Forensic Victimology

AMERICAN CHIKAN

2011-10-23T10:11:00.002-08:00

What the Brooklyn sex attacks tell us

October 23, 2011

Over the last two months, the number of reported cases involving women that have been groped or fondled in public places has increased dramatically in New York City.

Some have referred to this as a rising crime wave -- but that may not be the case. Instead, the increase may be because more women are coming forward, no longer willing to tolerate the casual indignities with which some men think they can get away.

We can see from other large metropolitan cities that groping is a common crime.

In Tokyo, a 2005 estimate suggested that by age 30, well over 60% of women had been forcibly touched while riding on crowded trains and subways or at transit stations throughout the city.

Victims, some as young as 9, would shout “chikan,” Japanese for molester.

The persistence of the chikan problem, and the criminal subculture that has developed, actually lead to the development of female-only railroad cars so that women can travel unmolested.

In the United States, there is a long history of inappropriate and forcible touching -- men slapping female waitresses on the behind, pinning and groping women at bars or in nightclubs, or rubbing up against them on crowded public transportation or during sporting events.

Until recently in New York, however, these crimes were rarely reported by victims. When reported, they often went uninvestigated by law enforcement. As a result, many female victims considered it a nearly unavoidable fact of everyday life.

Gropers are motivated by the same thing as any other sex offender: power.

They want to elicit a response from their victim that may include a mixture of shock, shame, fear or perhaps silent humiliation. When the crime is not reported, or when police do not take the time to investigate, they are emboldened.

In NYC, public and police attitudes began to change after the 2000 Puerto Rican Day Parade -- when several dozen women and girls said they were trapped, sexually taunted, groped and robbed by different groups of men. Responding to public outcry, forcible- touching laws were adopted to make it clear that this kind of behavior is an intolerable crime. These laws raised awareness of the problem and gave police a better tool for making arrests.

Over the last couple of years, meanwhile, there has been the scandal brought to light by Brooklyn police Officer Adrian Schoolcraft. He blew the whistle on the NYPD’s intentional manipulation of sex-crimes reports by responding officers to downgrade or misclassify sex offenses.

Since that time, new policies have been put into place to ensure more accurate reporting, and to require the response of a sex-crimes detective to any complaint of a sexual assault -- even misdemeanors.

And recently, in the wake of widespread media reporting on multiple attacks by a possible serial groper in Brooklyn, NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly made a public plea to any and all victims: Come forward and report the crime.

Websites, meanwhile, chronicle the efforts of women to catalog the perverts, publicly shaming subways gropers by taking cellphone pictures of them and posting them online.

These events have combined to drag the reality of American chikan into more full public view.

Law enforcement has a number of responsibilities here. Their first is to properly educate responding officers regarding the potential for serial gropers of any kind to escalate and become more sexually violent.

Complaints should be not casually dismissed because they don’t seem like that big of a deal, or because they lack the appeal of a felony charge.

Experienced investigators know that some gropers and peepers are just practicing and fantasizing in order to gain confidence with their approach. They do this over and over, until they are ready for more serious sexual assaults.

It’s always disturbing to hear about any crime. But if the recent spate of fondling cases means that victims are fighting back -- and the police are taking this crime more seriously -- it will hopefully lead to a city where gropers understand they can’t get away with it.

Brent E. Turvey, MS is a forensic scientist and criminal profiler in private practice. He is the co-author, with retired NYPD Detective John Savino, of the "Rape Investigation Handbook" (Elsevier Science, 2011). Mr. Turvey thanks his co-author for advice on this article.

Evidentiary Issues in Sex Crimes: Preserving Evidence of Binding

2011-08-21T13:19:00.022-08:00

Over the past 16 years, I've worked quite a few cases of sexual assault - either as a criminal profiler for a law enforcement agency or as a forensic scientist and reconstructionist for an attorney. Sometimes these are serial rape cases, where the victim count easily exceeds twenty. Sometimes these are cases involving people who know each other and have a prior relationship. Each involvement is different, with a particular set of questions that require a variety of different skill sets.

With some exceptions, each individual case of sexual assault that I've examined has involved someone contacting the police and the police responding to someone in distress. In a percentage of these cases, police will be responding directly to the crime scene or a nearby location where the victim was discovered. When found, the victim may also be bound, blindfolded, gagged, or otherwise restrained. In these cases, the victim is going to have suffered physical injury from the bindings, has been traumatized by the attack, and can even be in shock - all requiring immediate medical attention, care, and comfort.

When confronted with an injured and traumatized victim that is still bound from their attack, the first duty of care is to their health and safety. The preservation of physical evidence must come second (Savino and Turvey, 2011). That is to say, there is simply no reason to leave a victim in their bindings in order document whether and how these were used in the crime. This can be accomplished at later point, in part, with testimony from first responders, those who removed the bindings, and the victim.

Sufficient documentation can further be accomplished by a gloved officer cutting through bindings to remove them. This should be done while preserving any knots, fasteners, or areas of adhesion. In other words, cutting around these areas so that they can be photographed, examined, and processed for evidence associating it with the victim and the offender (e.g., fingerprints, epithelial cells from saliva, and hairs or fibers on tape; hairs, fibers, and blood, epithelial or skin cells on rope).

The final pieces of documentation are going to be made during the sexual assault exam, where the victim is photographed head-to-toe in order to document all areas of injury, patterns, or transfer evidence associated with their attack and any bindings that were used. This requires deliberate and clear communication between responding officers and forensic examiners so that nothing is missed. It also requires talking to the victim about what happened during the attack, and developing a complete understanding of potential areas where evidence might be found.

For the well-trained investigator or forensic examiner, this sounds basic and it really should. However, there are still officers and responders that do not understand the work-arounds available to them at the crime scene. This can result in decision about evidence collection and preservation that further traumatize the victim -- such as insisting on interviewing the victim at the location, in the room, or even on the bed or mattress where they were sexually assaulted. Or worse.

