Report Writing for Crime Scene Investigators

Laura Pazarena, Michael Kessler, Amy Watroba

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781000600438
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Law
• Subtopic: Criminal Law
• Index: Law

Report Writing for Crime Scene Investigators provides students with the tools to write effective crime scene reports. Students looking to break into the field of crime scene investigations often take courses in report writing but the textbooks available are commonly geared toward general law enforcement and first responders. However, none of the books on the market focus on the craft of effective, informative writing with graphic crime scene-specific considerations in mind. While falling under law enforcement's purview, crime scene investigations fall within the forensic science field, and, as such, the reporting required is more technical and often more scientific in nature than the average police report.

Due to the lack of published resources and guidance in this critical area, there is no standard that currently exists for vital function within crime scene and investigative circles—and often the subject is given short shrift. This creates wide discrepancies among what students are being taught. This book is the first of its kind to provide students, and those professionals and agencies in need of a "blueprint, " with a resource to teach them the various types of reports—and how to refer to scenarios and specific types of evidence—to ensure that the report holds up under the process of an investigation and for use within the courts.

Key features:

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• Outlines the key distinctions between police-style reports and crime scene-style reports and writing

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• Explains how to clearly and accurately provide an accounting and description of a variety of evidence recovered from a scene

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• Details how to best organize the report in a logical manner and sequence, including the various components of the crime scene report

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• Presents an explanation of the information that should be included in the report, and the rationale behind its importance, for testimonial purposes

Report Writing for Crime Scene Investigators provides to the reader the fundamentals of effective report writing for the active field Crime Scene Investigator. Coverage includes the necessary steps to thoroughly document scenes and evidence—from the time the CSI receives the call until the time the CSI testifies in court. In addition to the student market, the book will be a welcome resource for professional crime scene investigators, attorneys, and as a reference and standard for professional training programs.

Section 1
Fundamentals of Report Writing

1 Introduction

Laura Pazarena

DOI: 10.4324/9780429343162-2

Introduction

Crime scene investigators (CSIs) are responsible for the forensic processing of crime scenes and evidence. After completing their processing, the CSI must explain in detail all the work they did in reports and/or sketches. The CSI’s employer will have policies, procedures, and guidelines for report writing, and this text will serve as a good guide for CSIs when writing various types of reports. CSIs most frequently work with law enforcement or other criminal justice professionals, and their only report writing guide is from these individuals. CSI reports, however, are unique reports and should be written differently from other reports in this field.

Police Reports

Criminal justice personnel respond to a variety of offenses and incidents. Many of the cases that police officers are involved in are incidents that will never go to court; however, reports of their response and investigative findings must still be written. Report writing is a basic fundamental that police officers often dread but must learn how to do well. A police report is a report written by a police officer about an incident or case and is considered a statement made by the police officer who wrote it. A police report may be used to make charging decisions in criminal cases, during depositions, and in court as part of civil litigation and criminal prosecutions. It also may be viewed by members of the media and the public. Officers want to ensure they are writing clear and understandable reports. Other people will judge an officer’s work and professionalism based on a report before meeting them in person, which is why having good writing skills is very important in the criminal justice field. Police reports are one of the most crucial components of a criminal investigation. When officers write reports, they are interested in obtaining the circumstances surrounding an event to determine if there is probable cause for an arrest or to help them decide if the situation is an incident with no crime. Generally, they obtain this information from testimonial evidence, which consists of people’s statements to them. Officers will interview individuals on the scene, canvass for witnesses, and look for people to tell them about what may have happened. Their reports will include the details of who they spoke to, when they spoke to them, and what was said. Their focus is generally on the people of the case. Police reports also should mention any physical evidence that they observe on a scene. Officers are usually one of the first groups of individuals to arrive at a major scene, and they observe the scene as close to its original condition as anyone. It is imperative that they take photos, use body-worn cameras, or take notes of what they see when they arrive. Although they generally focus on the people, the context of the evidence within a scene at the time of their arrival may be critical to the crime scene investigator (CSI). Police reports do not generally convey the condition of the scene or the physical evidence, which is why a specific CSI report is so important (see Figure 1.1).

Figure 1.1 Example narrative of a police report. Notice all the testimonial evidence within this narrative.

