Criminal Investigations

1
Criminal Investigations

• Chapter 8
• Assault, Domestic Violence, Stalking, and Elder
  Abuse

2
Objectives

• What constitutes assault
• How simple assault differs from aggravated
  assault
• When force is legal
• What the elements of the crime of simple assault
  are
• Of aggravated assault
• Of attempted assault
• What special challenges are posed in an assault
  investigation

3
Objectives Cont.

• How to prove the elements of both simple and
  aggravated assault
• What evidence is likely to be at the scene of an
  assault
• What offenses might be categorized as separate
  crime rather than simply as assault
• What constitutes domestic violence
• What constitutes stalking
• What constitutes elder abuse

4
Assault An Overview

• Assault is unlawfully threatening to harm another
  person
• Actually harming another person
• Attempting unsuccessfully to do so
• Battery is actually hitting or striking someone

5
Classification

• Simple assault is intentionally causing another
  person to fear immediate bodily harm or death or
  intentional inflicting or attempting to inflict
  bodily harm on the person. Is usually a
  misdemeanor
• Aggravated (felonious) assault is an unlawful
  attack by one person on another to inflict severe
  bodily injury

6
Legal Force

• In specified instances, teachers, people
  operating public conveyances and law enforcement
  officers can legally use reasonable physical
  force
• In loco parentis means to have the authority to
  take the place of a parent. Teachers usually
  have this right

7
Elements of the Crime

• Intent to do bodily harm to another
• Present ability to commit the act
• Commission of an overt act toward carrying out
  the intention

8
Aggravated Assault

• An additional element of aggravated assault is
  that the intentionally inflicted bodily injury
  must have resulted in one of the following
• A high probability of death
• Serious, permanent disfigurement
• Permanent or protracted loss or impairment of the
  function of any body member or organ or other
  severe bodily harm

9
Attempted Assault

• Requires proof of intent along with some overt
  act toward committing the crime

10
Special Challenges in Investigation

• Special challenges in assault investigations
  include distinguishing the victim from the
  suspect, determining whether the matter is civil
  or criminal and determining whether the act was
  intentional or accidental
• Obtaining a complaint against a simple assault
  also is sometimes difficult
• Moreover, such calls may be dangerous for
  responding officers

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The Preliminary Investigation

• The officer arriving on the scene should
• Control and disarm those involved in the
  altercation
• Provide medical aid to injured people
• Separate suspects
• Protect the crime scene
• Give the Miranda waning if applicable

12
The Preliminary Investigation Cont.

• Obtain preliminary statements
• Photograph evidence
• Collect and preserve evidence
• Reconstruct the crime

13
Proving the Elements of Assault

• To prove the elements of assault, establish the
  intent to cause injury, the severity of the
  injury inflicted and whether a dangerous weapon
  was used

14
Evidence in Assault Investigations

• Physical evidence is an assault includes
  photographs or injuries, clothing of the victim
  or suspect, weapons, broken objects, bloodstains,
  hairs, fibers and other signs of an altercation
• To aid in data collection, three special
  categories of assault are domestic violence,
  stalking and elder abuse

15
Investigating Domestic Violence

• Domestic Violence (DV) is defined as a pattern of
  behaviors involving physical, sexual, economic
  and emotional abuse, alone or in combination, by
  an intimate partner often for the purpose of
  establishing and maintaining power and control
  over the other partner

16
History of Domestic Violence and the Police
Response

• Before 1970 domestic violence was a family
  dilemma, usually ignored, unspoken of, and kept
  secret within the walls of the home
• The 1980 many police departments developed
  mandatory arrest policies in response to
  criticism of prior practices of noninvolvement

17
The Cycle of Violence

• Abuse usually occurs in three stages
• Tension building
• The acute battering episode
• The honeymoon

18
Prevalence of Domestic Violence and Its Victim

• many who are involved in domestic violence either
  as victims or abusers still believe it to be a
  private family matter
• Fear is another reason such crimes go unreported
• Domestic violence is found in all income levels
  and in all races

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Mutual Battery Factors to Consider

