Investigative Methodology
Martin Innes · Oxford University Press eBooks · 2003
This chapter discusses the concept of investigative methodology utilized in crime investigations. The investigative methodology is a combination of practices, procedures, processes, routines, conventions, and theories and techniques through which police respond to a crime. The shape, style, and focus of the police response to an individual incident are constructed from an array of potential investigative strategies and tactics, according to their predicted probability in enabling the crime to be solved. As such, the investigative methodology implemented for a particular murder can be said to have a situated rationality informed by a set of established general principles of crime investigation work and the specific circumstances of the offence.