CSI Reports

Forensic science is a vast field that encompasses numerous disciplines. One of the most overlooked components of this ever-growing field is crime scene investigation. In the criminal justice world, crime scene investigators (CSIs) are often referred to as “trash collectors”, and their scientific expertise and crime scene reconstruction skills are often undermined or ignored. CSIs offer valuable insight into a criminal investigation. Their expertise is crucial in regard to evidence collection and processing and especially scene reconstruction. Unfortunately, many CSIs are never taught how to properly document and report their crucial findings. CSIs often are shown repeatedly how to properly photograph but rarely do they take specific courses on report writing. Usually, the report writing they are shown is inaccurate and inadequate for the technical field of crime scene investigation. If CSIs are fortunate enough to take a report writing course, they are often taught how to write reports in a police writing format, which couldn’t be further from how a CSI should be writing. CSI reports are written by CSIs and are technical reports that are very different from law enforcement reports. CSI reports should explain processing mechanisms and results utilizing proper terminology. A CSI must understand the scientific concepts and be able to explain these mechanisms in layman’s terms to a court and jury.

CSI reports are a critical part of scene documentation that contemporaneously and comprehensively record – from start to finish – the procedures, observations, actions, and aspects of the scene and evidence within it. Scene documentation has a three-fold significance: investigative, scientific, and legal, requiring that reporting be thorough and accurate.

Scene documentation is conducted to create a fair, factual, and accurate record of the observations, conditions, and actions at a given scene and its immediate surroundings. Documentation provides the basis from which a scene reconstruction could be created from the documentation alone. Documentation also supports all scene-processing work such that another examiner or analyst could evaluate what was done and understand the basis of the results.

The Scientific Method

Crime scene investigators must remember that the processing of a scene is a science. They should always apply the basic principles of the scientific method to their processing and report writing. The scientific method begins with a question. In most cases for a CSI, the question is, “What happened here?” – or something to that effect. The CSI will discuss the case with the investigators during the initial brief, gather background information, and observe the scene and evidence to develop a hypothesis, the second phase of the scientific method. An important note about this phase is that detectives and officers will begin to build their hypotheses of the events based on the testimonial evidence. The CSI must remember not to allow testimonial evidence or the officers’ hypotheses to steer their observations of the physical evidence on the scene and what that evidence might be saying. The CSI will utilize the physical evidence on the scene to develop their own hypothesis, which may or may not contradict or support the testimonial evidence.

Once a CSI has a hypothesis in mind, they must develop a thought experiment in the context of the available information and physical evidence. While a crime scene reconstruction often involves physical experiments to test hypotheses under controlled conditions, a thought experiment is a device with which one performs an intentional, structured process of intellectual deliberation in order to speculate, within the confines of the scene and physical evidence, about the potential occurrence of events and the sequencing of events. For a CSI, this means putting together the “what ifs” on the scene. Looking at the physical evidence, possible answers to questions will begin to develop. The evidence does not lie. The CSI must start to think of alternative ways for the items to have landed in their positions. This is the experimentation phase of the scientific method. The CSI will experiment with all possible options, not just the one that confirms an original hypothesis.

The CSI must continue to play out various scenarios and alternate hypotheses and discuss these options with the detective or in their notes and thoughts. This data collection will begin to eliminate specific options. The CSI will analyze each of these possibilities and exclude the impossible. The evidence will lead the CSI to a plausible solution to the hypothesis. All of the evidence and steps involved in the investigation must then be reported (Figure 1.2).

Figure 1.2 The scientific method for CSI processing and report writing.

The CSI will report the facts from the scene as observed. This report must be detailed, accurate, and understandable and should include all pertinent facts and conditions of the scene. The CSI must ensure never to infer anything or give their opinion. The CSI should report what items are actually on the scene and what they see, not what others told them should be there or what someone else saw. CSIs must remain neutral and report everything as they observe it. The report should flow chronologically and include all involvement of the CSI from the time they received the call until the conclusion of the scene processing. For complicated scenes, the flow of the report is crucial to help law enforcement officers, attorneys, the court, a jury, and the CSI understand the order of events and processing. Timing is critical in a criminal investigation, and when and why a CSI did specific processing may significantly impact a case.

Crime scene investigators should always attempt any processing techniques that may obtain results, no matter the likelihood. Often these attempts are futile and will result in negative results. These processing attempts should always be included in the CSI’s notes and reports. These negative results often lead a CSI to try other methods ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• LIST OF FIGURES
• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
• ABOUT THE AUTHORS
• SECTION 1 FUNDAMENTALS OF REPORT WRITING
• SECTION 2 INVESTIGATIVE REPORT WRITING
• SECTION 3 PROCESSING REPORT WRITING
• SECTION 4 TESTIFYING IN COURT
• SHORT BIBLIOGRAPHY
• APPENDIX 1: CRIME SCENE SECTION INVESTIGATIVE REPORT
• APPENDIX 2: CRIME SCENE SECTION PROCESSING REPORT
• GLOSSARY OF COMMON TERMS AND ACRONYMS
• INDEX