By: Kacper Choromański

Bloodstain pattern analysis is inseparably present in forensic genetics, crime scene investigation, the examination of evidence, and paper casework. It times of pandemic related to COVID-19 it is crucial to be aware of obstacles, barriers, and threats that await every expert who deals with forensic biological material. This new situation is an excellent time to go back and point out what are the primary guidelines that reduce the contamination of evidence and increase the protection of practitioners and experts during their work. Some evident principles that exist during crime scene investigation should be used in a more safe environment. The main goal of this article is to show what is the primary indicator that will help to reduce the danger of contamination by Coronavirus Diseases (COVID-19) during the prosecution of work. Bloodstain pattern analysis is a vast discipline. Other experts can use guidelines that will be shown in this article. Numerous forensic fields can benefit from this information. Subjects such as fingerprint, trace evidence, ballistics, forensic genetics, an examination of the evidence on a crime scene or during paper casework, even handwriting during crime scene investigation.

International Journal of Legal Studies No 1(7)2020 ISSN 2543-7097

By Mahmoud A ElSohly , Chandrani G Majumdar , Suman Chandra , Mohammed M Radwan 

The prevalence of cannabis as the most commonly used illicit substance in the United States and around the globe is well-documented. Studies have highlighted a noticeable uptrend in the potency of cannabis in the United states. This report examines the concentration of cannabinoids in illicit cannabis samples seized by the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) over the last 10 years (2013–2022).

Methods

Samples received during the course of study (2013–2022) were categorized based on the geographical region where collected, as Western Region, Midwest Region, Northeast Region, South East Region, Southern Region as well as Alaska and Hawaii. These samples were processed for analysis using a validated gas chromatography with flame ionization detector method.

Results

The data showed that the cannabinoids profile of all high Δ9-THC cannabis samples, regardless of the state or region from which the samples are seized or the state from which the sample is produced under a state medical marijuana program, is basically the same with the major cannabinoid being Δ9-THC (>10% for most samples) and all other cannabinoids with less than 0.5%, with the exception of CBG (<1%) and CBN (<1%).

Conclusion

Overall, it appears the cannabinoids profile is controlled by the genetics of the plant and is not affected much by the geographical location in which the plants are cultivated.

Front Public Health. 2024 Oct 3;12:1442522.

By Magnus Lofstrom and Brandon Martin

California’s violent crime rate rose somewhat in 2023 and remains above its pre-pandemic level; the statewide property crime rate fell slightly. Both rates vary widely across crime categories and regions.

Public Policy Institute of Californiam 2024, 2p.

By María Victoria Llorente & Jeremy McDermott,  Raúl Benítez Manaut,  Marta Lucía Ramírez de Rincón,  John Bailey 

Transnational criminal organizations trafficking drugs from Mexico to the United States have existed since the Prohibition era in the United States. But the violence associated with this trafficking—and related movements of other illicit goods as well as undocumented migrants—increased exponentially beginning in the mid-2000s, threatening Mexico’s national security. During the six-year administration of President Felipe Calderón (2006-12) estimates of those killed in drug-related violence reached 70,000, with an additional 20,000 “disappeared.” The upsurge in violence in many areas of the country reflected a combination of fighting between rival drug trafficking organizations seeking territorial control of criminal markets and dominance of lucrative trafficking corridors, as well as clashes between the traffickers and government security forces. By 2010, some Mexican cities registered homicide rates that were among the highest in the world and the public began to seriously doubt the government’s strategy and its ability to guarantee public safety. The scope of the violence and its frequently gruesome and shocking character, and the government’s seeming inability to bring it under control, brought forth memories of an earlier period in Latin America, when Colombia was besieged by the violence of the Medellín and Cali drug trafficking cartels. The Colombian crisis of the 1980s and ’90s involved multiple ways the state was losing ground to guerrilla and paramilitary groups in addition to drug traffickers. But like Mexico, the cost in human lives and government legitimacy was huge Over the course of more than a decade, Colombia’s security situation has improved dramatically. With significant international cooperation, the guerrillas have been weakened militarily and coca cultivation and cocaine production have been reduced. Most analysts agree that at least some of the security crisis in Mexico (as well as Central America) is due to ways that security advances and improvements in state capacity in Colombia forced traffickers to search for new smuggling routes and ways to market their illicit product. This is true even though, as several chapters in this publication indicate, organized criminal groups remain an important source of instability in Colombia, having mutated and fragmented in response to government pressure. Former paramilitary fighters, who demobilized in the early 2000s as a result of peace talks with the government, are important actors in the new manifestations of organized crime. Colombia is now a major player in South-South security cooperation, offering training to over 2,500 Mexican military and police officials between 2010 and 2012, as well as to over 5,000 members of the security forces from Central America and the Caribbean and over 2,000 from South America during the same time period.1 A former director of the Colombian National Police, General Óscar Naranjo, served as an adviser to the administration of Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto. The United States funds some of Colombia’s programs abroad and U.S. officials have expressed satisfaction and pride in Colombia’s success. In a May 2013 visit to Colombia, Vice President Biden paid “personal tribute” to President Santos and “the people of Colombia for the remarkable, remarkable progress you’ve made…” in dealing with the country’s security concerns. Biden went on to mention Colombia’s training of “thousands of law enforcement officers and security officers from over 40 countries since 2009.”  But precisely what aspects of Colombia’s strategy and tactics for fighting organized crime in its own territory offer useful lessons for Mexico? What might Colombia’s steps and missteps offer by way of example or counter example? What is unique about each case such that comparisons are misleading? What do current security challenges in Colombia suggest about the threat posed by organized crime more generally? To reflect on these questions, the Latin American Program commissioned a series of papers from international experts with a wealth of experience on issues of security, violence, and transnational criminal organizations. This publication includes two chapters analyzing the usefulness of comparing Colombia and Mexico’s experiences in combatting organized crime, as well as the potential for using Colombia’s successes as lessons for Mexico’s security strategy. Maria Victoria Llorente of Fundación Ideas para la Paz and Jeremy McDermott of Insight Crime argue that Colombia does not represent a ready template for Mexico’s fight against violence and organized crime, although its long experience may provide insight into Mexico’s future. The second paper, by Raúl Benítez Manaut, a researcher at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), contends that Colombia does offer positive lessons about how reform of the defense sector and professionalization of the police can yield measurable results for Mexico. Commentaries by Marta Lucía Ramírez de Rincón, former Minister of Defense of Colombia, and John Bailey of Georgetown University, deepen and take issue with the analyses provided by Llorente and McDermott and Benítez. .     