Consider the case of Col. Russell Williams, the senior air force officer who escalated from fetish burglary to rape and sexual homicide until his arrest in February of 2010. His crimes are described in Staff (2010):

Williams, the former commander of CFB Trenton, was questioned by police in early February, days after he raped and strangled 27-year-old Jessica Lloyd and dumped her body outside Tweed, Ont...
Williams came to investigators' attention when he was stopped at a roadside checkpoint on Feb. 4, when police were comparing tires on SUVs to treads found outside Lloyd's home. Unbeknownst to Williams, police matched the tires on his Nissan Pathfinder to the tread marks. Three days later he was brought in for questioning, with the entire 10-hour interrogation taped by police...

Jessica Lloyd
After expressing concern for his wife, Williams, in a matter-of-fact manner, detailed the gruesome late-January murder of Lloyd, a 27-year-old woman who worked at a bus company in Napanee.
He described breaking into her home and attacking her in her bed.
"I raped her," Williams said in the video.
"A rape can mean a lot of things. What took place?" the investigator countered.
Williams then went on to describe in painstaking detail the various ways he assaulted Lloyd, how he threatened her and placed zip ties around her neck to control her. He also described to police how he made Lloyd model underwear, and photographed her as she did so.
Williams said he then took her to Tweed, where he lived. The day-and-a-half-long nightmare continued with numerous rapes, photo sessions and eventually with Lloyd suffering seizures, begging for her life.
Williams, after telling Lloyd he was taking her to the hospital, finally seemed to tire of the cruel game.
"And as we were walking ... I hit her on the back of the head," he told investigators in the video, in which he often referred to her by her first name as though they were friends.
"I was surprised that her skull gave way. She was immediately unconscious and I strangled her."
After that Williams explained that he hid Lloyd's body in his garage and went to work because he was flying a military plane to California early the next day. He later returned to get rid of her body and clean up the mess.

Cpl. Marie-France Comeau
In the video shown to the courtroom, Williams also described the murder of Comeau, pronouncing her name with the correct French accent.
He admitted breaking into Comeau's home and hiding in her basement, waiting for her to fall asleep, and how she came down to the basement in search of her cat.
"So when she spotted me I had the same flashlight (and) subdued her, brought her upstairs and, uh, strangled her, well more suffocated her with some tape," he said.
Later in the video he admitted raping and photographing Comeau.
Williams explained in the video that he used duct tape to cover Comeau's mouth and nose, until she suffocated.
"I had thought about strangling her earlier...it was a short-lived attempt because she struggled quite a bit. So I decided I had to suffocate her," he said.
The reason he murdered her, he said, was that there was an obvious link to an assault he had committed on a woman who lived near him in Tweed.

For more details regarding this case, see also: Col. Russell Williams: Killer in command?; CBS News/ 48 Hours

Col. Williams' surviving victims have taken legal action (Warmington, 2011). In specific, Laurie Massicotte plans a lawsuit against not only against the former Colonel (who is reportedly still receiving a military pension), his ex wife (to whom the former Colonel transferred some of his assets prior to his conviction), and the Ontario Provincial Police for failing in their duty of car. As detailed in Duffy (2010):

Laurie Massicotte says Ontario Provincial Police officers told her they had to leave her in the harness, fashioned by Williams, until an OPP photographer arrived to take pictures of her in the restraint.

“I was left for five hours, still in my harness, still tied up, naked, lying under a comforter,” Massicotte, 47, told the Ottawa

Citizen in a telephone interview Friday.

“Five hours, no medical attention. I was in total shock. I didn’t know what the heck was going on.”

The OPP, she said, treated her like a criminal in the early hours of the investigation. One officer told her neighbour, Massicotte said, that police suspected she was trying to “copycat” what happened to another sexual assault victim in Tweed, Ont., 12 days earlier. “It was really, really, really bad,” she said.

The allegations, which have not been proven in court, will form part of a lawsuit that Massicotte intends to file against Williams, his wife and the OPP.

Massicotte, of Tweed, said she seeks “substantially more” than $2.5 million in damages.

Her lawyer, David Ross, already has given notice of the lawsuit to the Superior Court of Justice. A formal statement of claim will be filed within the next month, he said.

Ross said it appears the OPP initially did not believe her story, even though she was naked and bound. “I think the police theory was that she was looking for some kind of compensation,” he said. The OPP did not respond to a request for comment on Massicotte’s allegations.

According to the notice of claim filed in the case, Massicotte will argue that the OPP also breached its “duty of care” by failing to warn her that a sexual assault had taken place in her neighbourhood less than two weeks before she was attacked. Similarly, she will argue the police failed to inform her of nearby break-and-enters in which items of female clothing were taken. The incidents dated to September 2007.

Massicotte lived alone in a house three doors away from the cottage owned by Williams and his wife on the shores of Stoco Lake, north of Belleville, in eastern Ontario.

Last October, Williams pleaded guilty to break-and-enter, sexual assault and confinement in connection with his attack on Massicotte.

The ordeal lasted 3-1/2 hours. Williams left her in a makeshift straitjacket – her arms were cinched to her sides – but she still managed to dial 911.

The police told her she would have to stay in the restraint until the ident unit arrived. When photos were finally taken five hours later, Massicotte said she was then allowed to put on a bathrobe, and taken outside for three more hours while police combed her house for evidence.

She went through a lengthy interrogation before an OPP officer “finally confessed to me that this similar situation happened 12 days ago and we didn’t warn anybody about it.”

After the incident, Massicotte said she felt violated and terrorized by Williams, and “betrayed” by the police. She said she now suffers from post-traumatic stress and anxiety. A mother of three – her children do not live with her – Massicotte told the Citizen: “I’m on the verge of a nervous breakdown.” She said she has been unable to work. “I’m basically now a prisoner in my own home. I’m afraid to go outside.”

Though Ms. Massicotte's allegations against the OPP have yet to be proven in court, they raise important questions. The issue of evidence protection vs. rendering victim aid should be a simple matter. For some, however, it is clear that a great deal more training is required before they should be allowed anywhere near potential crimes scenes. Unnecessarily detaining a witness or victim, bound or not, amounts to unlawful imprisonment. Especially if they have been sexually assaulted and are being detained without having been examined by a medical professional for injuries. Under similar circumstances, a victim with internal injuries could have suffered internal bleeding and even died while be held in wait. This is not just poor police work, it defies common sense given the multitude of avenues available for otherwise documenting the evidence.

