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The purpose of this paper is to identify and discuss key risk factors in the use of forensic science in the criminal justice system by adopting a holistic and systemic approach that examines the collection and use of forensic evidence from crime scene to court.

The research on which the paper is based was a mixed-method five-year study of the effectiveness of forensic science in the criminal justice system in Australia using qualitative and quantitative methods. The paper draws on the in-depth analysis of qualitative data from 11 case studies of investigations of serious crime to identify key risk factors in the use of forensic science from crime scene to court.

Six key risk factors in the forensic process from crime scene to court are identified: low level of forensic awareness among first responders; crime scene examiners (CSEs) as technicians rather than professionals; inefficient and/or ineffective laboratory processes; limited forensic literacy among key actors in the criminal justice system; poor communication between key actors in the criminal justice system; and, financial resources not directed at the front end of the forensic process. Overall the findings demonstrate that forensic science is not well embedded in the criminal justice system.

The paper suggests that the risks inherent in the current practice of forensic science in the criminal justice system can be reduced dramatically through: forensic awareness training among first responders; the professionalisation of CSEs; continued improvements in efficiency and effectiveness at the laboratory with a focus on timeliness and quality; greater forensic literacy among actors in the criminal justice system; appropriate avenues of communication between agencies, practitioners and policymakers in the criminal justice system; and increased allocation of resources to the front end of the forensic process.

By adopting a holistic, systemic approach to the analysis of forensic science in the criminal justice system, and identifying inherent risks in the system, this paper contributes to the emerging body of research on the social processes that impact on the effectiveness of forensic science.

Sexual assault investigations present uniquely challenging circumstances to detectives, and a small proportion result in arrest. Improving sexual assault investigations requires expanding the evidence base to improve our understanding of how these investigations unfold and the factors associated with positive case outcomes, including the likelihood that an offender is arrested.

The authors abstracted data on 491 adult sexual assaults investigated by five large and midsized law enforcement agencies to describe the characteristics of sexual assault investigations and to explain the relationships between these characteristics and the likelihood that a suspect is arrested.

Overall, detectives move swiftly to investigate sexual assaults but tend to miss investigative opportunities that increase the likelihood of an arrest, like locating and processing the crime scene or pursuing interviews with key witnesses and leads. Sexual assaults typically lack physical evidence that can be used to identify and lead to an arrest of a suspected offender; when this evidence is present, the case is more likely to result in an arrest. Delayed reporting of the crime to law enforcement decreases the likelihood of a suspect being arrested, but the mechanisms are unclear.

Few studies have used a detailed data abstraction process for a large sample of cases from multiple law enforcement agencies to understand sexual assault investigations and their case outcomes. The results can improve practitioners' and researchers' understanding of sexual assault investigations, including those factors that increase the likelihood of a suspect's arrest.

The purpose of this study is to determine the contribution of expert reports, which were prepared as a result of examining the evidence sent to Istanbul Criminal Laboratory, to the conclusion of judicial cases of burglary, homicide, and wounding in the provinces of Marmara Region between the years 2004‐2005.

In this research, 6,249 judicial cases (murder, wounding, burglary) that occurred within the borders of Marmara Region during 2004‐2005 and were submitted to Istanbul Criminal Police Laboratory (KPL) have been subjected to evaluation according to the years (2004, 2005), the type of the case (murder, wounding, or burglary), whether any sexual assaults also occurred, the existence of the biological evidence (blood, saliva, skin residue, hair, tissue, semen, blood and similar biological material), and the conclusion of cases.

When analyzing the crime types, it was seen that wounding and burglary were committed the most, respectively in 2004 and 2005. Out of total committed crimes in this period, homicide held the lowest percentage. The most evaluated biological evidence was blood. Sexual assaults realized together with violent crimes were on an average of 0.8 percent. By analyzing the biological evidence, the success in identifying the perpetrators of the cases was only 16 percent, which has to be evaluated carefully.

Finding evidence at the crime scene and its proper investigation and submission to courts are extremely important. From this aspect, the expert reports of the Criminal Laboratories have an important level of impact on the conclusion of the cases. Commencing with the evidence collected from homicide, wounding and burglary crimes, which were committed in Marmara Region, it is necessary to evaluate the current situation and offer proposals for increasing its effectiveness.

All societies in the modern world are troubled by crime, and the general public is equally fascinated by criminals and fearful of criminal behaviour. In the United Kingdom, events such as the murders of Jack the Ripper, the Yorkshire Ripper and Harold Shipman, and the Soham tragedy, coupled with film and television programmes including Silence of the Lambs, Cracker and Crime Scene Investigation, have fuelled the public's consciousness of the criminal mind.In the fight against crime, the development of offender profiling by the FBI in the USA has further captured people's imagination. The technique was introduced to help law enforcement agencies solve serious crimes such as serial rape or murder, and to a lesser extent arson and property crime. At the heart of profiling lies the belief that by combining psychological principles with crime scene analysis, it is possible to identify the likely characteristics of a perpetrator.Although advances in crime detection are welcomed, the profiling field appears riddled with contradiction and disagreement. Social scientists argue that the discipline is unscientific due to methodologically weak research, while police officers appear sceptical about its benefits for solving crime. In Britain, profiling has witnessed both notable successes, for example Canter's profile of the serial rapist and murderer John Duffy, and dramatic failures, such as the Colin Stagg profile in the Rachel Nickell inquiry. This article reviews the offender profiling literature, examines its applicability in the legal system and identifies areas for future research.

