The Development of Cold Case Reviews

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheryl Allsop
Keyword(s):  
Dna Profiling ◽  
Case Review ◽  
Police Service ◽  
Profiling Techniques ◽  
Cold Case

This chapter charts the development of interest among the police service for reviewing cold cases, considering how the key processes and systems for reviewing cold cases have emerged and evolved. What becomes clear is that from a police service initially disinterested in expending time and resources on reviewing historic crimes on a regular basis, the appetite for doing so has grown, as review teams began to conduct them far more systematically. A brief overview of the development of review policies more generally is set out, before going on to document how three police areas piloted the concept of reviewing cold case stranger rapes using new DNA profiling techniques. After that, Operation Advance will be introduced, before turning to Operation Stealth, a national cold case review operation focused on detecting unsolved murders.

The Major Crime Review Team

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheryl Allsop
Keyword(s):  
Dna Profiling ◽  
Case Review ◽  
Equal Importance ◽  
Review Team ◽  
Profiling Techniques ◽  
Cold Case

This chapter begins to present findings from the in-depth research conducted with one cold case review team. Here we will see the reliance on DNA in cold case review work, and of equal importance how detective skills are required to capitalize on the opportunities advances in DNA profiling techniques can bring to cold cases. The Major Crime Review Team at the centre of this study will be introduced and the cold case review processes followed by the team will be explained, noting the generic review processes and commonalties of approach, as well as noting any variations in approach depending on the nature of the case being reviewed.

Setting the Scene

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheryl Allsop
Keyword(s):  
Biological Material ◽  
Dna Profiling ◽  
Case Review ◽  
Dna Database ◽  
Key Concepts ◽  
Profiling Techniques ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Cold Case

This chapter introduces the reader to cold case investigations and sets out the key concepts that will be explored in the book, including an explanation of what constitutes a cold case and a cold case review. It outlines the crimes most likely to be the subject of a cold case review, namely murder and ‘stranger rape’. There is also a brief introduction to the role of DNA in these reviews, as advanced DNA profiling techniques and methods of amplifying minute amounts of biological material have led to the opening of new lines of enquiry in cold cases. The introduction of the National DNA Database (NDNAD) has also been instrumental to the success of cold case reviews, especially in sexually motivated offences.

Organizing the Organizational Memory

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheryl Allsop
Keyword(s):  
Review Process ◽  
Routine Activities ◽  
Dna Profiling ◽  
Organizational Memory ◽  
Media Representations ◽  
Profiling Techniques ◽  
Cold Case

This chapter concerns ‘organizing the organizational memory’, that is, the fundamental processes, practices, and procedures required to enable cold case reviews to take place. The advances in DNA profiling techniques and technologies have created a growth of opportunities for reviewing cold cases, and in this chapter it will become clear how this investigative potential has created new problems requiring the development of a system of working before a review can take place, suggesting the need to look forward and back in the review process. What emerges is a process of ‘back engineering’ and forward planning, a collection of routine activities centred on finding opportunities to identify and connect suspects to the unsolved crimes revealing the realities of such work, which is often mundane, far from the gloss and glamour depicted by media representations. The challenges to achieving a successful detection are also laid out.

Developments in DNA Profiling Techniques and Technologies

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheryl Allsop
Keyword(s):  
Dna Fingerprinting ◽  
Dna Profiling ◽  
Dna Profile ◽  
Genetic Profiling ◽  
History Of ◽  
Profiling Techniques ◽  
Initial Discovery ◽  
Close Relatives ◽  
Cold Case

This chapter provides a brief history of developments in genetic profiling, noting the advances in profiling techniques from the initial discovery by Sir Alec Jeffreys of what was then termed DNA ‘fingerprinting’ through to familial searching (that is, the ability to search the NDNAD for the DNA profile of potential close relatives of a suspect when the suspect’s DNA is not on the NDNAD). An overview of what DNA is, noting how individuals are identified and differentiated from each other, is explained in order to demonstrate how these progressive advances have benefited cold case reviews.

Cold Case Reviews

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheryl Allsop
Keyword(s):  
Dna Profiling ◽  
Technological Advances ◽  
Review Team ◽  
Case Files ◽  
Profiling Techniques ◽  
Cold Case

Investigating Cold Cases: DNA, Detective Work, and Unsolved Major Crimes, analyses how long-term unsolved murders and unsolved stranger rapes are investigated years after the crimes were committed. The book examines how and why cold case investigations have become an established component of police investigative practice, the role of specialist expertise used, in particular DNA profiling techniques and technologies, and the investigative skills required to finally detect cold cases. The book is based on original fieldwork with one major crime review team as they investigated cold case murders and cold case stranger rapes, interviews with a variety of experts involved in cold case investigations, and analysis of police case files. Above all else, the book will examine the reliance on advances in DNA profiling techniques, to identify previously unknown offenders and suggests that alongside these technological advances it is traditional detective skills that are also necessary to finally detect these crimes.

“Jack the Stripper” – A cold case review

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (9) ◽  
pp. 312-328
Author(s):  
M. J. Berry
Keyword(s):  
Sex Workers ◽  
Female Sex Workers ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Case Review ◽  
Female Sex ◽  
Cold Case ◽  
Number Of Males

This cold case is unusual in that the full details have been embargoed for a hundred years yet it has been the source of numerous books about the killer nicknamed ‘Jack the Stripper’.  During 1964-1965, six female sex workers were murdered and left naked scattered around London’s Hammersmith area.  A number of males were identified as the killer although none were convicted.  The writer has incorporated data from eight books and visits to various sites to create a profile; it challenges some of the unsubstantiated claims of the various authors who have written about the murders and who named at least five different killers. It identifies the likely characteristics and questions much that has been written by emotive authors based upon secondary data with the risk that such an approach is used. 

A report of an international collaborative experiment to demonstrate the uniformity obtainable using DNA profiling techniques

1992 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Gill ◽  
S. Woodroffe ◽  
W. Bär ◽  
B. Brinkmann ◽  
A. Carracedo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Dna Profiling ◽  
Profiling Techniques ◽  
International Collaborative
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