Then there is the matter of whether the OPP failed in their duty of care with respect to protecting Ms. Massicotte or other potential victims by failing to advise them of the crimes occurring in their area in a timely fashion. In point of fact, many municipalities, when confronted with such lawsuits, claim that they owe no duty of care to a victim or the communities which their officers swear to protect and serve. This through legal representation of course. Perhaps, in such cases, it might be useful to have officers repeat, during sworn testimony, any oaths taken when receiving their police credentials. Or perhaps to have them read the OPP explanation of their community role in crime prevention as stated clearly on their website.

See also my previous post: Investigating Rape: Taking Professional Responsibility

REFERENCES

Duffy (2010)"OPP left Williams victim naked, tied up, she says," Postmedia News, August 20.

Savino, J. and Turvey, B. (2011) Rape Investigation Handbook, 2^nd Ed., San Diego: Elsevier Science.

Staff (2010) "Williams describes murders in taped confession," CTV News, October 20.

Warmington, J. (2011) "Second civil suit pending against killer colonel", Toronto Sun, July 18.

Investigating Rape: Taking Professional Responsibility

2011-08-03T18:44:00.007-08:00

Complex sex crime scandals are not hard to find these days. Especially high profile cases involving public figures, law enforcement officers, and investigations or evidence that just doesn't quite meet the standard required for the courtroom. For example:

-Two former NYPD Officers, Kenneth Moreno and Franklin Mata, were recently found not guilty of raping a 27-year-old drunk woman due to a lack of physical evidence – according to jurors;

-Lauren McAllister, a police detective with the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department was recently arrested on suspicion of interfering with the arrest of a sexual assault suspect;

-A police detective in Staffordshire was recently fired for gross misconduct for having an affair with woman while also leading the investigation into her alleged rape (a circumstance not at all unheard of in the United States);

-A judge in Albuquerque, NM, accused of raping a woman agreed to retire and never to seek a judicial office in New Mexico under a disciplinary order issued Tuesday by the state Supreme Court. This subsequent to his arrest on charges of rape and intimidation of a witness while serving as chief criminal judge in the 2nd Judicial District.

-The Dominique Strauss-Kahn case/ fiasco is still unwinding with ongoing questions about the evidence and the state’s primary witness;

-And even the Duke University Lacrosse Team scandal is back in the news again, as the forensic scientist who conspired with prosecutors to conceal exculpatory DNA evidence failed in his attempt to contest his subsequent termination.

All of these cases need (or needed) the same thing from the sex crime detectives assigned: a comprehensive and impartial investigation. Whether or not this can or has happened becomes a contentious matter for litigation, and often an expensive one. Some of this is avoidable.

The lack of thoroughness in recent high profile police investigations, as well as the partiality of those involved, has rightly caused some to question the way that such investigations are being handled, and what this means for victims of sexual assault that are already under tremendous pressure and scrutiny with respect to bringing criminal allegations forward.

In order to address the issue of best practice in sex crime investigation, and the increasingly unclear responsibilities of the sex crime investigator when training is absent and leadership fails, I spent the better part of the last 12 months working with my co-author, Det. John O. Savino (NYPD, ret.), to update our Rape Investigation Handbook with a second edition. This because, in our estimation, the quality of sex crime investigators and their investigations has dramatically decreased in the last decade.

For myself, this view was culminated in my work on the case of Oregon v. Kevin Driscoll – for the defense. In ruling on admissibility of evidence that tended to utterly discredit the alleged victim’s claims as well as demonstrating the bias and ineptitude of police investigation, the judge made some bizarre statements. Namely he stated that there is no duty on the part of law enforcement to perform a comprehensive investigation, to doubt the statements of alleged victims, or to consider alternate theories of the evidence – let alone collect evidence and have it tested. He also ruled that any evidence contradicting the statements of the alleged victim were a violation of Oregon’s Rape Shield Law and would not be admitted.

Despite this help to the prosecution’s case, the jury acquitted. But the stain of unprofessional conduct remains, as does its endorsement by too many in the courtroom scrambling to protect bad investigators and bad cases that should never have come to trial.

The following is an excerpt from Rape Investigation Handbook, 2^nd Ed. (Savino & Turvey, 2011 – Elsevier Science) that deals with the issue of investigator responsibility in sex crime investigation, and the duty of care that law enforcement has with respect to these cases:

Among the primary responsibilities of the sex crime investigator is the determination of whether or not a crime has occurred. Many complaints will have the appearance of a crime, but not every complaint is founded or necessarily results in a criminal charge. This determination requires a thorough investigation, as well as the ability to distinguish between criminal and noncriminal sexual behavior. In other words, investigators must be capable of distinguishing whether a crime has actually occurred, and to do this competently they must know what sex crimes are.

PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES

The authors have observed a great deal of organizational confusion regarding the actual responsibilities of law enforcement investigators as they approach criminal investigations. Sex crimes are particularly susceptible to disorganization, and the resulting investigative inaction, for three reasons:

1. Some investigators are often uncomfortable dealing with sex crimes victims because of the intimate nature of the crime or because of their own unresolved personal issues.

2. Some investigators have been trained inappropriately to think that any contact with a victim may result in changes to their story—so they limit contact with the victim and under document the statements that they are able to get—to preserve any future efforts to arrest or prosecute suspects.

3. Some investigators have been trained inappropriately to think that physical evidence is their enemy because it might contradict the statements of the victim—therefore they conduct their investigation as though it is best to leave some or all of the evidence uncollected or untested.

These conditions can result in a culture of sexual assault case avoidance, where investigators willfully deprive themselves of the experience they must accumulate in order to put any good training to work and become better at their job. They also result in a failure of investigators to meet their duty of investigative care and nurture investigative apathy.

This is not some remote or hypothetical notion. For example, a culture of apathy and avoidance with respect to victims of sexual assault has been acknowledged in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, by Police Chief Edward A. Flynn, as reported in Barton (2010b):

Dozens and perhaps hundreds of Milwaukee police officers may not have been adequately trained in how to deal with victims of sexual assault, Chief Edward A. Flynn acknowledged Friday.

