NCJ Number
195239
Journal
Journal of Criminal Justice Education Volume: 13 Issue: 1 Dated: Spring 2002 Pages: 129-142
Date Published
2002
Length
14 pages
Annotation
This article discusses how two publications can be used as practical pedagogical tools when teaching courses that cover criminal investigations and criminalistics.
Abstract
The first book, "Fatal Vision," profiles and analyzes the murders of Colette MacDonald, her unborn child, and two children at Fort Bragg, NC. Jeffrey MacDonald, Colette's husband, was subsequently convicted of these crimes, based largely on the forensic analysis of crime scene evidence. "Fatal Vision" presents a number of issues in criminal investigation in a manner that is highly interesting to students. The key to this book is the manner in which it documents the poor response of the Military Police and the Criminal Investigation Division (CID), which collected the evidence and conducted the follow-up investigation. This allows the criminal investigation student to analyze what the Military Police and CID officers did wrong and what the proper response should have been. Because the book details the physical evidence from collection through forensic processing, as well as how it was presented in court, it provides a holistic approach to understanding the importance of evidence preservation. The book "Fatal Justice" is a reinvestigation of the MacDonald Murders. Based upon the evidence presented, the authors find MacDonald to be, at a minimum, "not guilty" and potentially innocent of the murders. They argue that based upon the evidence, some of which was alleged to be hidden from the defense, MacDonald should receive a new trial in order to introduce the "new evidence." "Fatal Justice" provides a more in-depth exploration of the physical evidence, which also covers how it was collected, processed, and later used in court; the book focuses on the validity of a number of pieces of evidence, including hair and clothing fibers, which gives the criminalistics student an excellent means for exploring the importance of physical evidence from the same holistic approach. This book also raises a number of doubts about certain pieces of the physical evidence, thus creating some interesting questions that a course on criminalistics is well suited to address. Where two courses are taught sequentially, using both books provides continuity to the two courses that students appreciate. 12 references