Fundamentals of

Criminal Investigation
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION TO
CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION
KEY PRINCIPLES IN
CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION
Presented by:
JAYCEE A PALATTAO, LPT, RCrim
Police Personnel
Basic Elements of Criminal Investigation
1st element: Recognition
-efforts of identifying data, including
physical things that may provide relevant
information regarding the criminal case
being investigated.
-identification stage of investigation.
Basic Elements of Criminal Investigation
2nd element: Collection
- act of gathering those identified data or facts,
or physical things that are significant to the
case.

3rd element: Preservation

- act of keeping the collected pieces of evidence
in their true and original form, preventing
contamination and destruction of their
substantive value.
Basic Elements of Criminal Investigation
4th element: Evaluation
- process of determining the probative
value of the evidence. Probative value
refers to the strength of the evidence or its
worth/weight in successfully establishing a
proof.
Basic Elements of Criminal Investigation
5th element: Presentation
- primarily manifested in the courtroom.
- investigator with the help of the
prosecutor, must be able to present facts
and information in a very simple and
convenient manner.
 The 5 W’s and 1 H
What Questions:
- to find out what happened or what took place before,
during and immediately after the commission of the offense.
1. What happened?
2. What specific action/s did the suspects/victim/witness do?
3. What is the nature of the crime?
4. What was/were the weapon/s or tools used by the culprit?
5. What were the pieces of evidence/s discovered at the
crime scene?
 The 5 W’s and 1 H
When Questions:
- determine the time, day, month and year when
the crime was committed

1. When was the crime committed?

2. When was it discovered?
3. When was the police notified?
4. When was the victim last seen?
5. When was the suspect arrested?
 The 5 W’s and 1 H
Where Questions:
- place of the incident, city, town, barangay, street, road,
building, house number.

1. Where was the crime discovered?

2. Where did the offense take place?
3. Where are the victims, witness, culprits?
4. Where are the victims, witness, culprits live?
5. Where was the suspect when he was apprehended?
6. Where were the weapons or tools used in committing the
crime?
7. Where did the investigator secure or obtain the evidence?
 The 5 W’s and 1 H
Who Questions:
- identity of the victims or offended party, name of suspect/s,
accomplices, accessories and witnesses of the crime.

1. Who reported the crime?

2. Who saw when the crime was perpetrated?
3. Who is the victim? Who had any misunderstanding with
him/her?
4. Who is the offender/perpetrator/culprit?
5. Who are the companions, associates, or accomplices of
the perpetrator?
 The 5 W’s and 1 H
Why Questions:
- questions to ascertain the motives, causes,
antecedents, previous incidents, related facts,
background occurrences that might help explain the
commission of an offense.

1. Why did the offender do it?

2. Why did he/she kill the victim?
3. Why didn’t he/she just let the victim go?
4. Why didn’t the suspect surrender?
 The 5 W’s and 1 H
How Questions:
- designed to help the investigator determine how the
crime was committed, the means/tools that were
employed, how the crime discovered.
1. How did the suspect get near to the victim?
2. How did he/she perform the crime?
3. How did the criminal get all the necessary
information?
4. How did the criminal get away from the crime
scene?
5. How was the crime scene search conducted?
 Patterns, Leads, Tips and Theories
Patterns
- are series of similarities that may link
particular cases or indicate that the same
person is committing a series of crimes.
- pattern could include time and day, day
of the week, description of the suspect, MO,
type of weapon, type of victim, location and
other variables.
 Patterns, Leads, Tips and Theories
Leads
- clues or pieces of information that aid in
the progress of an investigation.
- physical evidence or information
received from witnesses or other persons or
through surveillances and record searches.
- anything that can assist an investigator in
resolving an investigation
 Patterns, Leads, Tips and Theories
Tips
- information provided by the citizens that
aid in the progress of an investigation.
- tips involve the identity of the suspect
 Patterns, Leads, Tips and Theories
Theories
- pertain to beliefs regarding the basis on
the evidence patterns, leads, tips and other
information developed and uncover in the
case.
- Investigators and Detectives have to be
very careful in building theories about the
case, because if the theory is wrong, it may
lead them in the wrong direction.
 Golden Rule in Criminal
Investigation
“Never touch, alter, move, or transfer any
object at the crime scene unless it is properly
marked, measured, sketched and/or
photographed.”

The purpose of this rule is to avoid the Mutilation,

Alteration and Contamination (MAC) of the pieces of
physical evidence found at the crime scene (Garcia,
2004)
 Methods of Recording the Investigation
1. Photographs
2. Sketching crime scene
3. Written notes (what you have seen or observed)
4. Developing and lifting fingerprints
5. Gathering physical evidence
6. Plaster cast
7. Tape recording of sounds
8. Video tape recording of objects
9. Written statements of subject/s and witnesses
 Tools in Criminal Investigation
The 3 I’s

Information
Interrogation/ Interview
Instrumentation
 INFORMATION
knowledge or facts which the
investigator has gathered or acquired
from persons or documents, which are
pertinent or relevant concerning the
commission of the crime.
Information classified as to sources
-Regular sources are the records, files from
the government or non-government agencies,
news items. The bulk of information of this
nature is news items.
-Cultivated sources are information furnished
by informants and informers.
-Grapevine source are information given by
the underworld characters such as prisoners
or criminals.
INTERROGATION – is a skillful questioning of
witnesses and suspects.

It is a process of obtaining admission or

confession from those suspects who have
committed a crime. It is confrontational in
nature which means that the suspect is
confronted about his participation in the
commission of the offense.
The purposes of interrogation:
To obtain confession to the crime
To induce the suspects to make admissions
To learn the facts of the crime
To learn the identity of the accomplice
To develop information which will lead to the
recovery to the fruits of the crime
To discover the details of other crimes
participated by the suspects
Terms to Understand:

Interviewer – a person who conducts

interview
Interviewee – a person being interviewed
Interrogator – a person who performs skillful
questioning of hostile witness and
suspects for purpose of obtaining confession
or admission
Interrogee – is the subject of interrogation
whether a suspect or a victim
Suspect – any person associated o the
commission of a crime. It may also refer to
any person whose guilt is considered on
reasonable ground to be a practical
possibility.
Witness – a person other than the suspect,
who is requested to give information
concerning an incident. He/she maybe a
victim, complainant, an accuser, a source of
information and an observer of the
occurrence, a scientific specialist who has
examined physical evidence.
 INTERVIEW – a simple questioning of a
person who cooperates with the investigator.

- a questioning of a person who is believed to

possess knowledge that is in official interest
to the investigator

Basic Assumptions
Nobody has to talk to law enforcers. No law compels a person to talk to
the police if he does not want to. Therefore, people will have to persuade
always with the legal and ethnical limits, to talk to law enforcers.
Difference between Interview and Interrogation
INTERVIEW INTERROGATION
1. It is a simple questioning of a 1. It is questioning somebody
person who cooperates with the closely, often in an aggressive
investigator manner

2. Witnesses voluntarily give their 2. It involves skillful questioning of

accounts about the commission of hostile witness and suspects
a crime

3. Interrogation applies to an
uncooperative or reluctant
witness

4. The purpose is to obtain

admission or confession
Instrumentation – Also called as
Criminalistics or Forensic Science.

- It is a scientific examination of real

evidence, application of instrument and
methods of the physical sciences in detecting
crime.
 This is the use of police laboratory in the
examination of the pieces of physical
evidences such as:

 Firearms Identification  Photography

 Fingerprint  Polygraphy
Examination  Forensic Chemistry
 Questioned  Physics
Document
Examination  Biology