Assertions by women that they were mistreated by police after being sexually assaulted by the same man, Gregory Tyson Below, were echoed in a state-funded report released in April and distributed at Flynn’s Friday news conference.

“At least in some segments of our victim population, there is a sense that this police department is less than responsive at the point of first report,” he said.

As a result of the women’s complaints, the department plans to improve its training of rank-and-file officers, he said.

The department provides recruits with 12 hours of training in sexual assault investigation, eight hours in interviewing victims, and 15 hours in cultural competency, some of which addresses the way members of different groups view and react to sexual assault, according to the Police Department. But that training has not always been in effect.

“We have a generation of officers who weren’t exposed to that training,” Flynn said. Further, the department has never provided annual refresher courses in sexual assault investigation for street cops, he said. “Clearly that’s a shortcoming,” he said.

Now that the problem has been identified, annual in-service training will be required for all officers starting in the fall, he said. MPD will work with other police departments and with the city’s Commission on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault to develop the curriculum, he said.

Members of the department’s Sensitive Crimes Division generally investigate sexual assaults and deal with victims long-term. They receive two days of in-service training every year. Neither the April report nor victims in the Below case criticized sensitive crimes personnel….

But training of rank-and-file officers also is important because usually they are the first ones to talk with victims of sexual assault. Three of the women who accuse Below, who was charged Monday with 32 crimes in connection with assaults against seven different women on the city’s south side, said in a criminal complaint that the police didn’t help them when they first reported assaults:

• One woman said she went to three different MPD district stations in October 2008 to report multiple assaults by Below, but officials kept telling her to go somewhere else.

• In October 2008, police arrived in the middle of an assault against a second woman. While the woman—naked from the waist down and bruised—waited for detectives to return after taking the assailant outside, one of the officers returned and asked her if the incident was a “dope date.” The officer had discovered a drug charge against the woman and seemed not to believe her.

• A third woman said she called police two different times after Below raped her on five separate occasions in 2004 but does not believe the assaults were investigated.

… In another case, records indicate that an officer responded, but there is not a corresponding report on file, Flynn said.

While police officers walk a fine line between being sensitive to victims and trying to get the truth, experts agree that judging a victim’s credibility based on her criminal record or giving victims the runaround is a bad idea….

If street officers don’t treat victims compassionately, a case can fall apart quickly, said Debra Donovan, supervisor of the sexual assault treatment center at Aurora Sinai Medical Center.

Unfortunately, the culture represented by these complaints has persisted with some Milwaukee officers, even after this highly publicized admission from their chief, as discussed in the case example in the next section. Milwaukee is not alone, however. In response to complaints from those representing victims, the New York City Police Department has announced that patrol officers will no longer be allowed to respond first to sex crimes (Parascandolar, 2010):

Patrol officers will no longer be the first to respond to reported sex crimes, leaving the initial interviews to detectives from the special victims unit.

The NYPD, in response to complaints from advocacy groups and rape counselors, also will increase the number of available SVU investigators. Some complained that victims’ allegations too often were ignored or classified as less serious crimes.

In response to the criticism, the Police Department conducted an internal review of how it handled such crimes. The review turned up problems in only 19 of the 1,922 cases. Still, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly decided to make changes. One of the most persistent complaints from advocates was that patrol officers who interviewed victims at hospitals often weren’t sensitive enough.

“I think that’s a valid concern,” Kelly said Wednesday.

This move by the NYPD is an acknowledgment that they perceive cultural problems with their patrol officers that can only be addressed with drastic measures. This cannot truly solve the problem, however, as it is not being addressed directly. Patrol is not being removed from the equation, rather the responsibility of first response is being shifted somewhere else. It is hoped that this will not result in justice delayed.

Duty of Care

The investigation of reported sexual assaults is the statutory and jurisdictional province of law enforcement agencies; the agency in charge depends on which laws have been reported broken and where. Nobody else has the legal authority to respond, interview witnesses and suspects, collect evidence, or make arrests in these cases. Consequently, responding law enforcement agencies have a duty of care—an obligation to be competent custodians of the criminal investigations they initiate and any evidence that supports or refutes allegations of criminal activity against accused suspects. If an agency or its officers and investigators do not hold or perceive a duty of care, then they are not fit to serve

Primary Responsibilities

The primary responsibilities of the sex crime detective, when responding to a criminal complaint, include:

1. Determining what happened

2. Determining whether or not a crime has taken place

3. Identifying and arresting any criminal perpetrators

Investigators may not assume what happened based on the statements of one party, they may not assume that a crime has actually occurred until those facts have been established, and they must impartially place the cuffs on anyone they determine has broken the law. As explained in Bryden and Lengnick (1997, pp. 1230–1231):

As with all crimes, the police decide whether a reported rape actually occurred, and attempt to determine who committed it. If they want the case to go forward, they “found” the complaint and transmit the file to the prosecutor’s office…. The police must investigate, a task that cannot easily be combined with offering the emotional support that the victim needs. The detective presumably wishes to avoid an injustice to a wrongly accused individual. In addition, for reasons of professional pride, he does his best to avoid looking naive by falling for a story that turns out to be false. Experienced investigators also know that many rape complainants ultimately decline to press charges, sometimes to the dismay of a detective who has worked hard to build a case.

Meeting these responsibilities is best accomplished with a thorough, diligent, and comprehensive investigation. By comprehensive investigation, the authors mean a detailed review of the complainant and their statements; the careful consideration of witness and suspect statements; and the diligent collection and examination of any physical evidence. All of this must be attended prior to making final determinations regarding whether a crime has been committed, and whether probable cause exists to arrest any suspects.

Too often, these responsibilities are implemented in reverse—with suspects arrested first and investigations happening later, if at all. This is backward and may result in the creation of bias, missed suspects and evidence, and then doubt when results of the investigation begin to point away from the person that was initially arrested. Investigators have a duty to refrain from becoming invested in their suspects to the point where they consider making an arrest before a sufficient (or any) investigation has been undertaken. Failure to proceed with the investigation first, and ensure that any arrests are a natural result of that process, can lead to a miscarriage of justice (e.g., a failed prosecution of the factually guilty, or a successful prosecution of the factually innocent).