,Washington, DC: Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, 2014. 128p. Scholars

By Murray Chisholm

This study builds on a close examination of an archive of files that advised the Australian Commonwealth Executive on Papua New Guineans found guilty of capital offenses in PNG between 1954 and 1965. These files provide telling insight into conceptions held by officials at different stages of the justice process into justice, savagery and civilization, and colonialism and Australia's role in the world. The particular combination of idealism and self-interest, liberalism and paternalism, and justice and authoritarianism axiomatic to Australian colonialism becomes apparent and enables discussion of Australia’s administration of PNG in the lead-up to the acceptance of independence as an immediate policy goal. The files show Australia gathering the authority to grant mercy into the hands of the Commonwealth and then devolving it back to the territories. In these transitions, the capital case review files show the trajectory of Australian colonialism during a period when the administration was unsure of the duration and nature of its future relationship with PNG.

Canberra: ANU Press, 2024. 282p.

By  Chelsea Estancona and Luca Tiscornia

Most of what we know about organized criminal violence comes from research about illicit narcotics markets. Yet, these groups also fight to capture markets for licit commodities, as evidenced by Sicilian lemons and South African abalone. When do criminal groups violently expand into markets for licit goods? We argue that rapid increases in the share of a good’s export value create opportunities for immediate profit and future market manipulation. This provokes violence as groups expand their territorial holdings and economic portfolios. We test our argument cross-nationally using the Atlas of Economic Complexity, V-Dem, and UNODC. Increases in a country’s share of global export value for agricultural goods are associated with more homicides– but only where criminal groups are present. We then provide subnational evidence of our mechanism using data on avocado exports from Mexico and address reverse causality with Google Trends data about the popularity of avocado toast searches. 

Present at the UNU Wider Development Conference, October 2022. 55p.

By Lisa Wheildon 

The thesis examines the role of survivors of gender-based violence in policy development and mechanisms for engagement. It centers survivors’ voices and perspectives with 12 in-depth interviews, alongside interviews with policymakers and analyses of government and media reports. The thesis includes a case study analysis on the role of survivor Rosie Batty in Victoria’s family violence reforms and a second case study exploring the risks of co-production and the Victim Survivors’ Advisory Council. The findings highlight survivors’ strengths in generating community support, challenging institutional complacency and motivating stakeholders. The results underscore the need for role clarity and addressing power imbalances in co-production activities.

Melbourne: Monash University, 2022.

