison.

1. Siegel, L. J., & Worrall, J. L. (2013) Essentials of criminal justice , Belmont, CA

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Bronze R. Green, Department of Criminal Justice, Faulkner State Community College, Bay Minette, AL 36057.

There is little variation between Utah and Minnesota in the protection of the report data and the disclosure of the report information. The protection mechanisms are embedded in the process of collection and reporting of the incidents’ data. In the two states, there are different methods of collecting the information of the incidents (Minnesota Institute of Legal Education, 1992). The information is collected via telephone, faxes, mail, and Internet sites. As a concession, the reporting systems’ officials of the two states have identified the

(3)http://www.aicpa.org/Research/Standards/Pages/default.aspx Golden, T. W., Skalak, S. L., Clayton, M. M., & Ebooks Corporation. (2006). A guide to forensic

One of the three major perspectives used in Data collection is Police perspective. The police perspective is police reports that are called Uniform Crime Reports (UCR), which are gathered and collected by every police agency in the U.S, and then this data gathered is sent to and collected by the FBI annually. National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) in recent years has been developed to broaden the extent of the bottom of the crime data that is collected by every police department. The NIBRS gathers information (data) on every criminal occurrence and arrests that happen within the 22 offense categories made of 46 specific crimes. The second one is victim perspective, this sections methods are involving the National Crime Victimization

We use research methods in our every day life and not even know it. Research methods play a very important part in the life of someone who is in the criminology field. Without some of the research methods that we have, many cases would never get solved, and they would be in the cold case files. In this paper, I will discuss new terminology and how it helps one who is in the criminology field.

Each year, data are obtained from a nationally representative sample of about 90,000 households, comprising nearly 160,000 persons, on the frequency, characteristics, and consequences of criminal victimization in the United States. Each household is interviewed twice during the year. The survey enables BJS to estimate the likelihood of victimization by rape or sexual assault, robbery, aggravated and simple assault, theft, household burglary, and motor vehicle theft for the population as a whole as well as for segments of the population such as women, the elderly, members of various racial or ethnic groups, city dwellers, and other groups. The NCVS provides the largest national forum for victims to describe the impact of crime and characteristics of violent offenders.”

This essay will explain and evaluate how the study of victimology (the study of crime victims and victimization) has contributed massively to our understanding of crime in multiple different ways such as helping our knowledge of what the motives are behind crimes, who the main targets are, thus constructing theories about the best ways to prevent these people from becoming victimised and therefore reducing crime rates in general. This paper will also identify the success of victimology by looking at how vctims in investigations can help police catch the offender (eye witness testimonies) and also how victims can help to reduce recidivism rates by being involved in punishment process (restorative justice).

Victims of crime suffer undue physical, psychological, and financial difficulties once they become a victim of a crime. Unfortunately, the victimization doesn’t end when the crime is over it may continue through the entire legal process. Victims are left to cope with the consequences of the act that often leads to stress, anxiety, and the emotional turmoil brought on by the crime. This trauma can torment a victim until it strips them of living a normal existence. In 2014, U.S. residents age 12 or older experienced an estimated 5.4 million violent victimizations and 15.3 million property victimizations, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ (BJS) National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) (Truman & Langton, 2014). It is imperative