Module 1 discussion
Discussion Question
#1:
In homicide investigation, give your understanding of what
the “teamwork approach” is and who must set the tone for the entire
investigation explaining the importance of this approach. Why is this important?
Discussion Question
#2:
At most homicide scenes, witnesses are present or show up.
Explain your perspective on handling witnesses at the scene when they are
hostile. Be specific.
Module 2 discussion
Discussion Question
#1:
One role of the homicide detective is being called into a
home with sudden death events. Explain how you would approach the parents of a
child that appears to be a SIDS death and what you would need to convey to them
in this emotional situation.
Discussion Question
#2:
Describe the legal considerations of evidence that must be
properly collected and preserved for laboratory examination. Explain how to
establish a command post or temporary headquarters and how this plays into
properly collected evidence.
Module 3 discussion
Discussion Question
#1:
Give your understanding of what a crime scene sketch is and
what is involved in producing one that can help to reconstruct the crime.
Include the “Total Station” program and how it is used as a measuring
instrument at crime scenes. Why is it important
to be extremely accurate in your rendition of the scene?
Discussion Question
#2:
Analyze the reasons behind sending two homicide detectives
to the family of the victim to notify them of the death. What kinds of
information should be provided to the surviving family and why? What possible problems can occur with just
one detective making the notifications?
Module 4 discussion
Discussion Question
#1:
Take some time to describe the “unimpeachable
witness” of the homicide scene including how he or she could be valuable
to the case. Any foreseeable problems?
Discussion Question
#2:
Describe in detail how to put together a Homicide Kit for
processing and how it is used in searching the homicide scene; give the
contents of your Homicide Kit. Why have
you included these items?
Module 5 discussion
Discussion Question
#1:
Begin with the procedures for collecting evidence. Outline
and explain the importance of the four primary qualifications of physical
evidence that must be met in order for it to be admissible in a trial.
Discussion Question
#2:
What is Locard’s Exchange Principle and why is it important?
Module 6 discussion
Discussion Question
#1:
Evaluate the differences between: (1) the cause of death,
(2) the manner of death, and (3) the mode of death. If you were a homicide
investigator, which would be most important to you? Why?
Discussion Question
#2:
This chapter shows a number of disturbing crime scene
photographs. How would you prepare
yourself to enter a crime scene before knowing what might be inside?
Module 7 discussion
Discussion Question
#1:
The five stages of grief in death and dying according to
Elizabeth Kubler-Ross and other experts are listed below. After studying these
stages from your text, write how you believe a homicide investigator should
handle the surviving victim’s husband (who very much loved the victim) and who
was himself beaten but left alive to witness his wife killed in front of him by
the carjacker.
– Denial
– Protest or Anger
– Despair
– Detachment
– Reconstruction of Life
Discussion Question
#2:
Decide how to guide the family through the criminal justice
system knowing that many survivors experience outrage as the homicide case
progresses that seems to favor the rights of the suspect while ignoring those
of the victim.
Module 8 discussion
Discussion Question
#1:
In more recent history, the involvement of sexual asphyxia
and the autoerotic death has confronted the homicide detective. Write about the
many ways as given in the text of how an officer can determine the evidence in
these types of death.
Discussion Question
#2:
Have we seen an increase in this type of death cases? If so, why?
Module 1 assignment
This week you will reflect upon “First Officer’s Duties
(General and Specific)” and answer the following questions:
Discuss how to implement crime scene procedures (preserve
and protect the scene, indoors, outdoors, the buried body situation) and
determine what areas are to be included or excluded from the crime scene.
Describe how a homicide detective is able to follow the
preliminary investigation of a death and how he or she systematically checks
and reviews all the facts applicable to the investigation.
In this essay, ascertain the duties of the detective
supervisor on arrival at the scene and the use of an assignment sheet for
organization. Include at least three reasons for preliminary note taking.
Module 2 assignment
This week you will reflect upon the “Preliminary
Investigation at the Scene: The Detectives” and answer the following questions:
Explain how your would conduct a homicide crime scene search
that includes dusting for fingerprints, making sketches when a photograph will
not suffice, and process evidence with specific control procedures. Include the
various methods of obtaining measurements to record in your sketches and what
the “Total Station” crime scene reconstruction program is.