Investigative Duties

Despite the attitudes and actions of some, the investigator’s goal is not to find reasons or means to dispose of their cases as quickly as possible in order to move on to the next complaint or to get back to the station before the end of their shift or “tour.” Each investigation deserves, and must receive, comprehensive effort before any major decisions can be made. Not every case will receive a so-called “Cadillac investigation,” where everything is done, and done perfectly. Things will get missed and mistakes will be made. But each case can and should get the investigative basics, and every mistake must be corrected if possible.

This section provides some of the basic duties that sex crimes investigators must perform when conducting their investigation. These must be done properly and to completion in order to represent the best investigative effort:

1. Assume that the case will be going to court

The sex crime investigators should be thinking about and preparing for trial from the moment that initial notification is received. Specifically, they should assume that their case will result in a trial and that supervisors, forensic experts, prosecutors, defense attorneys, judges, and juries will scrutinize every decision made. This means adopting a heightened sense of professionalism, thoroughness, and accountability.

2. Interview the officer who made the initial report

The investigator must obtain detailed information about the case from the officer who took the initial complaint. During this interview, the investigator should learn the name, address, and background information of the victim. If the suspect is known, the investigator should obtain background information on this individual as well. If the suspect is a stranger, the investigator should get a detailed physical description.

The investigator must also get a detailed account of everything that the victim said to the responding officer during this initial contact—not in the officer’s words but the victim’s. The investigator must also learn what investigative steps, if any, have already been taken in order to follow up and avoid duplicating effort.

3. Ensure sure the crime scene is secured; determine if there are multiple scenes

The investigator has the responsibility to make sure that each crime scene is being secured until a forensic team can get there and process it.

4. Respond to where the victim is located; conduct a preliminary interview

The preliminary interview with a victim does not have to be extremely detailed. The investigator needs to learn enough to establish whether the elements of a crime are present and to identify any key evidence, suspects, and witnesses. As already mentioned, the investigator should attempt to uncover any details that will assist with processing the crime scene.

Depending on the timing of the initial notification, this interview may take place at the crime scene, the hospital, the victim’s residence, or the residence of a friend or relative. A more thorough interview can take place at a later time in a more appropriate location. However, it is best to conduct this interview almost anywhere but the location where the attack occurred to prevent further emotional trauma and the destruction or alteration of evidence. Additionally, the crime scene unit should be instructed to hold off processing efforts until this interview has been conducted and the information learned can be relayed to them—to avoid missing evidence.

The following information is crucial for effectively processing the scene and recovering everything of value from it the first time:

• Exact location of the alleged assault, for example, bed, couch, bathroom, kitchen, sidewalk, closet, alleyway, or in the bushes.

• Circumstances of the alleged assault: This includes a description of the activities of the victim, for example, walking home from school, jogging in a park, or sleeping in her apartment.

• Time of occurrence: This will assist when canvassing neighbors and nearby business as may be appropriate.

• Victim injuries: Crime scene unit personnel should photograph all injuries, no matter how minor. If they refuse, the investigator should step in and take his or her own photos.

• Items used during the attack by victim and offender, for example, weapons, ligatures, or sexual items and materials.

• Items touched by the offender, for example, computers, purses, televisions, telephones, and toilets. These should be examined for trace evidence and seized to corroborate the victim’s story and help establish the identity of the offender if necessary.

• Possible location of bodily fluids, for example, blood, semen, saliva, and excrement.

• Point of entry into the scene, and exit, if applicable.

• Detailed description of the suspect: This includes suspect physical characteristics, clothing, and smells such as alcohol, cigarette smoke, perfume, or cologne. This information should be distributed to area patrol units immediately.

All of the information gathered should be relayed to crime scene unit personnel to educate their search for, and examination of, physical evidence associated with the attack.

It is likely that the investigator will be responding to a hospital or clinic where the victim is receiving medical care and undergoing forensic examination protocols (see Chapter 12: Sexual Assault Examination and Reconstruction). In these instances, the investigator must take the opportunity to confer with the medical staff examining the victim to ensure that all necessary exams will be conducted. Not every hospital is staffed properly to conduct a sexual assault examination, and not everyone holding the job title of “sexual assault nurse examiner” is necessarily knowledgeable or experienced regarding the tasks at hand. It is always best to confirm his or her intentions rather than to assume a proper job will be done.

5. Respond to the crime scene; interview any witnesses and officers present

This presupposes that responding officers have met their obligations and maintained both the scene and any witnesses nearby. Regardless, there is no excuse for failing to attend the scene, secure or not. The investigator should interview everyone present and note the lighting conditions and location of any obvious activity or items of evidence. The investigator must also conduct a search for additional witnesses or surveillance cameras in and around the area where the crime occurred. Again, this will be covered in further detail in Chapter 5: Investigative Crime Scene Management. The investigator should also attempt to identify the first person that the victim told about the assault, commonly referred to as an outcry witness, and interview that person.

6. Secure warrants; confer with the forensic team

The sex crimes investigator has a responsibility to make sure any and all potentially related evidence is recovered. This carries with it the need to secure any search warrants before crime scene processing efforts can begin—when necessary. Conferring with the forensic team is therefore a requirement.

At this point, the sex crimes investigator should be the one who possesses the most complete picture of the case, to include the details of the assault, the actors involved, and the evidence they may have left behind. The investigator must make the forensic team aware of any specific items of evidence to recover and any tests that should be performed. It is the investigator’s responsibility to make sure that pertinent evidence is recovered properly and to ensure that a proper chain of custody is maintained for each item. The investigator is also ultimately responsible for making sure that the evidence from his or her case is submitted to a laboratory for testing and for explaining what tests should be conducted. This will be explained in further detail in Chapter 6: Crime Scene Investigation in Sexual Assaults.

7. Make a case book; keep and maintain all tips and leads

The sex crimes investigator has a responsibility to keep and maintain a “book” that contains details on every interview conducted, every item of evidence tested, every tip received, and every lead that is developed. All of the information in this book must be continuously updated and reviewed. Every lead that is developed from the information within must be followed up on.

