Criminal investigation : a method for reconstructing the past / James William Osterburg and Richard H. Ward

Includes bibliographical references and index.

The investigator : responsibilities and attributes; origins and trends -- Physical evidence : development, interpretation, investigative value -- The crime scene : discovery, preservation, collection, and transmission of evidence -- People as a source of information -- Records and files : investigative uses and sources -- Interviews : obtaining information from witnesses -- Informants : cultivation and motivation -- Surveillance : a fact-finding tool -- legality and practice -- Eyewitness identification : guidelines and procedures -- Interrogation of suspects and hostile witnesses : guidelines and procedures -- The influence of technology on crime investigation -- Crime analysis and coming attractions in the investigator's toolbox -- Managing criminal investigations -- Reconstructing the past : methods, evidence, examples -- Crime and constitutional law : the foundations of criminal investigation -- Evidence and effective testimony -- Homicide -- Robbery -- Sex crimes -- Burglary -- Arson and explosives -- Increasing threats and emerging crime -- Terrorism and urban disorder -- Enterprise crime : organized, economic, and white-collar crime.

This text presents the fundamentals of criminal investigation and provides a sound method for reconstructing a past event (i.e., a crime), based on three major sources of information ― people, records, and physical evidence. Its tried-and-true system for conducting an investigation is updated with the latest techniques available, teaching the reader new ways of obtaining information from people, including mining the social media outlets now used by a broad spectrum of the public; how to navigate the labyrinth of records and files currently available online; and fresh ways of gathering, identifying, and analyzing physical evidence.