Response: You will be expected to provide a thorough researched post and two responses to your classmates.
The main purpose and objectives of the Criminal Investigative Process are to detect crime; locate and identify suspects in crime; locate, document, and preserve evidence in crimes; arrest suspects in crimes; recover stolen property; and prepare sound criminal cases for prosecution. Criminal investigators must know how to utilize their resources, such as witnesses and informants, wisely. They must know how, when, and where to look for evidence. CI's must also be knowledgable about technical advances in evidence collection and preservation in order to best meet the requirements of their duties. They are to gather, document, and evaluate evidence, and in doing so, do their best to meet their objectives. Their overall goal is to see that justice is served; the only way to do that is by collecting and preserving the evidence that a crime has been committed, and any evidence linking the criminal to the crime.
The roots of criminal investigation can be traced far back to eighteenth century England, where there was a period of much social, political and economic change. The National Detective Agency was created and criminal investigation was needed because there was corruption amongst common American police officers, the jurisdiction of sheriffs and municipals was quite limited and there was not a lot of sharing between law enforcement agencies. Overall however, the most fundamental purpose of investigation is to find the truth. This can be done through the process of criminal investigation as well as forensics. The four main objectives in the criminal justice process are to 1) establish that there was a crime, 2) identify and aprehend the suspect, 3) get back stolen items, 4) assist in prosecution of whomever is charged with said crime. Forensics is another very important tool in the criminal justice process, as it uses science to determine what happened. There is the study of dactylography which is the study of fingerprints, which dates back quite a while but is still used today. Something more recent is the ability to use DNA evidence in order to convict people in crimes. If possible, it is highly useful in prosecution.