Criminal investigation

[1] Modern-day criminal investigations commonly employ many modern scientific techniques known collectively as forensic science.

Criminal investigation is an ancient science that may have roots as far back as c. 1700 BCE in the writings of the Code of Hammurabi.

[4] After observing recent changes in the demographic composition of particular crimes during higher priority of their investigation, such as the increase of the percentage of women convicted for joining and fighting for terrorist organizations from a very low percentage (similar to those of murder and rape) to almost as many women as men (women in the 40–50 percent range in some jurisdictions) as the priority of investigating terror crimes increased, certain criminologists[who?]

These criminologists theorize that in the case of limited budgets, criminal investigators rely on profiled and statistical likelihood of particular groups of people being convicted for the type of crimes that are being investigated, and ignore complaints that are filed about people who they consider less likely to commit the crimes or give the tracking or individual matching to the evidence lower priority.

The latter criminologists also argue that such randomization would not only fight hidden crimes by exposing the currently unsuspected criminals to the risk of being punished, but also that the abolition of profiling by forensic psychology and forensic psychiatry would be a monetary saving that could be used for investigation of technical evidence, tracking of criminals who are hiding, and other investigation work that can reduce the need to ignore complaints for budget reasons.

Al Asad Air Base , Iraq: An Iraqi Police officer in the Basic Criminal Investigation Course here lays down numbered tabs on a mock crime scene to mark evidence during the class' final exercise.
Criminal investigation at the Lake Bodom murder scene on June 6, 1960, which is still an unsolved homicide case. Deputy Judge Arvi Vainio ( center ) leads the investigation.