Cyber technology is an extremely complicated field and the internet is being increasingly used as a place to commit crimes using personal computers, as well as network‐based computers. Although cyber investigation is still in the early stages of its development, the burgeoning use of the internet has increased the necessity for digital investigations. The purpose of this paper is to increase awareness of the latest in digital comparison for cyber‐crime investigation with the studies of IP‐address and time in computer systems.

The approach to improving a cyber‐crime investigation is proposed in three stages: independent verification of digital clues, corresponding information from different sources, and preparation of a valid argument.

If the police and other authorities do not stay on top of this problem, they may lose the battle to control this cyber‐crime explosion. The paper discusses how Taiwanese police investigate cyber‐crime and the experience is able to propagate when analyzing IP‐address and time with crime‐case. It is believed that this proposed approach creates a comprehensive guide that provides support and assistance to crime investigators.

IP‐address and time, both indicated in this paper, are the key ingredients to identify the suspect in the beginning of investigation works. As the study shows: there is no guarantee that there always will be the “right” evidence to prove everything; investigators should try their utmost to avoid making mistakes; criminal investigators must find additional clues and proof to validate their suspicions.

This paper illustrates an approach to the investigation of cyber‐crime in the case of studying IP‐address and time. It is believed that the research can efficiently assist law enforcement officials in dealing with ever‐increasing cyber‐crime by using effective digital evidence.

The purpose of this paper is to compare the employee well-being of police officers in different investigative groups. This paper analyses crime investigators’ employee well-being from four perspectives: organisational commitment, job satisfaction, exhaustion and turnover intentions.

The analysis is based on Finnish Police Personal Survey data (n=6,698), and qualitative and quantitative analysis methods are utilised.

Significant differences between investigative groups were found, and the police officers working in short-term investigations had the lowest level of well-being. The qualitative results revealed the employee- and organisational-level reasons behind these attitudes. One major issue is the lack of meaningfulness in work as the respondents describe their jobs as boring and monotonous and report that they do not have the appropriate resources to do their work as well as they wish.

To enhance the well-being of the investigators, police forces should improve the ways of leadership and invest more resources especially on short-term investigation to diminish the insecurity and ensure the quality and continuity of the work.

Research on the well-being of police officers has mostly focused on officers conducting surveillance or emergency operations, and there is very little knowledge of the well-being of crime investigators. This research adds to the limited knowledge on employee well-being of crime investigators.

In today's society with concern for crime and violence increasing and court television and celebrity trials bringing the criminal justice system, courtroom procedures, and rules of evidence into our living rooms, there is an increased need for reliable information about issues that are the core of forensic science: crime scene investigation and the collection and scientific analysis of physical evidence used in trials.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the value shop configuration in police service for a criminal case.

An evaluation of a criminal case is presented.

It took Norwegian police 32 years to capture the Pocket Man who was responsible for more than 100 sexual abuses of boys over that same time period. Primary activities in the value shop applied to the case are: problem definition; investigation steps; investigation approach decision; investigation implementation; and police performance evaluation.

Based on an actual crime case, value configuration analysis demonstrates substantial potential in future policings.

As a result of advances in DNA and other forensic technologies, police agencies are showing increased interest in cold-case investigations, with larger departments dedicating staff to conducting these investigations or forming cold-case squads. The purpose of this paper is to provide information on how police agencies organize and conduct cold-case investigations.

To assess the current practices used in cold-case investigations, an exploratory survey was sent to a stratified random sample of police agencies across the US survey findings are based on 1,051 returns.

Results include the following. Most agencies do little cold-case work, with only 20 percent having a protocol for initiating cold-case investigations, 10 percent having dedicated cold-case investigators, and 7 percent having a formal cold-case unit. Cold-case funding is tenuous: 20 percent of cold-case work is funded through line items in the budget, with most funded by grants or supplemental funds. Success rates for cold-case investigations are low: about one in five cases are cleared. Agency factors associated with higher clearance rates included level of funding and access to investigative databases.

As new forensic tools are developed, cold-case investigations will become an increasingly prominent activity of criminal investigation units. The survey reported on in this paper gives the first glimpse of how agencies are handling these cases.

To the knowledge, there are no other empirical studies on how agencies structure and conduct cold-case investigations.

Little empirical research exists regarding how local law enforcement has responded to cybercrime. This paper aims to understand: the law enforcement agencies that line officers believe should be primarily responsible for investigating cybercrime cases; their perceptions about their agency's current ability to respond to these offenses; and their beliefs regarding the best ways to improve the social response to cybercrime.

The authors surveyed patrol officers in the Charlotte‐Mecklenburg and Savannah‐Chatham Metropolitan police departments.

The authors found that officers do not believe that local law enforcement should be primarily responsible for handling cybercrime cases and they have little information on how upper management is addressing cybercrime. Officers indicated that the best strategies to deal with cybercrime were greater care taken by citizens online and improvements to the legal system.

Local law enforcement agencies feel they are unable to fully address cybercrime. Although the findings were generally consistent across demographic and experiential characteristics and cities, two cities in the southeastern United States were surveyed.

According to these officers, they want citizens to be more careful online and for clarification of cybercrime laws and increased prosecutions. They do not favor local cybercrime units and additional computer training for line officers as much as scholars and police administrators advocate.

This paper studied the perceptions of patrol officers, who are the first responders to most crime scenes, on local law enforcement responses to cybercrime and the strategies they view to be most effective in combating cybercrime.