Criminal Justice and ID Technology

Paper Summary:

In this article, the writer notes that in barely a century and a half, law enforcement identification capabilities have evolved from rudimentary procedures for positively establishing the identity of criminal suspects to incredibly sophisticated methods of identification. The writer points out that modern law enforcement authorities have the benefit of age-old interview and interrogation techniques perfected long before the technological explosion of the late 20th century. The writer discusses that fingerprinting revolutionized police identification procedures at the turn of the 20th century, and computers, DNA science, and digital analysis expanded the identification tools available to law enforcement exponentially. Still, the writer maintains that after 150 years, the basic investigative approach to law enforcement identification procedures remains essentially unchanged, except for the tools themselves.

Outline:
Background and History
Line-ups and Mug-Shots
Interviews and Interrogation
Fingerprints
Blood Evidence
Psychological Profiling
DNA-Based Technology
Shared Computer Databases
Future Directions of Identification Technology
Conclusion

From the Paper:

"The traditional methods of positively identifying subjects that developed in the earliest eras of policing relied heavily on the deductive reasoning skills of police investigators, on the availability of witnesses. In this regard, criminal investigations often hinged on the individual investigator's ability to canvass crime scenes, solicit cooperation from witnesses, and information from crime victims and known associates of subjects under investigation or criminal suspects. In turn, the potential value of eyewitness testimony has always been limited by the inaccuracy inherent in human memory.
"Criminal lineups were devised as a method of testing the accuracy of memory, and consisted, in general, of simply presenting a group of subjects containing only one actual criminal suspect to an eyewitness or victim of the crime, with instructions to the witness to identify the individual suspected of perpetrating the crime."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Conlon, E. (2004) Blue Blood. New York: Riverhead.
• Gordon, A., Wolf, R. (2007) License Plate Recognition Technology: Innovation in Law Enforcement Use; The FBI Law Enforcement Journal. (Vol. 76 No.3)
• Johns, L.G., Downes, G.F., Bibles, C.D. (2005) Resurrecting Cold Case Serial Homicide Investigations; The FBI Law Enforcement Journal. (Vol. 74 No.8)
• Kessler, R. (2002) The Bureau: The Secret History of the FBI. New York: St. Martins Press.
• Kobalinsky, L., Liotti, T.F., Oeser-Sweat, J. (2005) DNA: Forensic and Legal Applications. Hoboken: Wiley & Sons.

More papers on Criminal Justice and ID Technology:

• Term Paper # 122859 : "Criminal Justice and Rape"
• Research Paper # 108183 : "Criminal Justice and Restorative Justice"
• Analytical Essay # 123921 : "Criminal Justice and Rehabilitation"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: