Police Detectives Research Articles

Chicago Police Torture and the Limits of Human Rights Enforcement in Liberal Democracies

From 1972 to 1991, a network of Chicago Police detectives used torture to force confessions from over 100 criminal suspects. Almost all were Black men, and many were wrongly convicted, some for capital offenses. I synthesize insights from comparative research on human rights, state abuse, and police violence in democracies to explain why, for nearly two decades, liberal institutions in Chicago failed to stop the torture. I argue that the nature of state violence in this case—targeting marginalized individuals uninvolved in political activity—intensified the practical, affective, and informational obstacles that are inherent to activating liberal institutions—courts, elected officials, media, and civil society—to fulfill their roles as rights enforcers. Applying these literatures to a type of case they typically overlook—a wealthy liberal democracy—contributes to understanding why state violence persists in such states and why it tends to concentrate on marginalized populations.

Joint enterprise in England and Wales: why problems persist despite legal change

ABSTRACT The law in England and Wales (as in Australia and other jurisdictions) enables a person to be convicted of an offence committed by another using complicity liability, sometimes termed ‘joint enterprise’. In England and Wales, 'joint enterprise' has been widely criticised for: failing to distinguish between the moral and legal culpability of the person who commits the substantive offence and those on the periphery of it; being disproportionality applied in cases involving young men from black and mixed ethnic backgrounds; and for lacking legal legitimacy. Thus, it was hoped that the decision of the Supreme Court in England and Wales in 2016 to abolish the extended form of complicity liability, known as Parasitic Accessorial Liability (PAL), would resolve these issues. Reporting on interviews with police detectives, and prosecution and defence lawyers in England involved in cases of serious youth violence, this paper argues that the problems associated with ‘joint enterprise’ in England and Wales remain, despite the change in the law. This is due to there being only ‘subtle shift’ in practice and a continued reliance on racialised inferences about young men from black and mixed ethnic backgrounds. To reduce problems with disproportionality and improve the fairness of the law related to complicity liability, changes to police and prosecutorial practice are required, alongside meaningful law reform.

Unpacking Police Endorsement of Myths Surrounding Intimate Partner Violence Against Women: Formation and Implications.

Drawing on a qualitative case study consisting of interviews with Danish police trainees, patrol officers, and police detectives, this article explores police endorsement of myths surrounding male-perpetrated intimate partner violence against women (IPVAW) and its influence on police response to IPVAW incidents. The findings show that police officers begin to believe in the myths to cope with negative emotions arising from repeated exposure to IPVAW victims, who do not behave according to expected norms of being cooperative, responsible, and innocent. This makes police officers meet victims with skepticism, low spirit, and hopelessness, making them refrain from initiating further criminal investigations, opening criminal cases, and pursuing arrests.

Application of Elements of Criminal Acts of Plantation Land Clearing in National Park Areas by Investigators of the South Coast Police Crime Squad

The South Coast Police Crime Squad conducted an investigation into the crime of carrying out plantation activities without ministerial permission in forest areas. The difficulty of the South Coast Police Detective Investigator is to implement 'Elements in forest areas'. This happened because of the unclear boundaries of the National Park forest area. In the investigation process, the Investigator applied the provisions of Article 17 paragraph (2) letter b Juncto Article 92 paragraph (1) letter a of Law Number 18 of 2013 concerning the Prevention and Eradication of Forest Destruction as Police Report Number: LP/25/A/II/2019/ Res-Pessel dated February 12, 2019. The application of the elements of the criminal act of clearing plantation land in the National Park area consists of subjective elements and objective elements. The subjective element is a person, then what is meant by everyone in this article is the perpetrator as a person who can account for his actions and the objective element is that his actions are unlawful, namely: "Elements intentionally, elements carrying out plantation activities, elements without the permission of the Minister and elements dnature forest area". According to investigators, the suspect's actions have fulfilled the formulation and elements of Article 17 paragraph (2) letter b Juncto Article 92 paragraph (1) letter a of Law Number 18 of 2013.