8. Ensure that appropriate identification procedures are used

When a good suspect is developed, the sex crimes detective will be held accountable for any irregularities or improprieties that may be found in subsequent identification efforts. See Chapter 9: Eyewitness Reports, Identifications, and Testimony.

9. Keep accurate and legible notes during the investigation

Note taking is the foundation of a good investigation. It should be accurate, comprehensive, and chronological. Note taking helps coordinate the investigation, keeps it on track, refreshes the memory as needed, and helps structure the case for presentation in court.

10. Keep the victim informed

It is the investigator’s responsibility to keep and maintain a professional working relationship with the victim from the outset of a case to its conclusion. The investigator must respond to the victim’s questions in a timely fashion, keep him or her informed with respect to developments in the case, and make sure that he or she understands what will be needed from him or her at different points along the way.

As already mentioned, the investigator’s most basic responsibility is to conduct a thorough and diligent investigation. To do this right, investigators must learn as much as they can about the crimes they have been assigned to investigate. The investigator should strive to become an expert in the field he or she has been assigned to investigate, whether it be a sex crimes squad, homicide squad, economic crimes, or general crimes. The victim, as well as the accused, is entitled to the best investigative effort that the investigator and agency can provide.

REFERENCES

Barton, G. (2010a). Accused serial rapist faces 15 new counts. Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, September 28.

Barton, G. (2010b). Police to improve sensitivity training. Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, July 9.

Bryden, D., and Lengnick, S. (1997). Rape in the criminal justice system. Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, 87;1194–1384, Summer.

Parascandola, R. (2010). SVU investigators to be first on sex-crime scenes, NYPD says. New York Daily News, December 23.

Brent E. Turvey, MS (Forensic Science) is a senior partner with Forensic Solutions, LLC, author of numerous forensic texts on the subject of crime reconstruction, criminal profiling, and forensic victimology, and specializes in the examination of cases involving violent sexual behavior - including rape and sexual homicide. He can be reached at bturvey@forensic-science.com.

Crime Scene Analysis & Criminal Profiling Seminar

2011-03-11T14:47:00.005-09:00

Forensic Solutions and the Academy of Behavioral Profiling are pleased to sponsor the following two day training event in conjunction with the Elgin Community College. College credit is available for ECC students.

This is a two (2) day session where students learn theory and practice through the structured examination of case study material. The first day will involve the theory and practice of an holistic approach to crime reconstruction. The second day will involve the theory and practice of crime scene analysis. Each day will culminate in group work with actual case material.

This workshop is open to the public, and is strongly recommended for students and professionals who are working or studying in areas related to:

• Criminology

• Criminal Investigation

• Criminal Justice

• Forensic Nursing

• Forensic Science

• Law Enforcement

• Legal studies

• Mental Health/ Counseling

• Psychology

• Sociology

• Women's studies

• Victimology

LOCATION

Elgin Community College
ATC Auditorium
1700 Spartan Dr.
Elgin, Illinois 60134

SEMINAR DATES & TIMES
April 8-9, 2011; 9:00AM - 4:40PM

REGISTRATION COSTS
ECC Students: $30 USD
Non-ECC Students: $50 USD
Non-Student/ Public: $100 USD

ECC STUDENTS

ECC students can concurrently enroll in PSY220.101 for course credit. See http://accessecc.elgin.edu, or contact Dr. Shawn Mikulay for more information.

CONTACTS

Brent E. Turvey, MS
bturvey@forensic-science.com
907-738-5121

Shawn Mikulay, PhD
smikulay@elgin.edu
847-214-7963

INSTRUCTORS

Brent E. Turvey, MS
Forensic Scientist & Criminal Profiler

Brent E. Turvey holds a Bachelor of Science in Psychology, with an emphasis on Forensic Psychology, and an additional Bachelor of Science in History. He went on to receive his Masters of Science in Forensic Science after studying at the University of New Haven, in West Haven, Connecticut.

Since graduating in 1996, Brent has consulted with many government agencies, law enforcement agencies, and private attorneys in the United States, Australia, China, Canada, Barbados, Korea and Scotland on a range of rapes, homicides, and serial/ multiple rape/ death cases, as a forensic scientist and criminal profiler. This includes cases under investigation, as well as those going to trial. He has also been court qualified as a forensic expert in the areas of criminal profiling, forensic science, victimology, and crime reconstruction, providing expert examinations and testimony for the last 15 years.

He is the author of Criminal Profiling: An Introduction to Behavioral Evidence Analysis, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Ed. (1999, 2002, 2008, 2011); and co-author of Rape Investigation Handbook, 1st and 2nd Ed. (2004, 2011), Crime Reconstruction, 1st and 2nd Ed. (2006, 2011), and Forensic Victimology (2009) - all with Elsevier Science. For a complete list of titles, see Amazon.com.

Brent is currently a full partner, Forensic Scientist, Criminal Profiler, and Instructor with Forensic Solutions, LLC, as well as an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Sociology and Justice Studies at Oklahoma City University. He is also the Secretary of the Academy of Behavioral Profiling, as well as a member of their board of directors.

Shawn Mikulay, PhD
Associate Professor of Psychology
Vice President, Academy of Behavioral Profiling

Shawn Mikulay received his BA, MA, and PhD in Psychology, and his MS in Industrial Management from Northern Illinois University. His published research is concentrated in the ara of employee deviance. He is currently an Associate Professor in the Psychology Department at Elgin Community College, and teaches courses in experimental, developmental, social, introductory, and forensic psychology, as well as human sexuality.

He is currently serving as the Vice President of the Academy of Behavioral Profiling.

REGISTRATION

Those interested in registering for this workshop may pay by check, money order, Visa, MC, or Discover.

Check or Money Order
Make all checks or international money orders payable to Forensic Solutions, LLC in US Dollars. Also, provide your name, employment/ student information, and contact information including phone and email so that we can contact you and send updates.

Mail to:
ECC Seminar c/o
Forensic Solutions, LLC
P.O. Box 2175
Sitka, Alaska 99835

Visa/ MC
Click on the appropriate link below.

