Sunday, September 30, 2012

Blog #6: Second Interview

Second Interview Questions

1. How long have you been involved in criminal investigation?

2. How many different roles have you had in the investigative process and what have they been?

3. What is the most important thing you have learned from your years in criminal investigation?

4. What made you want to get involved in criminal investigation?

5. What do you feel is the most important achievement you've accomplished in this field?

Monday, September 24, 2012

Blog #4: Project Reflection and Working EQ

The Pentagon:

1. The most positive thing that has happened thus far because of my senior project has just been my insight into the criminal justice field. I have gotten to see how criminal investigation really works as opposed to what we are shown by the media. I also have an understanding of how extensive an investigation is. From the responding officer to the DA who prosecutes, many people are involved.

2. My interview helped me better understand my topic because he told me what I might want to major in later to help me do better in this field as well as narrow down what profession i really want in the investigative process.

3. What has worked for me best in my project is the amount of people willing to answer questions I have about this field. Many police stations have community outreach so that they can keep the public informed of them. Almost everyone I have talked to in this field has been very open about wanting to inform me about what it is they do.

4. The thing that hasn't worked so well is the volunteer hours because many officers are reluctant to let volunteers get too close to real police work because of the dangers.

5. By the end of senior year I hope to know exactly what profession in the Criminal Investigation I want to pursue. Since so many are involved in each investigation, i would like to know exactly which step in the investigation I want to be a part of. I would like to talk to the District Attorneys that work with the police departments so that I can follow the legal side of the investigative process. I want to know what mindset I would have to obtain to be a successful criminal investigator.

a) What should I keep in mind while investigating?
b) How to I show all of the different skills needed to solve an investigation?
c) Which step of the investigation process should I focus the most on?

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Blog #5a: Problem Statement

1. Topic: Criminal Investigation

2. a) One problem involved in this topic is evidence contamination. When collecting evidence from a crime scene, the investigators sometimes contaminate the evidence or miss something completely.

b) I would hope to take any common mistakes that people would make while collecting evidence and apply it towards making evidence collection more efficient and thus the entire investigation process.

3. a) A big problem during the investigative process is the interrogation step. When questioning someone involved in an investigation, there is always a possibility for them to give you false information or just refuse to cooperate.

b) With information learned from solving this problem, I hope to make the step of interrogating someone involved in a crime a much simpler, more reliable step.

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Blog #3: Interview Preparation

1. For my first interview, I plan to talk to Angie Wilkinson, my summer mentor. She is a field sergeant with the Walnut Sheriff's station and has been involved with law enforcement for about 30 years. She is very knowledgeable on the topic and knows many people involved in the process of criminal investigation.

2.
- Who else would you recommend I talk to?
- What do you typically look for when investigating any crime?
- What about law enforcement appealed to you?
- Explain the process that is taken when a crime has occurred and there are no suspects.

Friday, September 7, 2012

Blog #2: Topic Choice


My topic is criminal investigation and, in all honesty, I'm not completely sure what caused me to chose this topic. It is just something that I've been interested in to understand the reasons behind people's actions. When something bad happens, I want to be able to understand how and why something like that happened. Understanding why some people do things that others know to be wrong is an important step in understanding all humans and how we think.


Learner: I plan to interview and learn from different people in the criminal investigative field. I want to gain as much knowledge of the criminal investigative and justice process. By learning about each step from the initial evidence gathering up to the prosecution, I hope to gain a great understanding of how to best prevent crime

Communicator: In all steps of the criminal investigative process, you are required to work with others. During an investigation, items such as evidence and testimonies change hands a lot and you are required to communicate with different departments to ensure that no evidence is compromised. When certain crimes cross jurisdictions or qualify as several offenses, then you must be able to coordinate with various people to ensure the investigation is handled properly.

Technology: When investigating crimes, you have to be able to keep up with the latest technology to make collecting evidence easier and moe efficient. From collecting DNA samples to comparing fingerprints, investigating crimes requires a steady understanding of technology and its applications to narrowing down suspects.

iPoly citizen: When investigating crimes, you try to hold the public's interest above all else. Investigating essentially requires people to bring their different insights to a problem and solve it with their combined knowledge. I would look at any problem I face from all sides much like an investigator would.

Sunday, September 2, 2012

Blog #1: Summer Mentorship Component

Assignment:

Literal (Know): 

- 10 hour Mentorship Log (w/ contact info)


Literal (Need to Know):

  • What traits are necessary in identifying crime?
  • What is the most important thing to consider in responding to crime? 
  • Which profession can make the biggest difference in preventing crime?
  • How much does one have to understand the criminal mind in order to help stop it?
  • Which steps taken while stopping a crime affect the final prosecution? 


Interpretive:


While this wasn't exactly the profession I wanted to shadow for my topic, this experience gave me valuable information and insight into the criminal justice field. I learned about the real day-to-day duties of a police officer as well as what is required of them back at the station. I gained a good, beginners insight into the criminal justice field. 

Applied:


After completing my mentorship component, I realized that my topic idea wasn't specific enough when I started. I knew that I wanted to do something that involved understanding the criminal mind, but I wasn't nearly specific enough. I know that I wouldn't want to do my topic solely on police work, but I do plan to take what I learned about understanding crime from my volunteer hours and apply it towards my topic. Completing these hours just put me in the right direction for my topic and now I know for sure that I want to pursue a topic more geared towards criminal law.