Scientific Investigation in Criminal Justice

Scientific Investigation in Criminal Justice

Introduction

Community policing has gained in phenomenon with the rising trends of criminal activities as well as the failure of the police to conduct effective techniques for minimizing the threat of criminal activities. Many criminal activities are rising due to the fact that police has been highly negligent in performing its duties. With the lack of accountability and deteriorating performance of police, communities have risen into action for augmenting the efforts of police since police personnel clearly are not able to deliver the desired results.

As a result, the community members have joined hands with police personnel to eradicate the element of criminal activities in the context of American society (Peterson, Sommers, Baskin, & Johnson, 2010). Police and community leaders have looked to form collaboration in order to successfully tackle the threat of rising criminal activities. Community leaders are now looking to incorporate the most effective ways for successfully ensuring the element of public safety.

The different Chiefs, Sheriffs and other policing personnel are now looking to ascertain the changes in the context of organization, orientation and operations in order to benefit the communities they serve. The mechanism of community policing involves a variety of practical and philosophical approaches and are evolving on a rapid basis. The aspect of community policing strategies varies to a great deal according to the needs and responses of the communities. Although most community policing strategies vary to a great deal, there are some communities in which standard community policing strategies are applied (Hinduja, 2007).

Discussion

Many modern technologies such as Internet, automated data systems and computer networks present enormous opportunities for the criminals in carrying out their heinous activities. There has been an extensive utilization of computers and other electronic devices by criminals in not only carrying out crimes but also assisting other criminals in carrying out similar criminal activities. Electronic evidence has been used in large numbers for the different types of crimes and thus it is not restricted to any particular set of criminal activities.

The aspect of electronic evidence is now increasingly being used in the context of crimes such as murder, trafficking, fraud and money laundering (Peterson, Hickman, Strom, & Johnson, 2013). The law enforcement personnel are using these electronic evidences in huge numbers for successfully pursuing their investigations. It is not surprising that a number of cases pertaining to criminal activities got solved due to the law enforcement personnel's reliance on the aspect of electronic evidence. Electronic evidence has completely transformed the working of law enforcement personnel and the results achieved with the utilization of electronic evidence have been encouraging.

Earlier, in the absence of electronic evidence, the police personnel were hampered to a great extent in performing their investigations in a comprehensive manner since the traditional mechanisms of police investigation were hugely restricted and there were a number of constraints back then that significantly affected the transparency of police investigation. Earlier, police investigators were hesitant to incorporate the role of electronic evidence ...