Figuring Tough Subjects: Vague Labor and Narratorial Detection in Bleak House

ABSTRACT This article examines Dickens’s Bleak House alongside the history of crossing-sweeping, a species of “vague” labor whose variable duties frustrated practices of Foucauldian discipline inside and outside Victorian novels. To depict this labor, the article argues, Dickens’s novel makes use of the flexible mechanisms of social management Foucault calls “security,” and, more specifically, the aesthetic infrastructure of these mechanisms, a regime of representation the essay terms “figural.” This regime mobilizes “typical” personae, like “the crossing-sweeper” and “the nervous woman,” to represent and regulate ungraspable groups. These vaguely formulated figures, the article shows, “problematize” those persons who resemble them, making them objects of action within relevant dispositifs (e.g., health, criminality, sexuality). By recounting the figural pursuits of his crossing-sweeper (Jo) by a police detective (Inspector Bucket), other professionals, and laypeople, Dickens ironizes the use of figures, exposing figures’ typifying effects and the absurd presumptions of “narratorial” omniscience they license. In turn, Dickens illuminates the violent abstractions effected by the agencies that deploy figures to regulate social vagueness. By moving between figures’ police-effects and figural policing, this article expands the history of police detection to include its participation in regimes of representation and traces the figural interventions central to the novel form.

Child Sexual Abuse in Nigeria: Exploring Vulnerability and Prevention from a Policing Perspective

To date, literature on vulnerabilities of children and prevention of child sexual abuse (CSA) has relied on the contributions of child-care professionals, health practitioners, and other social workers, excluding police officers. The purpose of this study is to draw on the experiences and expert opinions of police officers in exploring the vulnerabilities of children to sexual abuse and prescribing preventive measures. Officers’ engagement is premised on their collaborative work with social service agents in improving responses to crimes of violence against children. This qualitative study was conducted with 24 police detectives of the sexual offenses units in the six zonal police commands of southwest Nigeria. From the thematic analysis of their narratives, findings indicated a link between socio-cultural and religious beliefs and children’s exposure to sexual abuse. Participants indicated believe that there is a growing number of men who are preferentially or solely sexually attracted to prepubescent females. In addressing CSA, participants suggested a specialist approach to policing CSA, abolition of child marriage, community engagement in CSA policing, and legal instrumentations to govern socio-cultural practices. The study invite research that triangulates the perspectives of parents, community elders, and religious leaders in communities where considerable incidents of CSA have been reported.

Utilization Of Restorative Justice In The Handling Of Child Crimes From The Perspective Of Utilities Theory

In essence, everyone who commits a crime will face legal consequences, even minors. Although restorative justice policies and procedures for juvenile offenders have been developed, they have not yet been fully put into practice. The truth is that not all police detectives at the regional sector level comprehend how to use restorative justice to resolve juvenile criminal cases. The purpose of this study is to comprehend and evaluate the paradigm of restorative justice for juvenile offenders from a utility theory standpoint. The difficulties in applying restorative justice to juvenile offenders at the police level are also examined in this study. This study is a normative, legal, descriptive, and analytical study. Secondary data were used in this study, and they were gathered by employing library research techniques. A qualitative method is used in data analysis. The study's findings demonstrate that applying restorative justice to kids who break the law is essentially protecting kids from the law itself, with the goal that kids will still be protected even when mistakes are made. The use of restorative justice is a type of legal benefit from the standpoint of legal advantages. The community benefits from the law that has been created by the government, including both those who are criminals and those who are among their victims. In other words, the law is not only created to punish, but also to protect, advance the law, and benefit society. Second, that barriers to the use of restorative justice can be divided into two categories: internal barriers arising from the juvenile offenders and external barriers in the form of community environmental barriers, family barriers, juvenile officer barriers, and juvenile mediator barriers.

Extent of Forensic Practices of Police Investigators: A Basis for Enhancement Plan

In criminal investigations, the Directorate for Investigation and Detective Management – Police investigators are required by Philippine National Police orders to conduct forensic science-based crime scene investigations. In order to ensure that every government employee adheres to the accepted belief that public office is a public trust, it is challenging to assess the work of police detectives performing crime scene investigations using forensic technology. This essential value of forensic science in police investigations is undeniable. This study discusses the scope of police forensic methods in ballistics, photography, and dactyloscopy, specifically in the Province of Antique. These issues regarding the scope of practices in conducting investigations and forensic examinations are expressed via a survey questionnaire and a series of statistical tests. In addition, the report outlines the difficulties experienced by these Philippine National Police investigators. The results of the study found that police investigators had a high level of forensic experience with ballistics and photography. Further, results revealed low level of forensic experience with dactyloscopy.. Therefore, Police investigators, among many solutions, may consider the following to be of great help: 1-attending relevant seminars and trainings involving dactyloscopy, and 2- specifying budget allocation for lacking equipment.

