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WJEC criminology unit 3 - AC 1.1 write up
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AC 1.1 EVALUATE THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE ROLES OFPERSONNEL INVOLVED IN CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIONS
Scene of crime officers
Scene of crime officers (SOCO’s) are specialist officers who work alongside the police to visit the
crime scene and ensure that all evidence can withhold in a court trial. This is beneficial because it
allows all the evidence gathered to be used as they aren’t corrupted. As they are a specialist team of
officers they need qualifications and training in order to become a SOCO. Having training is essential
because they need to properly be able to preserve crime scenes without the evidence being missed
or contaminated. This is another reason why SOCO’s are important because they have more
knowledge in their job than police officers. As they have these skills they are often called into court
to provide further evaluation of the crime scene and the evidence. To become a SOCO a degree in
forensic science or biology is preferred but not mandatory this is helpful as they have learnt about
crime scenes for a minimum of 3 years. Scene of crime officers is on call 24 hours a day which means
that they can be first at a crime scene no matter the time. By being available at all hours it allows the
evidence to be preserved, whereas if it was left until the morning it could be contaminated. The
council for the registration of forensic practitioners (CRFP) aim to raise the standards of practise
within the forensic departments who work alongside law enforcement agencies. This was a great
thing for the SOCO’s because they improved how they work to make sure everything was done to the
highest standards. After only 8 year it was closed down which made the productivity and practise
decrease. Also because of budget cuts the police have had to prioritise their cases to manage
finances, this has led to 83% SOCO’s being cut. So the remaining scene of crime officers are having to
work even more than previously done, the disadvantage of this is that their work may become
inadequate, and evidence may be missed or corrupted. Also crime scenes may not be investigated as
they aren’t seen as important as others. A case that has been affected by this is the Amanda Knox
case. In this trial two individuals were wrongly accused of murder due to valuable evidence being left
behind at the crime scene. After a long time in jail the suspects were released after they found out
the SOCO’s had messed up. They had left a bra clasp which had fingerprints and wiped footprints.
The SOCO’s went back to the scene after 40 days to gather more evidence but the clasp was
inadmissible in court as it could have been contaminated. Overall scene of crime scene officers is
very important as they are first on scene to a crime, so they provide valuable insights into what
happened.
Forensic scientists
Forensic scientists work alongside the police to analyse the evidence gathered from the crime scene
to present in court. They investigate many different things such as fingerprints, blood, saliva, mobile
phones, computers, or textile fibres. This is a strength because they can identify all the different
things that can be hidden in evidence so that the suspect can be tied to the scene. In addition to this
there are also many types of forensic scientists that focus on different subjects. These include
forensic toxicology, ballistics, or forensic anthropology. Having these different fields is an advantage
because they will be specially trained to deal with those types of cases so they will know what to
look out for. Forensic scientists usually work 40 hours a week, but it is common for them to be on call
during all hours of the day. This is good because not all crime happens during the day so when they
are on call during the night they can analyse the evidence as quickly as possible to offer the court a
conclusion. Although the hours are highly demanding so those working may be drained and
exhausted; possibly resulting in mistakes or missing pieces of evidence. Mistakes are very harmful for
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