Document what a thorough examination of a body entails, as
well as, providing descriptions of the clothing (if any) and all the personal
items or weapon items found.
In this essay, analyze and explain the following three
situations:
– Why is the isolation of the suspect encountered at the
scene necessary?
– Why do you search the suspect right away?
– What sorts of questions do you ask witnesses about the suspect?
Module 3 assignment
This week you will reflect upon the “Specific Investigative
Duties at the Scene” and answer the following questions:
Write about the steps involved in conducting victim
identification at the crime scene through photography, videotaping, and
sketching. In your essay, resolve the issues involved in the admissibility of
photographic evidence.
Explain the four areas where homicide photography and
videography are done and the types of film needed in each location. Give
insight into the practical application of crime scene photography.
Module 4 assignment
This week you will reflect upon the “Documentation of a
Crime Scene through Photographs and Sketches” and answer the following
questions:
Define the four methods of crime scene search (spiral,
wheel, grid, and zone).
– Which of the four is considered the best procedure and
why?
– Determine the reasoning behind the use of each method.
In determining the time of death, write about the bodily
changes after death that are to be looked for and what some possible external
agents of change could affect the body after death that would impact the time
of death.
Express how to physically examine a suspect in custody and
restrain him or her from contaminating the scene or destroying the value of any
evidence. Include the universal precautions of infection control techniques
officers should use in examining suspects.
Module 5 assignment
This week you will reflect upon the “Homicide Crime Scene
Search” and answer the following questions:
Answer the questions of evidence collection in your essay:
What type of evidence is collected? How do I collect body materials? What kinds
of objects should not be overlooked as evidence? How are impressions collected
and preserved?
The United States Supreme Court has rendered three major
decisions that require police to obtain a search warrant to search a location
where the suspect and the deceased share a proprietary right to the
premises. What are those three major decisions
and why are they significant?
Module 6 assignment
This week you will reflect upon the “Estimation of the Time
of Death” and answer the following questions:
Express what you have been taught about the application of
facial reconstruction in homicides, forensic odontology, and forensic sculpture
techniques-what they are and how each one are used to determine victim
identity. Explain how these methods are received or not received in a court of
law.
List and describe the only categories of death that can be
investigated and certified by the chief medical examiner (ME) or coroner. Give
your findings for why the ME would be limited to these categories.
Module 7 assignment
This week you will reflect upon “The Identity of the
Deceased and Death Notifications” and answer the following question:
As the detective in a car-jacking case where the wife was
murdered and the husband escaped, you have to return to the victim’s husband to
tie up loose ends and update the case with information that your department has
probably located the killer. It has been a while since your last visit but he
is still in tears and seems hopelessly lost. He was a victim and an eyewitness.
Explain the stage of grief he is probably in and how you would deal with that
in order to get the information you need and move on with your case.
On the other side, it is now four months after the
carjacking and you have to contact the carjacker’s wife who is going to hear
about the death of her husband who “committed suicide-by-cop” after
he was cornered. How will you handle this situation? Describe the death
notification.
In this essay, write how the homicide detective provides (a
homosexual victim caught in embarrassing circumstances) the victim’s family
with the information relative to the circumstances of the death and the
progress of the investigation. Explain how to notify the survivors by answering
all their questions tactfully and honestly without jeopardizing the criminal
investigation.
Module 8 assignment
This week you will reflect upon the “Modes of Death” and
answer the following question using detailed essays:
The homicide detective is familiar with the manner, means,
and mode of the eight most common kinds of death. Explain your understanding of
these areas.
For this question, identify in writing the nature and extent
of gunshot wounds and the characteristics of the wounds such as:
searing,
reentry,
ricocheting,
the bullet track,
stippling
Describe each one and how they are inflicted.
Compare and contrast the following modes by telling of their
characteristics in cause of death:
– A cutting wound
– A stabbing wound
– Death by asphyxia
– Death by arson
