Combating crime and corruption and enforcing the criminal law involves

conducting criminal investigations. The categories of crime in question

include crimes against the person such as homicide, rape, and assault,
and property crimes such as theft, burglary, and fraud. Terrorism is a
crime that is typically a crime against the person (detonating a bomb in a
crowded train and thereby murdering innocent passengers), a property
crime (destruction of the train carriage) and a political crime (committed
with the intent of undermining the authority of the state). “Corruption”
(Chapter 8), on the other hand, is a generic term that covers a wide range
of moral offenses that are not always crimes, that is, legal offenses. (For
the distinction and relation between the law and morality, see Chapter
1.) These offenses include bribery, nepotism, cheating, and abuse of
authority. Our discussion in Chapter 8 focuses on police corruption.

During late 1800s and early 1900s, forensic science expanded to include
technologies like body temperature to determine time of death and the
systematic use of fingerprinting for identification. The portable
polygraph machine appeared in 1921 followed by tests to detect gunshot
residue in 1933. Other critical discovery of this time includes voiceprint
identification technologies.

The criminal investigation process (‘the process’) is a complex and

necessary aspect of the legal system that aims to gather and investigate
evidence lawfully, justly and in accordance with the rights of victims,
suspects and society. The responsibility for enforcing criminal laws and
ensuring they are adhered to lies with the police. In the criminal
investigation process, the role of police is to investigate crimes through
gathering evidence, interrogating and detaining suspects, searching and
seizing properties, and making arrests. The police are then required to
present the evidence against the accused in court.
The investigation of crime involves the study of various facts and
findings, with the intention of finding whether an individual is guilty or
not, for an offence. This process involves the use of a variety of
techniques, which includes interviews, interrogations, forensic analysis,
etc

To begin the discussion about the methods and techniques of criminal

investigation, it is necessary to provide a realistic definition criminal
investigation . Criminal investigation is a multifaceted effort that
involves the study of facts presented by a criminal act or pattern of
criminal conduct. These facts are then used to identify, locate, and prove
the guilt or innocence of a person or persons. Criminal investigation is
usually carried out by a law enforcement agency using all the resources
available to the government, local, state, or federal, to discover, locate,
or establish evidence proving and verifying the relevant facts for
presentation to a court or other judicial authority.

Determine whether a crime has been committed.

Decide if the crime was committed within the investigator’s jurisdiction.
Discover all facts pertaining to the complaint.
Gather and preserve physical evidence. Develop and follow up all clues.