Homicide

by French, John L.

• ISBN13: 9780791094099
• ISBN10: 079109409X
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-09-01
• Publisher: Facts on File

Summary

Murder is among the most devastating-and the most common-of crimes. Motives for homicide include anger, love, greed, jealousy, and myriad other reasons, some rooted in passion, some cold-blooded and calculated. Homicide investigates the nature of murder throughout history and tracks the progress of law enforcement in preventing and solving this crime. Although modern police rely on a wealth of sophisticated tools such as fingerprinting, DNA analysis, and computer databases to solve homicides, murderers can still be hard to catch. Using real-life cases to illustrate key techniques, this intriguing and inforamtive book shows how police investigate, solve, and try to prevent homicide. Book jacket.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. 7
Introduction	p. 11
Homicide: As Old as Civilization	p. 13
Homicide: The Statistics and the Causes	p. 27
The Police and Homicide Investigations	p. 37
Homicide Investigation at the Crime Scene	p. 51
The Homicide Victim	p. 63
Homicide Investigation: The Suspects	p. 71
Using the Evidence to Convict a Suspect	p. 81
The Scales of Justice: New Evidence Frees Convicted Murderers	p. 95
Chronology	p. 101
Endnotes	p. 102
Bibliography	p. 105
Further Resources	p. 106
Index	p. 107
About the Author / About the Consulting Editor	p. 112
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

Excerpts

Murder is among the most common and most terrible of crimes. Motives for murder include anger, love, greed, hatred, and myriad other emotions and reasons, some passionate, some cold-blooded and calculated. Homicide investigates the nature of murder throughout history and tracks the progress of law enforcement in preventing and solving killings. Although modern police rely on a wealth of sophisticated tools, such as fingerprinting, DNA analysis, and computer databases, to solve murders, these techniques were not always available to detectives. This intriguing book demonstrates how murders are investigated, using real-life cases to illustrate key points.
Chapters include:
Homicide: As Old as Civilization
The Statistics and the Crimes