Serving Survivors of Homicide Victims During Cold Case Investigations

<p>Cold case homicide investigations are about more than seeing a case solved a conviction rendered and justice meted out as important as these are to law enforcement and survivors. The Best Practices Subcommittee of the Task Force recommends in this guide that every Arizona law enforcement agency with a cold case homicide have a written cold case homicide protocol and states that cold case homicides are one of the most significant challenges facing law enforcement agencies nationwide. When the task force surveyed all police departments county sheriff's offices and tribal police departments in Arizona only 9.4 percent of responding agencies reported having written protocols for the handling of cold case homicides. Improving the systemic processes of cold case homicide investigations is a critically important task for law enforcement. These processes provided include the non-technological aspects of investigations such as sensitivity to survivors' needs the improvement of which will also improve law enforcement's investigatory outcomes in the solving of more cold cases. The information and recommendations outlined in this guide will inform law enforcement about establishing a protocol with the foundational tools necessary to more effectively work with survivors while better serving survivors' needs. This report lists 25 policy recommendations under the headings of law enforcement victim needs and future research. Data were developed from a literature review on the topic of homicide cold cases and a survey of law enforcement agencies for information on existing cold case units.</p><p>This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore you will see the original copyright references library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world) and other notations in the work.</p><p>This work is in the public domain in the United States of America and possibly other nations. Within the United States you may freely copy and distribute this work as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.</p><p>As a reproduction of a historical artifact this work may contain missing or blurred pages poor pictures errant marks etc. Scholars believe and we concur that this work is important enough to be preserved reproduced and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.</p><br>