The Routledge International Handbook of Homicide Investigation will be the first of its kind to bring together research and personal insights from detectives, practitioners, academics and experts internationally on various complexities that are involved in the investigation of homicides. The handbook discusses the challenges faced by homicide detectives especially since not every investigation will demand the same approach. The tools, techniques and expertise required also vary according to the type of homicide that is investigated. This handbook brings these issues and opportunities to the forefront, while also illustrating the wider complexities and emotional impact of homicide investigations on detectives and those bereaved by homicide. Divided into four parts, part one provides chapters that explore homicide investigations across the globe. Parts two and three offer an up-to-date insight into the ever-evolving tools and techniques that are used during a homicide investigation and explore how specific types of homicides are investigated. Part four considers both those directly affected by the homicide and the role of indirect victims in the investigation, including the impact of homicide and its investigation. Chapters also consider some recent developments in a homicide investigation that may shape its future, as well as current issues that are facing homicide detectives. Providing cutting edge research on every step of the criminal homicide investigation process, this handbook is essential reading for scholars, students and practitioners interested in homicide investigation.

This book provides the first ethnographic account of a UK major crime review team, providing a comprehensive, conceptual account of cold case reviews not currently available from an academic criminological perspective. . Cold case reviews are a relatively new and innovative form of policing yet, to date, there has been little empirical research into their conduct in the UK. Addressing this empirical void by shining a light on the practicalities and realities of cold case investigations, the author spent eight months with a major crime review team tasked with conducting 28-day reviews of 'live' unsolved murder and stranger rapes and detecting long term unsolved major crimes. The resulting work contains a unique focus on forensic science and the role of the National DNA Database (NDNAD) in cold case reviews, adding to the current debates about the police use of forensic science, as well as consideration of the growing public concern about historic sexual offences and the criminal justice responses to them, with an exploration of the debates around the implications of investigating these crimes many years later. Presenting the key findings in relation to the opportunities and challenges to successful cold case reviews, the role of forensic science and other forms of expertise in cold case reviews, and the political and moral considerations being made in this regard, the resulting work will be of interest to practitioners tasked with investigating long term unsolved crimes and students and researchers interested in policing and investigations.