This paper is concerned with how police detectives experience, understand, and think about the process of doing serious and complex criminal investigations. Imagination and creativity are considered inevitably essential components of this process. Investigative thinking by detectives is classified into four styles: method, challenge, skill and risk style. Some of these styles are expected to require more creativity than other styles. Our research proposition suggests that more creative detectives apply higher investigative thinking styles. Support for this proposition was found in empirical evidence collected among police investigators in Norway, as both the skill style and risk style were significantly related to the extent of creativity.
AdamsJ. (1974). Conceptual Blockbusting: A Guide to Better Ideas. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
2.
AmabileT.M.BarsadeS.G.MuellerJ.S.StawB.M. (2005). Affect and creativity at work. Administrative Science Quarterly, 50, 367–403.
3.
ArchboldC.A. (2005). Managing the bottom line: MSK management in policing. Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management, 28(1), 30–48.
4.
AuggieroV. (1998). The Art of Thinking: A Guide to Critical and Creative Thought (5th ed.). New York: Addison-Wesley Educational Publishers.
5.
BiloslavoR. (2005). Use of knowledge management framework as a tool for innovation capability audit. International Journal of Innovation and Learning, 2(4), 402–424.
6.
BodenM. (Ed.). (1994). Dimensions of Creativity. Cambridge: MIT Press.
CsikszentmihalyiM. (1996). Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention. New York: Harper Collins.
9.
DaghfousA. (2005). Knowledge management as an organizational innovation: An absorptive capacity perspective and a case study. International Journal of Innovation and Learning, 1(4), 409–422.
10.
DeanG. (2000). The Experience of Investigation for Detectives. Unpublished PhD thesis. Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia.
11.
De BonoE. (1992). Serious Creativity. Using the Power of Lateral Thinking to Create New Ideas. Great Britain: Harper Collins.
12.
FinkeR.WardT.SmithS. (1992). Creative Cognition: Theory, Research, and ApplicationsCambridge: MIT Press.
13.
FinkeR.BettleJ. (1996). Chaotic Cognition: Principles and Applications. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
14.
ForsterJ. (1998). Think About Creativity. Australia: Hawker Brownlow Education.
15.
GilsonL.L.MathieuJ.E.ShalleyC.E.RuddyT.M. (2005). Creativity and standardization: Complementary or conflicting drivers of team effectiveness?Academy of Management Journal, 48(3), 521–531.
16.
GlomsethR.GottschalkP. (2005). Research propositions for determinants of police investigation performance. Electronic Government, 2(3), 292–304.
17.
HairJ.F.Jr.AndersonR.E.TathamR.L.BlackW.C. (1995). Multivariate Data Analysis with Readings (4th ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
18.
Home Office (2005). Senior Investigating Officer Development Programme. Police Standards Unit, Home Office of the UK Government, www.policereform.gov.uk (accessed 11 August 2005).
19.
JacksonA.L.WadeJ.E. (2005). Police perceptions of social capital and sense of responsibility. Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management, 28(1), 49–68.
20.
John-SteinerV. (1997). Notebooks of the Mind. Explorations of Thinking. New York: Oxford University Press.
21.
KarlsenJ.T.GottschalkP.GlomsethR.FahsingI.A. (2006). Managing police investigations by projects. International Journal of Innovation and Learning, 4(4), 391–410.
22.
KaufmannG. (2004). Two kinds of creativity - but which ones?Creativity and Innovation Management, 13(3), 154–165.
23.
KelleyT.M. (2005). Mental health and prospective police professionals. Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management, 28(1), 6–29.
24.
KielyJ.A.PeekG.S. (2002). The culture of the British police: Views of police officers. The Service Industries Journal, 22(1), 167–183.
25.
KraftU. (2005). Unleashing creativity. Scientific American Mind, 16(1), 16–21.
26.
Perry-SmithJ.E.ShalleyC.E. (2003). The social side of creativity: A static and dynamic social network perspective. Academy of Management Review, 29(1), 89–106.
27.
PuontiA. (2004). Tools for collaboration: Using and designing tools in inter-organizational economic-crime investigation. Mind, Culture, and Activity, 11(2), 133–152.
WaddingtonP.A.J. (2004). Investigating murder: Detective work and the police response to criminal homicide. British Journal of Criminology, 44(1), 142–164.
30.
WrightA. (2002). Policing: An Introduction to Concepts and Practice. Devon: Willan Publishing.