Not if – but how – to defund the police: Response to our critics

Not if – but how – to defund the police: Response to our critics

Signs of a police detective in Jamshid Amirov's novel “Diamond Issue” and Kemel Tokayev's short story “Marked Gold”

Signs of a police detective in Jamshid Amirov's novel “Diamond Issue” and Kemel Tokayev's short story “Marked Gold”

The Curious Case of Juhan Paju and a Fortunate Choice of Pop Lit over Poetry

"This essay proposes a study of the poetics and local generic context of the work of Juhan Paju (1939–2003), arguably one of the very few original Estonian crime writers emerged from the twentieth century. The focus is on five of his novels centred on investigations led by Toivo Kivistik, a small-town police detective. The series is set in the last decades of the twentieth and the early years of the twenty-first century. This tumultuous period in local history has provided rich material for socially relevant themes. Paju’s work is original in treating this material, but also in his experiments with generic conventions, which he progressively adapts to his own talent and to the local context."

E-docket system for improved administration and justice delivery in selected Limpopo province police stations

This article analyses the factors considered as potential enablers of and hindrances to an optimal implementation of an e-docket system to improve dockets administration and justice delivery in selected police stations of the Limpopo province, South Africa. In the Criminal Justice System, of which the South African Police Service (SAPS) is an integral part, officials often struggle to conclude criminal cases because poor records management makes it possible for criminal officials to tamper with dockets or steal dockets usually managed manually in police stations. This study adopted a survey research design based on a quantitative research approach, with the use of questionnaires to collect data from police detectives in Limpopo police stations. One hundred questionnaires were distributed to collect data from the target population in six participating police stations, and 65 questionnaires were returned. The study identified some enablers of and significant hindrances to the implementation of the e-docket system called Integrated Case Docket Management System (ICDMS). On the positive side, the e-docket system enabled 24-hour access to and tracking of e-dockets, among others. However, many police officers had limited digital training and skills, which inhibited effectiveness and efficiency of the e-docket system. ICT tools were inadequate, resulting in frequently unavailable and slow network connectivity. These hindrances in Limpopo police stations negatively affected records management and justice delivery. To gain full return on investment in an effective e-docket system, the study recommended that top management support foster an enabling environment that reskills police officers and provides technical support for an optimal operation of an e-docket system for electronic records management.

You don’t know: knowledge as supportive alibi evidence

Until now, supportive evidence for alibis has been conceptualised into two distinct types: witness and physical evidence. The present study examined whether knowledge, as a third type of supportive evidence, can contribute to the understanding of evidence for alibis. Three experiments were conducted in which police detectives, laypersons and undergraduate students were asked to evaluate four alibis with witness, physical or knowledge supportive evidence, or with no supportive evidence. The results from the three experiments show that knowledge evidence is equally believable as strong witness evidence. We also found that not all items of strong physical evidence are evaluated as equally strong and believable. We therefore suggest adjusting the criteria to determine the strength of physical evidence and conducting more research on knowledge evidence.

Inclusion Capital: How Police Officers Are Included in Their Workplaces

Policing organisations are increasingly expected to be representative of the diversity (e.g., gender, sexuality, ethnicity and religion) in the communities they serve. However, inclusion of these officers in the workplace often requires them to fit into prevailing police culture, meaning that the cultural changes expected in association with increased diversity are not achieved as readily in police organisations. Drawing upon semi-structured interviews with twenty police detectives, in this article, I assert that there are three core characteristics required of police officers needed to promote inclusion and acceptance in their workplace, regardless of their diversity status. These characteristics are cultural congruence, competence and team-player ability—together known as ‘inclusion capital’. The definitions of these three inclusion capital characteristics are shaped by the prevailing police culture and organisational policy and are subject to change. An individual officer’s understanding and ability to prove these three characteristics are reflected in how well they are included and accepted amongst their colleagues. This paper contributes to previous findings on police culture using Bourdieu’s theories of ‘capital’ in a new way to explain how and why police are included in their workplace. It also describes how these findings might be used by police managers to improve workplace inclusion for all minoritised officers.