• Prior domestic violence involving either person
• The relative seriousness of the injuries
  inflicted upon each person involved
• The potential for future injury
• Whether one of the alleged batteries was
  committed in self-defense
• Any other factors that helps the officer decide
  which person was the primary physical aggressor

20
Police Nonresponse

• Receive calls from uninvolved third parties,
• A spouse may report a false domestic violence
  incident just to see the other party punished or
  the threat of punishment inflicted

21
Domestic Violence as a Crime

• Domestic violence is a silent epidemic often
  leaving its victims fearful, voiceless and
  uncooperative
• In some cases the batterer becomes the victim
• Battered-Wife Syndrome
• Departments have developed a zero tolerance
  approach towards domestic violence

22
Restraining Orders

• Civil restraining orders do not adequately
  protect women from further abuse, and a primary
  reliance on such orders must be seriously
  questioned

23
Legislation

• Many departments have a mandatory arrest policy
• Police must implement this policy
• Enacted legislation that makes domestic violence
  investigations and prosecutions a law enforcement
  priority

24
When the Abuser Is a Police Officer

• Special challenges may exist
• Abusive officers have injured or killed their
  spouses with their service weapon
• Acts of domestic violence perpetrated by officers
  are assumed to be at least as prevalent as acts
  of domestic violence committed by the general
  population
• Acknowledge there is a problem

25
Cooperative efforts to Deal with Domestic Violence

• Law enforcement agencies alone cannot eliminate
  domestic violence
• All agencies have to work hand in hand to stop
  domestic violence

26
Avoiding Lawsuits

• Failure to respond appropriately to domestic
  violence can result in serious financial
  liability to local governments
• Departments should have a pro-arrest policy

27
Investigating Stalking

• Stalking generally refers to repeated harassing
  or threatening behavior
• Most states legal definition is the willful,
  malicious, and repeated following and harassing
  of another person
• Some states include in their definition such
  activities as lying in wait, surveillance,
  nonconsensual communications, telephone
  harassment, and vandalism

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Types of Stalking

• Intimate or former intimate the stalker and
  victim may be married or divorced, current or
  former cohabitants, serious or casual sexual
  partners, or former sexual partners
• Acquaintance the stalker and victim know each
  other casually
• Stranger stalking the stalker and victim do not
  know each other at all
• Cyberstalking preying on a victim via computer

29
Prevalence of Stalking and Its Victims

• Women are the primary victims of stalking and men
  are the primary perpetrators stalking is more
  prevalent than previously thought 8 of
  surveyed women and 2 of surveyed men said they
  were stalked at some time in their life
• According to DOJ 60 of women are stalked by
  husband or their ex
• 70 of men stalked by acquaintances or strangers

30
The Police Response

• Response to stalkers have been restraining orders
• About half of all stalking victimes report their
  stalking cases to the police and about 12 result
  in criminal prosecution

31
Legislation

• First antistalking law was passed in California
  in 1889
• 1996 a federal law prohibiting interstate
  stalking was also enacted

32
Investigating Elder Abuse

• The physical and emotional abuse, financial
  exploitation and general neglect of the elderly
• The extent of elder abuse is vurrently unknown

33
Signs of Physical Abuse of the Elderly

• Injury imcompatible with the given explanation
• Burns
• Cuts, pinch marks, scratches, lacerations, or
  puncture wounds
• Bruises, welts or discoloration
• Dehydration and/or malnutrition without illness
  related causes unexplained loss of weight

34
Signs of Physical Abuse of the Elderly Cont.

• Pallor, sunken eyes or cheeks
• Eye injury
• Soiled clothing or bedding
• Lack of bandages on injuries or stitches where
  needed, or evidence of unset bone fractures
• Injuries hidden under the breasts or on other
  areas of the body normally covered by clothing
• Frequent use of emergency room or clinic

35
The Police Response

• Some departments believe this is the
  responsibility of social services not the police
• Other departments feel they are in ideal position
  to learn from and to assist social services in
  dealing with cases of elder abuse

36
Reducing Elder Abuse

• TRIAD
• IACP
• AARP
• NSA