Framing in criminal investigation
| Author | Renze Salet |
| Published date | 01 June 2017 |
| Date | 01 June 2017 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0032258X16672470 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
Framing in criminal
investigation: How police
officers (re)construct
a crime
Renze Salet
Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Abstract
Failures in criminal investigation may lead to wrongful convictions. Insight in the criminal
investigation process is needed to understand how these investigative failures may rise
and how measures can contribute to the prevention of this kind of failures. Some of the
main findings of an empirical study of the criminal investigation process in four cases of
major investigations are presented here. This criminal investigation process is analyzed
as a process of framing, using Goffman’s framing (Goffman, 1975) and interaction the-
ories (Goffman, 1990). It shows that in addition to framing, other substantive and social
factors affect the criminal investigation.
Keywords
Criminal investigation, framing, interaction, Goffman
Introduction
For the past few decades there has been an increasing awareness of the problem of serious
failures in criminal investigation in the Netherlands. Such failures can have serious conse-
quences, including wrongful convictions (Rossmo, 2009). They have occurred not only in the
Netherlands but also in many other countries, such as the United States, Canada and the UK.
One of the Dutch miscarriages of justice that attracted a great deal of media
attention, and has led to social and political unrest, was the so-called Schiedam park
murder case (Van Koppen, 2008; Posthumus, 2005). In that case, the police inves-
tigation team focused on one suspect. The police officers became convinced that he
Corresponding author:
Renze Salet, Radboud University Nijmegen, Faculty of Law, Criminal Law & Criminology, PO Box 9049 6500
KK Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Email: r.Salet@jur.ru.nl
The Police Journal:
Theory, Practice and Principles
2017, Vol. 90(2) 128–142
ªThe Author(s) 2016
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DOI: 10.1177/0032258X16672470
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