ECC Students: $30 USD REGISTER NOW!
Non-ECC Students: $50 USD
REGISTER NOW!
Non-Student/ Public: $100 USD
REGISTER NOW!

Web Page: http://www.forensic-science.com/seminar_2011.html

ABP CONFERENCE & PROFILING WORKSHOP - 2010

2010-06-27T10:30:00.003-08:00

The 11 th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Behavioral Profiling (ABP) will be hosted this year by Owens Community College in Toledo, Ohio on August 7th & 8th, 2010. Open to the public, thee meeting is a conference where members present papers regarding current cases and research, followed by a two day Criminal Profiling Workshop (Aug. 9-10, 2010).

Since its inception in 1999, the ABP has grown to almost 200 international members with diverse student and professional backgrounds. This includes forensic psychology, forensic psychiatry, criminal investigations, criminology, and forensic science. The membership is unified by their forensic work, teaching and scholarly research related to crime, criminals, and forensic examinations.

The schedule of presentations at this years meeting, which is open to the public, includes lectures on the subjects of criminal profiling, behavioral analysis, investigative strategy, crime reconstruction, false confessions, serial rape, sexual homicide, and victimology.

Those interested in attending should visit the ABP's website at www.profiling.org, or contact Dr. Stan Crowder at scrowder@kennesaw.edu. All are welcome.

Links:

1. http://www.profiling.org/abp_meeting2010.html

2. http://www.forensic-science.com/seminar_2010.html

Criminal Profilers Meet at Grossmont College

2009-06-17T14:47:00.000-08:00

The Tenth Annual Meeting of the Academy of Behavioral Profiling (ABP) will be held this year at Grossmont College in El Cajon, California on August 8th & 9th.

"Our first meeting was in Monterey, back in 1999," says Brent Turvey, a forensic scientist and criminal profiler in private practice, as well as the Secretary of the ABP. "We got a lot accomplished in that first year, including uniform terminology, a strong code of ethics and written practice standards. All of these have been published and regularly updated in the textbookCriminal Profiling, in its third edition now, which our more senior practicing members have contributed to over the years."

Since its inception in 1999, the ABP has grown to over 150 international members with diverse professional backgrounds such as forensic psychology, forensic psychiatry, criminal investigations, criminology, and forensic science. They are all bound together by their work in relation to crime, criminals, and forensic examinations.

The upcoming meeting at Grossmont College promises to be among the most important, as changes are coming. "The profiling discipline has matured," explains current ABP President,Dr. Wayne Petherick, a forensic criminologist and professor of criminology at Bond University in Gold Coast, Australia. "There are many different kinds of criminological assessments performed by our members, because the knowledge and skills developed for profiling can be used in other forensic examinations. The ABP is evolving to keep up with those kinds of advancements."

"For our members the annual meeting is a chance for students and professionals to get together, share ideas, and remain current with methods and developments in recent cases," states Michael McGrath, MD, a forensic psychiatrist and past President of the ABP, currently serving as its Ethics Chair. "For the other professionals and even the general public, it is an opportunity to learn about forensic casework from people who are actually doing it and know what they are talking about. There are a lot of misconceptions out there."

The schedule of presentations at this years meeting, which is open to the public, includes lectures on the subjects of forensic criminology, criminal profiling, homicide solvability, motivations of law enforcement offenders, forensic victimology, ethics, and staged crime scenes.

Those interested in attending should visit the ABP's website at www.profiling.org, or contactDr. Stan Crowder at scrowder@kennesaw.edu.

FALSE REPORTER HAS HISTORY

2009-03-04T08:42:00.005-09:00

Law enforcement investigators have a hard job, no doubt about it. They are required to make difficult decisions under stressful situations in a very short period of time which can have grave consequences. So there will be mistakes. One way reduce the number of those mistakes is by ensuring that decisions are as informed as possible.

To that end, prior to responding to any call, whether it is a domestic disturbance or a complaint of sexual assault, a preliminary assessment of the actors involved is necessary. It involves little more than a quick database search for wants, warrants, and criminal convictions - much like is done during an average traffic stop. This simple act can better inform decisions and determinations that must be made at the scene. This includes, but is not limited to: who was more likely the aggressor in a domestic disturbance by virtue of history; who has a history of being armed; who has a history of being under the influence of a controlled substance; and who might have a history of falsely reporting crime.

Problems caused by the failure to investigate and establish the history of those involved in criminal complaints, on both sides, are discussed throughout Forensic Victimology (2008; p.293):

False reporters span all ages, all walks of life, and are capable of staging both injuries and evidence to support their claims. A thorough investigation of the evidence has traditionally been the best way to reveal the false reporter, who is more likely to confess when confronted with logical inconsistencies in his or her statements and behavior. Unfortunately, law enforcement resources are drained away from actual victims by such cases. Innocent citizens are exposed to the possibility of false accusations and damage to their personal and professional lives. Legitimate victims of sexual assault are exposed to the possibility of encountering overtaxed law enforcement resources that are inadequate to the task of investigating their cases thoroughly or competently. Building owners, private companies, and insurance companies are exposed to the threat of costly liability lawsuits. As stated in Gross (1924, 14): "Not only must the self-made victim be exposed, but innocent people who may be suspected must be protected."

A recent example illustrates the kind of problems that can averted by delaying action for just a few moments while stories are checked out and backgrounds are made clear. In involves Elisa LaCroix, a false reporter with a history.

________________________________________

Child's mother faces charges for making false report

Attorney calls it a spur-of-the-moment plan that grew out of control.

By JULIA O'MALLEY

jomalley@adn.com

March 2nd, 2009

Elisa LaCroix appeared in court Monday on charges related to what police say was the staged abduction of her 3-week-old son Saturday.

LaCroix is charged with making a false report -- a misdemeanor -- as well as violating probation on a 2006 burglary conviction. She's also facing charges for faking a sexual assault in January.

She blamed the rape and, at one point, the abduction on an ex-boyfriend, prosecutors say. He was later cleared in both cases.

Each charge carries the possibility of up to a year in prison, up to a $10,000 fine and up to 10 years of probation, according to her attorney, Rex Butler. Her bail was set at $5,000, he said.

