In the law enforcement units, the investigative factions are composed of three main actors namely, the case investigators, the prosecutor, and the supervisor. Each actor plays a critical play a critical role in the investigative process to contribute to the ultimate quality of the criminal investigation. Precisely, the investigators pinnacle stakeholders of the investigation as they document the criminal complaints that are presented before the courts to convict the suspect. In this regard, the investigators have to possess particular essential characteristics to facilitate their investigative duties. Fundamental characteristics of criminal investigators refer characters that help investigators in accomplishing their duties to best of their ability. Based on this background, this essay intends to discuss the fundamental characteristics of criminal investigators; both positive and negative as well as the pros and cons of having police officers specializing in certain expertise field.
According to Orthmann and Hess (2010), a good criminal is persistent, intelligent, creative, and knowledgeable. Besides, regardless of their rank or pay, investigative officers are more effective when they possess special physical and psychological characteristics. Additionally, investigators should be empathetic, logical, and open-minded to all possibilities. For instance, from the popular Gil Grissom of the CSI and Richard Castle of the Castle; crime investigate shows, one can concisely view the aforementioned traits (Hess, " Orthmann, 2010). Both Grissom and Richard exhibit creativity and intelligence in accomplishing their investigative duties.
On the contrary, negative characteristics of criminal investigators refer to the opposite of the positive traits. That is; the consequences endured by the investigators for over-embracing their positive traits. For example, a detective that is too persistent in his/her duties automatically sends less time with his/her family or friend. Consequently, this negligence might result in the divorce of the couple. A good example, in this case, is the Criminal Minds protagonist, Aaron Hotchner who endures separation from his wife due to his devotion to his investigative job (Palmiotto, " Unnithan, 2010). In addition, exercising good traits may the investigator his/her life or family member or friend as he/she will be making enemies from the investigations and at times the duty might involve gun exchanges.
Based on the case study, I believe that there are many cons and pros of training only two investigative detectives in a community faces frequent homicide cases. With the community enduring rash homicide and the Chief Officers has trained only two detectives to solve this menace, the pros are that the two trained detectives already possess crime-solving abilities and critical thinking skills. Nevertheless, the cons would range from work overload since they are only two detectives in the wake of rash homicide in the community to exhaustion of these detectives due to work overload. In the end, the detectives might face several difficulties in solving this cases leading to critical mistakes making the investigations ineffective.
References
Hess, K. M., " Orthmann, C. M. (2010). Criminal investigation.(9th ed.). Clifton Park, NY: Delmar, Cengage Learning.
Palmiotto, M., " Unnithan, N. (2010). Policing and Society: A GlobalApproach. Clifton Park, NY: Cengage.