THE FORMULA OF AGATHA CHRISTIE’S DETECTIVE STORY THE THIRD-FLOOR FLAT

Abstract
 This research aims to explain the detective formula as portrayed in Agatha Christie’s The Third-Floor Flat short story and the techniques that are employed to maintain the suspense by using Cawelti’s formula theory. Cawelti explains there are four aspects of the classic detective’s formula: situation, the pattern of action, character and their relation, and setting. This research is descriptive qualitative research. The formulas of detective stories exist in The Third-Floor Flat. The plot goes straight on the definite formula: the preliminaries, birth of the plot, intentional misleading, the crime, grouping for the murderer by the police, friends, relatives, and amateur detective, failure of everybody, detective’s announcement of facts and proof. The author used some techniques such as the whodunit, metaphor, foreshadowing, and fake devices to maintain the suspense.

How Do Investigation Experiences Shape Views of the Police? Qualitatively Exploring Sexual Assault Survivors’ Interactions With Police Detectives and Subsequent Views of the Police

Little attention has been paid to views of the police among sexual assault survivors. Understanding views of the police among a large population of crime victims who have historically been silenced and mistreated by our criminal-legal system can help inform recent and ongoing conversations about police funding and criminal justice reform. Qualitative interview data from a community sample of sexual assault survivors explored how police-detective interactions during sexual assault investigations shape views of the police. Negative interactions led to negative views of the police and for some were based on a culmination of positive and negative experiences. I share recommendations for responding to sexual assault that consider sexual assault survivors’ experiences with and views of the police.

POLICING FORENSIC EVIDENCE

POLICING FORENSIC EVIDENCE

Exploration on what constitutes an effective detective in South Africa

The purpose of this article is to contribute to the knowledge on the police detective's work practices, and account on how police general detectives view their performance and understanding regarding what skills needed to handle variety of general cases in their line of duty. The research question that directed this study is what constitutes an effective general police detective? To address this question, this study followed a qualitative ethnographic methodology with fifteen (15) general detectives. Social constructivism, utilising a purposive sampling was deemed appropriate for the nature of this study. The results produced four (4) themes that indicate that detectives' sensemaking of casework take place through two (2) principal practices: a concluding practice and supporting practice. Furthermore, the findings show that detectives' work is highly social and procedural. This suggests that detectives' work practice is of a social nature and that contacts between police investigators or detectives are important to take into account in the organisation of an investigative department.

‘Rorting the System’: Police Detectives, Diversity, and Workplace Advantage

Internal workplace practices and policies in policing are based on a notion of fairness and equal opportunity. Yet police organizations are frequently criticized for discriminatory policing practices, unfair and biased workplace practices, and poor interpersonal treatment of officers. Whilst there is a wide body of research examining diversity in relation to external police practices, there is a lack of knowledge regarding diversity and internal workplace practices; particularly from the perspective of police detectives who often have more substantial policing experience and longer employment histories than other non-commissioned officers. Contributing new findings to the extant policing literature, this research analyzes data collected from interviews with twenty police detectives working in one of the largest Australian police organizations. It suggests that police detectives in this study have negative perceptions of diversity, and associate diversity with unfair advantages in the workplace. In Australian culture, the phrase ‘rorting the system’ is an informal expression used to describe individuals or groups of people who take unfair advantage of a public service or workplace policy to change their circumstances. The findings suggest that detectives in this study believe diversity enables some officers to take advantage of workplace policy and ‘rort’ the system.

Eating pizza in prison

ABSTRACTPolice work is obviously a question of pursuing subjects. In postslave societies, one figure dominates; police are always after the young Black man. Meanwhile, another distinctive subject of policing exists. In São Paulo, Brazil, police detectives are also worried about the failing White father. He represents a crucial kind of problem: he weakens whiteness by subjecting White children to the indignities that Black children face. His punishment is not incarceration, however. Instead, his punishment is a question of civility and reparation, of being “pedagogical.” Attention to police officers’ decision‐making about these two subjects of everyday policing shows how the long‐standing fallacy of the idealized White family is produced by extracting from the Black family. It reveals the logic of differentiated punishment—civil and reparative punishment for White men, life in prison or death for Black men and boys—as a mechanism in the constant remediation of whiteness as property and accumulation. [whiteness, policing, punishment, men, family, child support, race, São Paulo, Brazil]