LaCroix has two children, including the 3-week-old, and both are in the custody of a family member, Butler said.

"That is what she wanted," Butler said.

He said she is also in counseling.

The abduction report led law enforcement to issue the state's first Amber Alert for a missing child overnight Saturday. The charges against her say that investigators later discovered that LaCroix handed her infant out a bedroom window to a friend because she was worried that her husband, who is due to deploy to Afghanistan, would try to take custody of him. The friend didn't know that she was part of a scheme and was not charged.

In a live interview on KTUU Channel 2 Monday evening, Butler said LaCroix, desperate to keep custody of her son, made a spur-of-the-moment plan that got out of hand. He called her a victim.

"The public doesn't know the whole story," he said.

Attempts to reach LaCroix's husband, Kaid LaCroix, on Monday were not successful.

________________________________________

Brent E.Turvey, MS, also author of Criminal Profiling, 3rd Ed. with Elsevier Science (2008), can be reached at bturvey@forensic-science.com.

FORENSIC VICTIMOLOGY TEXT: VICTIM STUDY TOO POLITICAL; INVESTIGATIVE AND LEGAL OUTCOMES COMPROMISED

2008-10-04T21:16:00.010-08:00

PRESS RELEASE - Forensic Solutions, LLC

Victims of violent crime are too often studied as stereotypical groups rather than as complex individuals. Investigators are too often pressured to accept or question victim statements based on emotional and political considerations. And worse, the justice system treats many victims as mere witnesses for the prosecution, rating their character with subjective moral standards, rather than perceiving them as real people who have suffered harm and need help. The result is less informed research, less informed investigations, and less informed legal outcomes. So argues the new textbook Forensic Victimology (Elsevier Science, 2009) coauthored by forensic scientist and criminal profiler Brent Turvey of Alaska, and Wayne Petherick, PhD, an Associate Professor of Criminology at Bond University on the Gold Coast, Australia.

In part, the current state of academic affairs has to do with the way that different victim groups are regarded by the police and courts, and then researched and taught by theoretical criminologists. There is a tendency to avoid asking tough questions of culturally sympathetic victims, such as those who have been raped, and a desire to punish others who may be regarded as immoral or complicit, such as drug addicts and prostitutes, Dr. Petherick explains.

“Victimology, which is a sub-discipline of criminology, is meant to be the scientific study of victims. But it is taught at university almost exclusively through a narrow lens that involves feminist and restorative perspectives bundled with less than reliable victim crime data,” states Dr. Petherick. “Unfortunately, too many lecturers are there to push a particular agenda or ideology when neutrality is what’s needed. That tends to put a lot of our best students off. It’s at best naive and at worst politicized. This needs to change.”

Turvey agrees. “Science is skeptical. It asks questions. And it assumes nothing. Lose the freedom to doubt and we lose our ability to understand problems, let alone solve them,” he explains.

Turvey, a court qualified forensic expert who has worked rape and homicide cases for law enforcement and attorneys since the mid 1990s, sees the current landscape of victimology as one overpopulated with advocates – some by job title and some by way of personal philosophy. “It seems as though much of victimology has become the property of those with social and even political agendas. There is more to victimology than that – substantially more.”

For Turvey and those like him, victim study is not about broad or obscure theory; it is applied and specific – a necessary component of investigating violent crime. “My job is to figure out what happened and why. That means getting the facts. And that means asking tough questions to victims and about victims in every case – no matter what. My experience has been that politics and personal beliefs immediately get in the way of that.”

For more than ten years, Petherick and Turvey have collaborated on casework and teaching projects in both the United States and Australia. In their work, they have repeatedly been confronted by the same types of problems with respect to victims of crime: some witnesses lie about victims, some victims lie about what happened to them, and some people lie about being victims. And that’s when victim evidence is collected at all. In the current culture, the way that victims are investigated and studied, it is difficult to address this without offending someone – whether it be the victim, a victim’s advocate, an investigator, an attorney, or a judge.

They came to realize that the solution to these problems was already there, if buried beneath competing agendas. The solution was to reboot victimology as a truly scientific study with investigative and forensic implications.

Forensic Victimology as a field is defined by the authors as the scientific study of victims for the purposes of addressing investigative and forensic issues. It involves the skeptical investigation of facts and a thorough examination of the evidence. Forensic victimology, explains Turvey, provides a scientific balance against the idealization or demonization of victims, a filter for deception and false reporting, and the means for identifying a threshold of relevance for victim information and opinions already at work in the criminal justice system.

They write: “the forensic victimologist is best conceived as an objective, dispassionate, and above all scientific examiner. They are critical and skeptical, and they put the establishment of fact before politics or any other consideration. To that end, they take nothing for granted, look for corroboration of any alleged victim’s statements, seek out collateral sources of information, and investigate alternate or contributing motives for victim behavior. Most importantly, the forensic victimologist is barred from assuming that alleged victims must have been victimized. For their purposes, victimity must be established unequivocally and may not be asserted simply for ideological purposes. They investigate as scientists, they report as educators, and they understand the gravity of their eventual courtroom testimony.”

The result of their work and research is a colloborative textbook, Forensic Victimology, published in October of 2008 by Elsevier Science out of San Diego, California, with chapters contributed by a range of professionals whose work involves interpreting victim evidence. “It gives students basic methodology, and professional victimologists the permission to think, teach, and act like scientists,” explains Turvey. Dr. Petherick goes further, arguing “It moves victimology from the theoretical study of victim groups through the lens of radical agendas to an applied scientific discipline that helps solve crime and resolve legal questions. It is where criminology needs to be.”

__________________________________________________________

Brent E.Turvey, MS, also author of Criminal Profiling, 3rd Ed. with Elsevier Science (2008), can be reached at bturvey@forensic-science.com.

Wayne A. Petherick, PhD, also author of Serial Crime with Elsevier Science (2005), can be reached at wpetheri@staff.bond.edu.au.

ECC Students: $30 USD	REGISTER NOW!
Non-ECC Students: $50 USD	REGISTER NOW!
Non-Student/ Public: $100 USD	REGISTER NOW!