Reinforcing Investigative and Forensic Techniques through an Active Investigation: An Active Learning and Experiential Technique

• In Event: Alternative Pedagogical Techniques for Improved Student Learning

Abstract

Criminal justice students enhance their textbook knowledge through the direct application of their skillsets in a simulated criminal investigation. The education method requires the students to apply theoretical knowledge learned in the classroom by investigating a 30-year-old cold case of a missing person. Students are given the case in the beginning of the semester and are shown given recorded interrogations of a recent arrest that re-opens their case. From information gathered by their new arrestee, students determine that the missing person was murdered and obtain information about the location of the decedent. The students are then required to apply for a search warrant in front of a sitting judge. Upon obtaining the search warrant, the students execute the warrant and exhume the skeletal remains with other evidence including ballistics evidence and fingernails containing DNA. The investigation implicated the recent arrestee as the killer. During the process, students are required to prepare reports of investigative activity in an organized case folder. Students then present their case folder in an oral discussion to a prosecutor to convince the prosecutor to move forward with murder charges. The method reinforces academic learning with active use of techniques and experience with local criminal justice professionals.

Author

• Andrew Costello, NYIT