Review: Investigating Murder: Detective Work and the Police Response to Criminal Homicide, Preparing for Police Duty, Textbook on Criminal Law, 7th Edition, Abuse of Process in Criminal Proceedings
| Date | 01 September 2003 |
| DOI | 10.1350/pojo.76.4.353.25819 |
| Published date | 01 September 2003 |
| Subject Matter | Review |
ROB R. JERRARD
Reviews Editor
www.rjerrard.co.uk
REVIEWS
INVESTIGATING MURDER: DETECTIVE WORK AND
THE POLICE RESPONSE TO CRIMINAL HOMICIDE
Clarendon Studies in Criminology
Martin Innes, Lecturer in Sociology, University of Surrey
Oxford University Press, 2003
ISBN 0–19–925942–9; price £50.00 (hardback)
The Clarendon Studies in Criminology series was inaugurated in
1994 under the auspices of the centres of criminology at the
Universities of Cambridge and Oxford and the London School of
Economics. It was the successor to Cambridge Studies in Crimi-
nology, founded by Sir Leon Radzinowicz and J.W.C. Turner
almost sixty years ago.
Watching the TV detectives one is left with the impression
that a detective’s day is fully occupied with nothing but murder
cases: this of course is far from true (unless attached to a murder
squad); however, Investigating Murder provides an insight into
how police detectives investigate and solve murders. Based upon
fieldwork observation of murder squads at work, interviews with
detectives and detailed analysis of police case files, it provides
an original and innovative account of the practices and processes
involved in the investigation of homicides, as well as some of the
problems that are often encountered in the conduct of this work.
Drawing upon the detailed empirical data collected, Martin
Innes’s text develops a conceptual framework for understanding
the methods that detectives seek to utilise in order to identify
suspects and construct a case against them. Situating such work
in its social and legal context this major study shows how
interviews, forensic evidence and other investigative techniques
are used by detectives to manufacture a narrative of the crime
that sets out how the incident took place, and who did what to
whom.
In so doing, Innes does much in Investigating Murder to
further our understandings of detective work, how detectives
understand their role, the problems they encounter and the
solutions they manufacture to solve these problems. The descrip-
tion and analysis provided will be of interest to academic
The Police Journal, Volume 76 (2003) 353
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