Criminal Investigations of Sexual Offenses - Techniques and Challenges

It is startling to read how few sexual offenses are reported in a year; even more shocking to see how few reports lead to an arrest. Research on effective responses to sexual offenses is much needed and ongoing. This edited book presents the current state of research on investigative techniques used in sex crime investigations, and the operational challenges and issues that arise in these investigations. Including an international cohort of scholars from various academic backgrounds, it reviews current efforts in key areas, synthesizing the research to make recommendations for the improvement of investigative practices and the criminal justice system's response to sexual offenses.
Each chapter includes a brief introduction to the topic, a review of the research, and a discussion of the key points relevant to investigators and researchers as they move forward. The book is broken down into four themes: suspect prioritization and identification techniques, investigative interviewing, operational challenges and issues, and the investigation of specific types of sex crimes.
With its broad coverage and international scope, this volume fills the gap in knowledge for investigators working on sex crimes cases. With its easy-to-read style and clear analysis of the research, this is the perfect volume for investigators and law enforcement officers, policy makers and researchers, and students in criminology and criminal justice, forensic psychology, and victim services.


Nadine Deslauriers-Varin is an Associate Professor of criminology at the School of Social Work and Criminology at Université Laval, QC, Canada. She received her BSc and MSc in Criminology from the University of Montreal (Canada) and she completed her PhD at the School of Criminology at Simon Fraser University (Canada). She is an affiliated researcher of the International Center of Comparative Criminology (ICCC) - for which she also acts as the head of the ICCC - Université Laval division, a collaborator for the Canadian Society of Evidence-Based Policing (Can-SEBP), and a Regional Champion for the International Investigative Interviewing Research Group (iIIRG). She currently sits on the editorial board of the Journal for Police and Criminal Psychology. Nadine's research has been funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Fonds de Recherche du Québec - Société et culture, the Ministry of Public Safety & Solicitor General through the British Columbia's Crime Reduction Research Program, the International Center of Comparative Criminology, and Université Laval. Most of her research projects are carried out in collaboration with police forces and aim at developing better investigative practices (e.g., suspect identification and prioritization for sexual, violent and serial crimes, and police interrogation practices). Her work has been published in top tier peer-reviewed journals in her field and has been the subject of many scientific papers, book chapters,presentations, and special issues in scientific journals. To date, she trained close to 200 investigators about suspect interviewing best practices.
Craig Bennell is a Professor in the Department of Psychology at Carleton University, ON, Canada. He is also the Director of Carleton's Police Research Lab. Craig received his B.Sc. in Psychology from the University of Alberta (Canada) and his MSc and PhD in Psychology from the University of Liverpool (UK), where he studied under the supervision of Professor David Canter (the founder of Investigative Psychology). Craig is a previous President of the Society for Police and Criminal Psychology and a previous Editor of the Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology. He currently sits on the editorial board of numerous peer-reviewed journals, including Psychology, Crime, and Law, Legal and Criminological Psychology, and the Journal of Investigative Psychology and Offender Profiling. He is also a founding member of the Crime Linkage International Network based out of Birmingham, UK, and he is a collaborator for the Can-SEBP. Craig has published and presented widely on various topics related to the use of psychology in police investigations. He has also co-authored numerous books, including a recently edited volume entitled Crime Linkage Analysis: Theory, Research, and Practice (with Jessica Woodhams). Craig's research has been funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Canadian Police Research Centre, Correctional Service Canada, Ontario's Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services, and Carleton University.