Criminal investigation has a high profile in the media & has attracted widespread interest. Within the police it has been a rapidly developing field important scientific & technological developments have had a considerable impact on practice & important steps have been taken in the direction of professionalizing the whole process of investigation. Within police studies criminal investigation has now emerged as an important sub-discipline. This book provides an authoritative & highly readable introduction to the subject from somebody ideally placed to write about it focusing on how police practitioners carry out investigations. It looks systematically at the purpose & role of criminal investigation; the legal policy & organizational context in which criminal investigation takes place; the evidence & information that criminal investigators seek; the process & methods of criminal investigation; the knowledge techniques & decision making abilities that practitioners require to carry out criminal investigations; how & why it is that some crimes are solved & some are not; the supervision of criminal investigation; & a review of some of the key contemporary issues that have a bearing on criminal investigation. Criminal Investigation" will be essential reading for both policing practitioners (student police officers as well as officers taking higher levels of CPD within the police service) & students taking courses in criminal investigation forensic sciences & investigation police studies & police science & other courses where a knowledge of criminal investigation is required."