Investigation of Criminal Homicide and Assualt Question: What are the similarities and differences between the investigation of criminal homicides and the

Investigation of Criminal Homicide and Assualt Question: What are the similarities and differences between the investigation of criminal homicides and the investigation of criminal assaults?I attached my textbook pages, the textbook should be the primary reference source. Crimes
Chapter 8 • Crimes of Violence
HOMICIDE
These assaults include attacks by others, self-inflicted injury, and physical abuse of children.
de attacks on the person that produce death or serious bodily injury.
major crimes against the person. First the crime scene and then the circumstances of the attack
Criminal homicides, from murder to manslaughter, and common and aggravated assault are
Criminal homicide is usually divided by statute into various degrees. First-degree murder
is defined as the premeditated killing of another human being with malice, or wrongful intent. If
the death occurs as the result of the commission of a felony, such as arson, robbery, burglary, or
sexual assault, then the felony murder rule would apply, which makes the killing one of the first
degree regardless of the lack of intent or premeditation. Second-degree murder involves the
killing of another but without the element of premeditation. Manslaughter is defined as the
unlawful killing of another without malice or premeditation either voluntarily or involuntarily.
Voluntary manslaughter involves a killing that is done in the heat of passion. Involuntary
manslaughter is the appropriate charge when the death occurs while the perpetrator was involved
showing
in the commission of an unlawful act not amounting to a felony, such as driving while intoxicated.
The corpus delicti of all criminal homicide comprises the following: An evidentiary
1. of the death of a human being
2.
of a criminal agency
3. that the criminal agency was the proximate cause of the death
The death must be of a human being and must occur within a certain period of time after
the act causing the injury. The time may vary in different jurisdictions from one to three years.
Criminal agency means that the death was caused by another person’s unlawful act or omission.
According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s, Uniform Crime Reporting program,
there were an estimated 16,272 persons murdered nationwide in 2008, a decrease of almost
4 percent from the previous year. The number of persons murdered equates to 5.4 murders per
one hundred thousand inhabitants, the least committed of all violent crimes. Approximately
64 percent of these murders are cleared by arrest or an exceptional clearance, which is the high-
est clearance rate of all crimes.1
“Suspicious Death” Investigation
Police investigators conduct a suspicious death investigation in all cases in which the circum-
stances of the death indicate violence or foul play-that is, some criminal agency; when death
occurs in a place other than the residence of the deceased; or when the deceased is not under the
care of a physician at the time of death. From the preliminary investigation of a suspicious death,
the facts may result in a decision to close the case because death resulted from natural or acci-
dental causes or was a suicide; or a decision may be made to continue the investigation because
the facts disclosed indicate a criminal unjustified or unexcused–homicide.
The suspicious death concept is more than the traditional “foul play is suspected” in which
the circumstances of a death strongly suggest murder. It is a classification of certain unexplained
deaths so that they will be investigated until either the circumstances indicate that death was due
to natural, accidental, or self-inflicted causes or the criminal agency is determined and the
criminal agent is identified.
The autopsy is a major method of detecting murder. This postmortem examination of the
pathologist specializing in this field, who determines the cause of death. If the autopsy surgeon
victim in a suspicious death case is performed by a competent physician, generally a surgeon or
reports that the nature of death is natural, accidental, or suicidal, then the death is not classed as
Part 2. Investigating Major Crimes
4. A
5. S
criminal agency, a criminal homicide has been detected.
a criminal homicide. When the autopsy surgeon’s report states that a death resulted from a
autopsy surgeon as to the cause of death, they can assist such surgeons by supplying information re
Although police investigators can make no contribution to the professional conclusions of an
lated to the means used to cause death. Current prevailing practices in the detection of criminal
homicide have led autopsy surgeons throughout the United States to expect a report from a police
case known to police at that time, including details about the scene of the crime, possible weapons,
investigator before the time of the autopsy that informs the autopsy surgeon of all the facts in the
the perpetrator to the criminal agency that caused death; that is the role of the investigator.
and other matters that relate to the death. The autopsy surgeon does not participate in the linking of
Thus, the detection of criminal homicide is based on finding the answers to four classic
pathol
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questions:
1. What was the cause of death?
2. What were the means (agency) that caused death?
3. Was the homicide excusable or justifiable?
4. Who was responsible for causing death (the agent)?
The autopsy surgeon shoulders the major responsibility in determining the cause of death
whether the agency is criminal, excusable, or justifiable. The police accept sole responsibility for
identifying the person responsible for the killing.
in the
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He or she and the police investigators work together to pinpoint the agency of death and define
1.
2
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
The Autopsy as an Extension of the Crime Scene
In homicide cases, the autopsy performed on the victim is an extension of the crime scene and
offers an additional opportunity to search for clues and evidence useful in the investigation. For
instance, the victim’s body may contain bullets, the suspect’s hairs, and fibers, all of which can
be useful in identifying the perpetrator. This is also true, to a lesser extent, of medical testimony
about examination of the wounds of a victim or injuries that occur in a rape or other sexual as-
sault. The investigator searching the scene and the evidence technician lack the professional
knowledge, skills, and experience of the medical examiner, the pathologist, and the toxicologist.
Therefore, any examination of the victim in homicide cases by the investigator searching the
scene must be a superficial one.
