Detection Avoidance in Homicides: Debates, Explanations and Responses presents theory and research on how offenders avoid detection and the challenges and opportunities these efforts pose to investigators. From a scholarly perspective, the book presents a continuing history of research on detection avoidance by offenders, discusses the features of complex death investigations involving detection avoidance, and critiques the current frameworks used for conceptualizing these behaviors. Dr. Ferguson focuses on the key debates in the literature, argues for collaborations between researchers and practitioners to remedy siloing, and explores the reality of detection avoidance in homicides as complex and multifaceted. While detection avoidance behaviors have the potential to negatively impact sudden death investigations and frustrate criminal investigations specifically, their use also creates broader problems. These include many problematic effects on family members of the deceased, police officers, police agencies and the communities they serve. Offenders choosing to use detection avoidance behaviors challenges the efficient use of public resources, puts at risk the successful adjudication of homicides, and creates a public safety issue. The book explains detection avoidance using learning, situational, individual and gender-based theories, including proposing whether it may be a form of coercive control used by intimate partner abusers. Finally, how detection avoidance by offenders is recognized and responded to in sudden death investigations is addressed, with specific reference to useful examples of policy reform implemented by various police agencies internationally. Providing research and theory to explain detection avoidance and best practice for responding to it, this book will be of great interest to students and scholars of criminology, forensic science and psychology. It will also be useful to professionals working with homicide offenders.

As global criminology evolves, new questions arise. How can policymakers and law enforcement agencies leverage criminological insights to formulate effective crime prevention strategies? How do international collaborations in forensic science contribute to a more robust global criminal justice framework? Cases on Forensic and Criminological Science for Criminal Detection and Avoidance beckons readers into the fascinating world of forensic science and criminology. Distinguished authors span multi-level experience as practitioners, researchers, and academics, and they examine the multifaceted dimensions of criminal detection and avoidance. Contributors, hailing from globally recognized institutions such as the British Criminology Association, Chartered Society of Forensic Sciences, and American Criminology Association, navigate the complex intersections of forensic science and criminology, exploring the latest criminal detection and avoidance advancements. Moreover, the book examines the practical implications of research findings. This book is ideal for academics, practitioners, policymakers, students, and professionals in criminology, forensic science, and criminal justice seeking a comprehensive exploration of contemporary criminal detection and avoidance issues.

The Routledge Handbook of Homicide Studies comprehensively examines the topic of homicide from a diverse collection of perspectives and backgrounds. It brings together original contributions on homicide, with a focus on the broad range of impacts of homicide from a multitude of disciplines that evaluate and examine homicide in actual practice and theory. The editors have assembled a comprehensive collection highlighting the multifaceted causes and ramifications of homicide both across the United States and globally, with chapters exploring the current state of homicide, typologies of homicides offenders, causes and correlates of homicide, homicides and the criminal justice system, and a professional observations chapters authored by some of the leading practicing professionals in the world, many of whom have made pivotal contributions to the evaluation and investigation of homicide offenders and cases. Providing state-of-the-art scholarship on homicide in modern society, this handbook is a key collection and an invaluable resource for students, researchers, and practitioners engaged in the study of homicide across a diverse range of disciplines, including criminal justice and criminology, psychology, sociology, forensics, interdisciplinary departments, and sociolegal studies.

This edited collection brings together leading academics, researchers, and police personnel to provide a comprehensive body of literature that informs Australian police education, training, research, policy, and practice. There is a strong history and growth in police education, both in Australia and globally. Recognising and reflecting on the Australian and New Zealand Policing Advisory Agency (ANZPAA) education and training framework, the range of chapters within the book address a range of 21st-century issues modern police forces face. This book discusses four key themes: Education, training, and professional practice: topics include police education, ethics, wellbeing, and leadership Organisational approaches and techniques: topics include police discretion, use of force, investigative interviewing, and forensic science Operational practices and procedures: topics include police and the media, emergency management, cybercrime, terrorism, and community management Working with individuals and groups: topics include mental health, Indigenous communities, young people, hate crime, domestic violence, and working with victims Australian Policing: Critical Issues in 21st Century Police Practice draws together theoretical and practice debates to ensure this book will be of interest to those who want to join the police, those who are currently training to become a police officer, and those who are currently serving. This book is essential reading for all students, scholars, and researchers engaged with policing and the criminal justice sector.

This book offers a comprehensive understanding of sexual homicide. It includes a thorough survey of offender classifications, and analyses current theoretical explanations and understandings of sexual homicide from a criminological perspective. It proposes an important new integrated theoretical understanding of sexual homicide offenders.

Forensic psychology plays an increasingly important role in criminal investigations and legal decision-making. Homicide: A Forensic Psychology Casebook guides readers through the practical aspects of homicide cases across the entire criminal justice system, from the investigative process to the criminal trial process, and beyond. Each chapter contains a description and analysis of selected cases and offenders, and provides a crime narrative and offender narrative to illustrate the underlying theory and practical considerations of homicide investigations. Criminal justice students and practitioners alike will benefit from the comprehensive scope of this text. In order to ensure fair and efficient criminal justice practices in the field of forensic investigation, there is still a need for conformity and standardization of sound protocols and approaches based on improved knowledge and education. This book is part of that effort to understand homicidal behavior and offenders better in order to prevent similar crimes.

No-Body Homicides: The Evolution of Investigation and Prosecution examines how police and prosecutors have become more successful in obtaining convictions for homicide when the remains of the victim are unavailable as evidence. Based on an examination of over 600 cases in the United States and Canada, this book shows the length some killers will go to avoid punishment and the determination of police and prosecutors to bring them to justice. For over 300 years, murderers in the United States and Canada could avoid prosecution by successfully disposing of the body of their victim. No-Body Homicides provides the reader with a historical overview of prosecutions in which a killer destroyed or hid the body of the victim. It explains why prosecutions were once extremely rare, and how legal, attitudinal, and technical changes have made them more common. The book also explores how the logic of no-body homicide prosecutions differs from body-present homicides. It allows police and prosecutors to draw on the accumulated experience of hundreds of prosecutions. For criminology students, it provides fascinating insights into the process of investigating and prosecuting homicides – as well as a glimpse into the motivations and practices of killers who are so determined to avoid punishment that they remove the bodies of their victims. No-Body Homicides will be of practical interest to police or prosecutors confronted with a missing person’s case that could be sinister. It is also written to be appropriate as a supplementary text in an undergraduate criminology class or for an aficionado of “True Crime.”