Why Are Cases Cold

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

In the world of criminal investigation time is of the essence and it is common knowledge in the police world that if a crime does not generate a substantial lead or some kind of solid evidence within the first 48 hours it is likely that it will remain unsolved. As this time passes, the case grows cold just as death turns our bodies cold. Cold cases are a huge problem in today's society. Why are they such a problem? Imagine being the family of the victim whose case has gone cold. Everyday you sit wondering what happened to your child or parent or relative. If a case remains cold the families of these victims will remain without any closure and will always feel a sense of hope and a sense of dread.

In 1992 forty-five percent of all murder cases in the United States remained unsolved(Ramsland, 2004). However as the years have passed, new technology has led to a number of old cold cases finally being solved. However, thousands of cases still remain sitting in back files waiting for justice. So why with all this new technology developing in the world today and all of these new resources available to us, do so many murder cases go unsolved? This is the question I intend to answer.

RESEARCH PROBLEM

Why do so many cases remain unsolved? This is a problem for everyone that has ever lost someone in life and for all the investigators and police men or women behind every unsolved case that have devoted much time and effort in trying to solve them. This problem can happen anytime and anywhere. Murders and crimes are committed everyday and not all of these murderers or criminals are caught, leaving the cases to remain unsolved. These crimes are committed in the smallest towns and in the largest towns. They can happen in the middle of the night or at nine o'clock in the morning. The main questions come down to how and why this problem occurs. I have deducted a number of reasons why so many cases remain cold.

One of the first and main reasons why many cases go unsolved or have gone unsolved in the past is the lack of available suspects. As Gregg McCrary, an FBI behavioral specialist states: "Cases with many unknownsÐ'...are relegated to the lowest priority" (Ramsland, 2004). If there are no suspects or no clues leading to the suspects then how are the police going to be able to arrest anyone for the crime?

Another reason that could lead to cases remaining on shelves and in files unsolved for so long could be due to the somewhat high expenses it often costs to solve these crimes. Although we are more advanced in criminal technology today, what many people don't realize is how much money it costs in order to use all of the scientific equipment. In many cases dozen of tests are needed in order to completely deduct all of the evidence and sometimes these tests add up and are again relegated to the lowest priority (2004).

One other reason cases may remain cold is sometimes the police's reaction to the case. Take the case of eighteen year old Laura Newman. In 1983 she was raped in her home by an intruder. The police did little to solve this crime. They believed that Newman has been molested by an acquaintance and shelved the case (Heyland, 1994). All police officers have different attitudes and different approaches to police work and sometimes if a police officer has a bad attitude about what cases should be considered high priority and thus high profile, then some cases may remain unsolved.

Problems with witnesses, unreliable witnesses, and no witnesses also cause some cases to remain unsolved. Some of these witnesses do not come forward because they are intimidated or scared or because they may have once thought that they did not have anything that would be relative to the case at hand. Others are afraid that the criminal will come after them or that their statements will backfire on them and they will be considered a suspect.

A final reason why I believe many cases may go unsolved deals with cases from the past that remain unsolved. Although we have new technology and new information that could possibly help solve these old cases many police officials and detectives don't have the time to delve into these cases. Hundreds of new cases are coming in everyday around the world and these are often considered top priority, not the cases from fifty years ago.

As one can see this is a social problem that is affecting many different people. As Katie Demarrs states: "Cold cases are our unsolved secrets that remain shelved and un-justifiedÐ'...not only lying on cold evidence floors, they are lying in a family's cold heart" (Heinken, 1991).

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

Many questions arise when dealing with the reasons why some cases remain cold. Each reason presents another string of questions that need to be answered. For instance, yes, no suspects could be one answer for why many cases remain shelved, but why is there such a lack of suspects? If there was not such a lack of suspects in many cases then they could be solved.

When it comes down to the high expenses causing some cases to remain unsolved the largest questions that probably comes to everyone's mind is how can we lower the technological expenses so the high-costing cases can be resolved?

Attitudinal changes in police work is a harder subject to deal with since it is common knowledge that it is not easy changing a person when they have no desire to be changed. So how do we change the attitudes in the minds of some policemen/women and detectives?

Just like with the attitudes of the police it is hard to change the attitude and feelings of those witnesses who choose not to come forward with their accounts and stories. So the same question applies to these witnesses. How can we change their minds and feelings so they come forward and can help bring new insight to unresolved cases?

Solving older cases when there is no time for them is probably one of the hardest issues to resolve because of all the new cases that are flooding police offices today. So how do we make more time for these older cases while still having enough time to work on the new cases?

SCOPE, PURPOSE& OBJECTIVE

This paper is written mostly for the families of the people or the victims themselves whose criminal cases have never been solved and thus remain cold. They are the ones who suffer the most out of anybody. They are the ones sitting at home wondering where their children are or are wondering if their own cases will ever be solved and if the persons that committed