Many coroners and medical examiners consider an examination of the clothing of the
victim to be a segment of the postmortem inquiry and require the same laboratory personnel
processing the vital organs of the deceased to examine the clothing carefully. However, in suspi-
cious death cases, it is the duty of the police investigator to make certain that an examination is
conducted in a police laboratory,
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Medicolegal Laboratory Services
Most local laws governing investigative jurisdiction in cases of suspicious death require that the
coroner or medical examiner be notified promptly and that the body of the victim not be moved
without permission of one of these officials. The basic medicolegal service is to determine
whether a death was caused by criminal agency and to identify the deceased person and the cause
of death.
The report of the postmortem examination contains the autopsy surgeon’s findings.
Following are the five parts of this report:
cause of death)
1. The preamble (date, place, and identity of the deceased and of witnesses to identification
2. External appearance (site, character, and dimensions of any wounds or marks related to the
3. Internal examination (description of brain, spinal column, organs, and contents of body
a
case as a suicide
of death show that someone has a motive, or could have a motive, for murder. An investigation
with the victim’s lifestyle-a fact that must be weighed heavily before closing a suspicious death
The techniques of criminal homicide are similar to accidental causes of death. For exam-
ple
, death can result from a person being pushed out of a high window or from accidentally
falling out of the window. It can also result from a person being shot by another person or acci-
dentally while cleaning a firearm. Death can be caused by another’s plunging a knife into a vital
area or an accidental fall on a bottle driving shards of glass into the same vital area and causing
similar fatal injuries. A fatal dose of poison can be administered by another or can be taken by
mistake. A skull can be crushed with a blunt instrument or can result from falling down a flight
of stairs. 5
Identification of the Victim
In most homicides, identifying the victim is not a problem. He or she is known and can be iden-
tified by relatives and friends. Identifying a victim becomes a problem when death occurs in a
public place, a hotel, or a place other than the domicile of the victim. This is particularly true
when the victim is a member of the large transient population in the United States. Although
homeless men make
up most of the transient population, the drug scene has contributed a great
1s a stranger to the assailant
ASSAULTS
other
An assault is an unlawful attempt, coupled with the present ability, to commit an injury on an-
person. In other words, it is an attempt to commit a battery: an unlawful beating or other
wrongful physical harm inflicted on a human being without his or her consent
.
In assaults, the victim is usually alive and willing to cooperate with investigators. In
many cases, the assailant is known to the victim and the investigation becomes one in which
art 2 . Investigating Major Crimes
the victim, the investigation of assault is closer to a homicide investigation than it is to any
establishing the identity of the perpetrator is not a problem. When the assailant is not known to
other investigation.
Assault without a weapon and in which serious injury is not inflicted on the victim is a
relatively minor crime. Assault with a deadly weapon or an assault in which serious injury is
inflicted with or without a weapon is aggravated assault—a serious crime.
Aggravated assaults are often murder attempts that have failed as a result of the interven-
tion of witnesses, prompt medical treatment, or pure luck. For this reason, the characteristics of
assailants in either crime are likely to be similar.
The term violent injury is synonymous with force in assault cases. It includes any applica-
tion of physical force even if it entails no pain or bodily harm and leaves no marks.
The assault scene must be protected and its integrity preserved. Of course, the victim must
be given first aid and prompt medical attention, if required, and furniture may have to be moved
to care for the victim. The investigating officer at the scene should make note of these changes in
the crime scene, and if the victim is moved from the position he or she was in at the time of the
officer’s arrival, the victim’s original position should be noted.
The crime scene is processed for evidence that will assist in reconstructing the crime and
identifying the participants as the attacker and the victim; witnesses at the scene are interviewed
for the same purpose. The work of investigators at this time concentrates on securing the details
of the attack and of the dispute that led to the attack.
When the victim is seriously injured and requires medical care, the investigating officer
should accompany the assault victim to the hospital. The situation is flexible, but the objective
is to gain as much information as possible from the victim as to the circumstances leading to
the attack, the nature of the attack, and the identity of the attacker. The information provided
by a victim in periods of consciousness after being seriously injured may be compelling
evidence in a future trial. If a victim is in extremis and is aware of impending death, the officer
may secure a dying declaration indicating the victim’s mental condition and the circumstances
of the attack.
If the circumstances warrant, the officer accompanying an assault victim to the hospital
should collect, mark, and retain the victim’s clothing as evidence. Future processing by criminal-
ists may indicate the direction of force in bullet holes and the damage caused by knives or other
sharp instruments, bloodstains and their origin, and similar evidence.
It is particularly important that the weapon or weapons involved in an assault be promptly
identified, recovered, and related to a participant in the assault event. The police search of the
crime scene should disclose the presence of all weapons at the scene at the time of arrival of
police. Interviewing of eyewitnesses should seek disclosure of any weapons used in the attack
but not found at the crime scene.
Generally, this was an altercation-a verbal dispute. The dispute’s origin may range from
Before an assault, the offender and the victim usually have had some interaction.
domestic difficulties to a pushing-and-shoving situation to prove masculinity among drinking
partners. Although intoxication (drugs or alcohol) may not be a factor, the high incidence of
assaults during late evening and early morning hours suggests that many disputes arise during, or
because of, some leisure-time pursuit. Investigators must seek out the details of the dispute in
assault cases to cast some light on the reason for the attack and the roles of both the victim and
the assailant.
Sometimes in the preliminary investigation of an assault case the investigating police
charge both participants with assault or disorderly conduct. Responding police often charge ti
apparent victim (the one most seriously injured) with disturbing the peace until it can be ascer-
tained whether the victim was responsible for the attack upon himself or herself.
Data in assault investigations are usually organized within the following major segments:
1. The Scene. Reconstruction of the assault event
2. Dispute Origin. Place, time, participants
the
its

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