Homicide investigation, indictment and detectives’ decision making
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Abstract
Investigative decision-making is a topic that has gained visibility after discovering that failures in this process are responsible for miscarriages of justice, such as wrongful arrests and misallocation of scarce police resources in the investigation. Despite recognizing its importance, in Brazil there has not yet been empirical research on the subject, preventing us from understanding how investigators make decisions and optimize them, preventing biases and heuristics from negatively interfering. Therefore, the present study aimed to identify the knowledge and perceptions of homicide detectives on investigative decision-making. Fifteen detectives with at least two years of experience in homicide investigation were interviewed, and their responses were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively through descriptive statistics and Similarity Structure Analysis. Every detective had taken courses focused on investigative work, but none of these was on investigative decision-making, likewise, very few of them knew the terms “investigative decision-making”, “bias” or “heuristics”, indicating a failure in the training of these professionals. It was also noticed that the existence of evidence, the possibility and structure to identify this evidence and the individual skills and competencies of the investigators are the factors that lead to a successful criminal investigation or its failure, as well as influence the decision to indict a suspect. Therefore, institutional actions that can provide the necessary instruments and theoretical-practical training in investigative decision-making are recommended to ensure a reasonable investigation and reduce investigative failures.
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