Homicide Detectives’ Intuition

摘要

Little is known about the decision-making processes of homicide detectives; this study is anfirst step towards understanding the inferential processes they engage in during the initialnstages of an investigation. A card sorting exercise consisting of 20 crime scene photographsnshowing homicide victims in situ was designed to examine how detectives categorise andnconceptualise homicide crime scenes. Forty homicide detectives were asked to ‘think aloud’nwhilst categorising the crime scenes. Qualitative content analysis of the ‘think aloud’naccounts revealed detectives’ intuitive ability to automatically make detailed inferencesnregarding the circumstances surrounding each homicide on the basis of available crimenscene information (victim’s sex, location, and method of death). A cycle of cognition wasnevident whereby detectives drew upon the contextual information available to generatenhypotheses regarding homicide type (domestic, male brawl, and crime-related) and deriveninferences about victim–offender relationship, offender behaviour, motive, and whether thenoffence was spontaneous or planned. The detectives made 594 inferences of which 67%n(N = 398) were accurate. The sorting exercise proved to be ecologically valid, withndetectives reporting that they assessed and interpreted the homicide crime scenes, as theynwould in an actual investigation. The implications for police training and ‘offendernprofiling’ research are discussed. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.