Abstract
Crimes, of any nature, are a concern for the public, the police and the victims, and these feelings are exacerbated when the crime is an unsolved murder or sexual assault. To date, research has predominantly originated from the United States (US), with a focus on the personnel, funding and creation of cold-case units which are deemed necessary for reinvestigating cold cases. A developing area within this field is the prioritisation of cold cases, which is briefly touched upon in this book. However, it still remains unclear as to how these cases are actually reinvestigated and prioritised by police forces in both the US and UK. Cheryl Allsop offers the first ethnographic insight into a major crime review team in the UK who are responsible for conducting unsolved murder reviews. As the focus of this book is unsolved murders and sexual assaults, Allsop does not delve into the wider issues that police forces may face when investigating these crimes as they occur (live/current investigations).
Allsop is a senior lecturer at the University of South Wales and has demonstrated a commitment to investigating the complexities and intricacies faced by law enforcement who examine unsolved cases. Allsop received ESRC funding for her doctoral studies to explore the investigations of unsolved cases in the UK. This book is a culmination of Allsop’s doctoral work and an eight-month observation period of a large UK police force. The observations included determining how the force review their unsolved cases, and what issues may arise for detectives reinvestigating unsolved major crimes. The team observed were carefully selected as they were one of the forces who were making significant strides in reducing their backlog of unsolved cases. As the information contained within this book was specific to only one police force, it remains unclear whether the practices and policies used by these cold-case reviewers are the same across all of the UK.
As part of the ACPO (2012) guidance for 28-day reviews, there was a consideration for conducting reviews for cases which remain unsolved. The aim of 28-day reviews is to offer advice to the Senior Investigating Officer (SIO) about how a case may be progressed by utilising new lines of inquiry or advancing on those already conducted. For unsolved cases, an emphasis was placed upon the review of any available forensic evidence and consulting with a Forensic Scientific Advisor. Therefore, inherent differences between these different types of reviews can be identified. It was discovered that not all police forces will conduct 28-day reviews in the same manner, irrespective of the guidance offered (Nicol et al., 2003). Nicol et al. (2003) explored the problems with 28-day reviews from six UK police forces, confirming that there is discretion in conducting the reviews. However, as it is already noted that 28-day and unsolved case reviews are different, the problems identified by Nicol et al. (2003) may not necessarily reflect the problems that may arise for unsolved case reviews.
The primary focus of the book is unsolved sexual assaults and murders, for which there are no accurate and up-to-date statistics for the UK at present. Furthermore, as accepted by Allsop, there is no legal or standardised definition for these types of cases, and the current definitions have been proposed by various law enforcement officials (for example, Richard Walton). However, a general description is crimes which have been reported to law enforcement and thoroughly investigated at the time of the incident (Walton, 2013), yet where the investigation did not result in the identification and arrest of a suspect (Walton, 2013). Allsop adds to the current definition by noting that the SIO will often determine that there are no leads or avenues of inquiry left within the investigation to progress it further, therefore considering it a ‘cold case’. Throughout the book, Allsop offers discussions on the various issues which are prevalent, and influential, to the reinvestigations of unsolved cases. One of the main issues discussed throughout the book is DNA. Allsop offers a succinct discussion of DNA, its emergence and ever-expanding application to police investigations. The use of DNA is pivotal in discussing unsolved crimes, yet Allsop ensures that the main issues being raised are not lost in scientific jargon, and can be easily followed by the use of examples throughout. The topic of DNA is routinely revisited in the book and is linked with the main points of each chapter, for example when discussing the prioritisation of cases, the police’s reliance and opinion of forensic evidence and the successes of DNA in solving cold cases. Allsop discusses in detail two Operations (Advance and Stealth) which aimed to solve undetected sexual assaults and murders by upgrading DNA samples so they could be added to the National DNA Database (NDNAD) and subsequently compared to other samples. These Operations were supported by government funding, but the government funding was limited, so not all forces benefited from these Operations. Although the implications of this were not thoroughly covered in this book, the opportunities and successes of such Operations were well noted. It is important to consider the budget constraints that are faced by a lot of UK forces, which have implications for unsolved murders and their resolution, and this book could have discussed this in more detail.
The two unsolved crimes of focus are murders and sexual assaults (notably stranger rapes), which are both clearly defined and explained at the beginning of the book, supported by current statistics of live cases and unsolved case studies. Allsop covers the intricate details of each crime and the unique problems that they pose for investigators, with a larger focus on sexual assaults. Whilst discussing the investigative nature of these crimes, Allsop links the wider issue of policing, politics and legitimacy of the police force to understand how these investigations are important in justifying the force. There is further discussion on the government’s interests and investments in solving cold cases, which Allsop discusses in detail, and the important ramifications of the investigations for the public, police and victims. The book is unique in that it offers quotes from investigators responsible for cold-case investigations, which explains their job role and their feelings about the work of unsolved homicides. However, Allsop does not just focus on the policing element of cold cases but details the experiences of victims and loved ones left behind, the actions of the police to support victims and their role in prioritising and progressing their cases.
This book notes the similarities between the UK and US with regard to unsolved crimes. However, there were differences identified; for example, the creation of cold-case units in the US specifically for unsolved crimes whereas the UK has a major crime review team which will review cold cases as time permits. Yet these differences are not clearly identified throughout the book. Furthermore, as mentioned, there is a stronger emphasis on stranger sexual assaults, but murders garner more media and public attention (as mentioned throughout this book), which would have justified covering more information about them in this book.
Allsop’s work is an invaluable contribution to the literature, and would be beneficial to academics and students alike who are interested in the field of unsolved cases, particularly stranger sexual assaults. The ACPO released further guidance for progress reviews of murder inquiries in 2012, and this did include a small paragraph on unsolved murder, yet, as noted by Nicol et al. (2003), there are variations in how these reviews are conducted. Therefore, practitioners may benefit from delving into the work of a different police force to identify similarities or techniques that they may be able to enforce in their reviews of unsolved crimes. Practitioners may relate to some of the challenges identified by the observed team, such as difficulties in locating and collating forensic exhibits. Practitioners may benefit from taking note of some of the techniques E in this book to help them organise their files to ensure a smoother and timelier review. This may also help other forces to consider what issues may have led to a case going cold, or how unsolved cases could be progressed. This book is the first of its kind in the UK, and is easily accessible and jargon-free, which introduces beginners to the key issues of the topic without complicating the main points being addressed.