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Abstract

The current study aimed to explore the impact of submission restrictions policy (prior information) on the behaviour of Crime Scene Investigators at a Crime Scene and recovery of evidence. A mock crime scene of a supposed burglary was set up in one of the University buildings. The sample consisted of 4 participants from the School of Criminal Justice and Criminology. The participants were asked to read a submission policy, either stating that they will only be able to submit 3 exhibits (low anchor) for further analysis, or 10 (high anchor). The policy clearly stated that they should recover anything with probative value. They were then required to put on eye trackers to look around the crime scene for as long as they needed. Afterwards, participants were asked to place post-it notes on items they would recover and answer a short questionnaire, to explain why they would submit the items they placed post-it notes on and what influenced their decision making when considering what exhibits to recover. The results showed that when participants were given a low anchor submission policy, they only recovered 3 exhibits, which suggests that they used the submission policy as a guideline. Whereas, when participants were given the high anchor submission policy they recovered over time as many items, this could be because they used the submission policy as an anchor. The present study concluded that submission criteria might influence evidence recovery. This discovery could be useful for academics and practitioners wanting to look into the influence of prior information on decision making whilst examining a crime scene.

Course: Criminal Justice - MSc - C2681F

Date Deposited: 2023-05-11

URI/permalink: https://library.port.ac.uk/dissert/dis14136.html