I ended the year with an A* in criminology, achieving 96% in Unit 3. This AC1.1 Document includes a full evaluation of the NCA, CSI’s, Forensic pathologists, The police and the CPS. Each role has strengths, limitations and a case study for supporting evidence
AC1.1 Evaluating the effectiveness of the roles of personnel involved in criminal
investigations
National crime agency
The national crime agency (NCA) was set up in 2013 as the UK’s leading crime fighting
agency. Their role in criminal investigations can vary depending on the crime, the NCA was
set up in 2013 to replace the serious organised crime agency as well as merging with the
child exploitation and online protection centre. The NCA can and has worked closely with
other law enforcement agencies and organisations to help investigate and prevent crime
both on a high and low scale.
Strengths
The NCA can be asked to investigate any type of crime, this includes serious and high stake
crime all the way down to petty crime. This can be extremely helpful to the under-funded
investigative personnel such as the police, The NCA’s annual budget is currently £458.8m.
The NCA also makes use of national and international databases to help tackle crime, this
means it can also operate internationally to stop larger scale crimes. The NCA’s international
presence stops crime from coming into the UK but can also help catch criminals in other
European countries as all EU arrest warrants pass through the NCA.
Limitations
Despite their seemingly large workforce (over 4100 overall,), the NCA are prone, like all
government agencies, to cuts. The NCA has a high running cost, the latest budget cut
(50%,) saw a large offload in staff within the NCA, limiting their availability. This can also
have a negative effect on the country's safety, the NCA’s international standing makes them
a target to terrorists and a shortage of staff could lead to officers being spread too thin
leaving the country vulnerable. The Database that the NCA operates off of is often slow and
is prone to crashes, especially so when third party personnel such as solicitors and other
professionals try to input data into the system. Delays on the system can alert criminals that
they are being monitored, harming the potential case against them. Being a government
agency puts the NCA in the limelight, any mistakes made by the NCA will be highlighted and
twisted in the press and so, they have to follow the exact wording of the law to the letter in
order to, not only avoid public ridicule, but to also prevent a case from being dismissed due
to their conduct.
Case study: Judges criticism on the NCA over a collapsed fraud trial
The NCA were investigating a fraud case that saw the deception of many multi-million pound
companies such as: Chester zoo, care UK and south essex college. The NCA argued that
between 2013-14, payments made to building contractors were intercepted and put through
multiple different bank accounts to make it harder to trace. This timeline, however, was
disputed in court. The NCA had made a number of mathematical and typographical mistakes
that were picked up on in court.The case, much to the defendants joy, collapsed completely.
It was apparent that the NCA had been terribly negligent in their investigations, rushing the
case and making a series of easily avoidable errors.
, Forensic pathologists
A Forensic pathologist's main role in criminal investigations is to perform the post mortem
exam and declare a cause of death as well as report any other contributions or findings.
They investigate any signs of abuse or sexual assault on a body as well as inner body
tissues. DNA evidence like blood splatter and hair samples as well as fingerprints are all
reviewed in the lab. Scientific evidence is often highly regarded by jurors and so it can be an
essential part of a conviction.
Strengths
Forensic Pathologists go through a lengthy medical degree followed by almost a decade of
in-field training before they get to call themselves a Pathologist. This makes them incredibly
skilled at what they do, allowing them to perform their duties with a minimal margin of error, it
also means that they are experts at what they do. Pathologists are also more than happy to
explain their findings on the stand, this allows the court to hear exactly what the evidence
produced means for the case and any possible criticisms can be shut down when needed.
Pathologists being experts in their field means that they understand the complications
cross-contamination can have and so they can take measures to prevent it giving more
validity and weight to the evidence they produce in cases where cross-contamination isn’t a
dispute. Pathologist’s findings aid police in their investigation and can help to rule out
suspects and point the police towards the actual offender.
Limitations
Pathologists main role is to aid the police with the backing of scientific evidence, however, it
can take time to test, analyse and produce results. This can lead to a major delay in
investigations and arrests as it can take up to 12 weeks to test certain forensic evidence.
Despite pathologists taking measures to avoid mistakes, all evidence produced is subject to
scrutiny in court meaning that it can be dismissed completely and the prosecution can be left
without scientific basis for their claims. Many people are put off by the long winded training
needed to be a pathologist, as well as this, being a pathologist is an extremely demanding
job and can mentally drain a person explaining the low number of pathologists available to
help a criminal investigation. There are a lot of government costs involved in pathology, the
average salary of a pathologist falls at £69,000 per year; it is also projected that a total of
£2-3 billion is spent on forensic science meaning that it leaves less government funding for
other areas. Like all humans, forensic experts make mistakes. Pathologists have been
criticised for their mistakes in past investigations and any mistakes made by pathologists can
lead to an offender being acquitted or not being caught at all.
Case study, Anthony Hardy
Anthony Hardy was a serial killer best known for dismembering his victims, giving him the
name ‘the camden ripper.’ Hardy first flashed up on the polices radar when he was accused
of vandalising his neighbours door, this led to a search of his house with allowed police to
discover the dead, beaten body of 38 year old sex worker, Sally white. Despite the bruises
and strangulation marks on her body, Pathologist on the case Freddy Patel, ruled her death
as a ‘natural occurrence,’ allowing Hardy to go free and kill again. Patel also made mistakes
whilst examining the evidence produced at Hardy’s crime scenes, delaying his arrest even
further. A report later found that Patel had been extremely negligent in his duties not just in
this case but in others in the past which he hid from his employers.
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