Book review: Cold Case Reviews: DNA, Detective Work and Unsolved Major Crimes
| Published date | 01 December 2018 |
| Date | 01 December 2018 |
| Author | Kirsty Bennett |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X18807511 |
| Subject Matter | Book review |
Book review
Book review
Cold Case Reviews: DNA, Detective Work and Unsolved Major Crimes
Cheryl Allsop
Oxford University Press, London: 2018
Hardback ISBN 978-0-19-874745-1
£70: 240 pp.
Reviewed by: Kirsty Bennett, University of Huddersfield, UK
Email: Kirsty.Bennett@hud.ac.uk
DOI: 10.1177/0032258X18807511
Crimes, of any nature, are a concern for the public, the police and the victims, and these
feelings are exacerbated when the crime is an unsolved murder or sexual assault. To date,
research has predominantly originated from the United States (US), with a focus on the
personnel, funding and creation of cold-case units which are deemed necessary for
reinvestigating cold cases. A developing area within this field is the prioritisation of
cold cases, which is briefly touched upon in this book. However, it still remains unclear
as to how these cases are actually reinvestigated and prioritised by police forces in both
the US and UK. Cheryl Allsop offers the first ethnographic insight into a major crime
review team in the UK who are responsible for conducting unsolved murder reviews. As
the focus of this book is unsolved murders and sexual assaults, Allsop does not delve into
the wider issues that police forces may face when investigating these crimes as they
occur (live/current investigations).
Allsop is a senior lecturer at the University of South Wales and has demonstrated a
commitment to investigating the complexities and intricacies faced by law enforcement
who examine unsolved cases. Allsop received ESRC funding for her doctoral studies to
explore the investigations of unsolved cases in the UK. This book is a culmination of
Allsop’s doctoral work and an eight-month observation period of a large UK police
force. The observations included determining how the force review their unsolved cases,
and what issues may arise for detectives reinvestigating unsolved major crimes. The
team observed were carefully selected as they were one of the forces who were making
significant strides in reducing their backlog of unsolved cases. As the information
contained within this book was specific to only one police force, it remains unclear
whether the practices and policies used by these cold-case reviewers are the same across
all of the UK.
As part of the ACPO (2012) guidance for 28-day reviews, there was a consideration
for conducting reviews for cases which remain unsolved. The aim of 28-day reviews is to
The Police Journal:
Theory, Practice and Principles
2018, Vol. 91(4) 375–377
ªThe Author(s) 2018
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