By Christopher Dowling,  Siobhan Lawler,  Laura Doherty,  Heather Wolbers 

This is the Australian Institute of Criminology’s (AIC) national review of child sexual abuse and sexual assault legislation. The Australian Attorney-General’s Department (the Department) commissioned this review to support implementation of the Standing Council of Attorneys-General (SCAG) Work Plan to Strengthen Criminal Justice Responses to Sexual Assault 2022–2027 (the Work Plan), under which all jurisdictions agreed to take collective and individual action. Specifically, this review supports SCAG Work Plan Priority 1 (‘Strengthening legal frameworks to ensure victims and survivors have improved justice outcomes and protections’) and aligns with the following corresponding action: 1.1 Criminal laws: Review the criminal offences and legal definitions (including consent) relating to sexual offending in the context of the unique characteristics of each jurisdiction’s legislative framework and criminal justice system and, if necessary, consider progressing and implementing appropriate reforms. The national review also responds to concerns expressed by advocate Grace Tame during a presentation at the November 2021 Meeting of Attorneys-General around the inconsistencies in child sexual abuse and sexual assault laws across Australia. Importantly, this review is being undertaken in the wake of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, which recommended a series of reforms to the criminal justice system (2017: 194). Although Commonwealth offences were strengthened in response to the Commission’s recommendations, Australian states and territories are at different stages of implementing the recommended reforms. The review broadly addresses these research questions: 1. What is the nature and scope of sexual assault and child sexual abuse legislation in Australia? 2. What differences and similarities (if any) are there between sexual assault and child sexual abuse legislative frameworks in Australia? 3. What impact (if any) do legislative inconsistencies have on: a. the investigation and prosecution of sexual assault and child sexual abuse matters in the criminal justice system; and b. the ability of victims and survivors to receive the support they require? 4. What are the barriers/challenges to achieving consistency in child sexual abuse and sexual assault legislation in Australia? 5. What are the gaps in current legislation for responding to new and emerging trends in sexual violence? 6. What does ‘best practice’ in relation to sexual assault and child sexual abuse legislation look like?   

Canberra:  Australian Institute of Criminology 2024 . 375p.

By Romain Le Cour Grandmaison

This article explores the construction – or reconstruction – of brokerage channels by violent actors in Mexico. It focuses on the construction of the Autodefensas de Michoacán (Self Defense Groups of Michoacán) and studies the process that put illegal armed leaders in active dialogue with the Mexican federal government, but also how they became brokers capable of controlling access to strategic political resources, economic markets, and the connections that tie local citizens and the central state. Through the concept of political inter-mediation, I investigate how coercion, as a skill and resource, has become central to governance in Mexico; and how this leads to consolidating intermediaries that participate in reproducing local, violent political order. This article shall contribute to the understanding of brokerage in contexts of violence, and shed new light on the political logic fueling the dynamics of violence in Mexico’s war on drugs. Keywords: drug cartels, brokerage, Mexico, war on drugs, state, violence.   

European Review of Latin American and Caribbean Studies / Revista Europea de Estudios Latinoamericanos y del Caribe, No. 112 (July-December 2021), pp. 137-158  

By María Calderón 

When it comes to an understanding of political violence in Mexico, there is a risk of solely equating it with criminal groups' activities or exclusively attributing it to such groups. However, the political violence phenomenon in Mexico is complex and diverse, with a particular nexus to locally based illicit economies, for which an all-containing approach is insufficient. About half of the political violence that occurred in Mexico during the 2018 elections was directly attributed to organized crime. During such time, political figures were killed at a rate of one per week. These numbers support the growing concern about criminal groups' involvement in Mexican politics. Criminal groups have used political violence in several ways: directly manipulating and influencing elections, protecting incumbent candidates with whom they have struck an agreement, killing candidates who are perceived as a threat to their interests, intimidating poll workers, and attacking and stealing voting booths, among others. The decrease in the profitability of trafficking heroin and cannabis, the legalization of marijuana in many US states, and increased fentanyl usage have forced cartels to recalibrate strategies and markets. Nowadays, criminal groups have partially shifted towards locally based illicit economies, such as oil theft, extortion, kidnapping, and other illegal activities that require control of local territories. All these variables come into play when understanding that criminalized electoral politics is a predominantly local phenomenon in Mexico. Political violence by criminal groups in Mexico is motivated by multiple factors, including economic interests, political objectives, and vendettas. Criminal organizations often avoid open confrontation when attacking politicians or political candidates, opting for other less visible techniques to minimize the impacts on police and law enforcement agencies, such as corruption. Installing or co-opting candidates at the municipal level has afforded criminal groups direct influence over the actions of local and state police. Access to intelligence on pending arrests or other operations has also proven beneficial for criminal organizations. Political influence has allowed criminal groups to employ local security forces as appendages of their organizations to detain or kill targets and to protect the transportation of illicit goods. Moreover, criminal organizations have tapped into state finances by coopting government employees.

Washington, DC:  Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, 2024  6p.   

By María Calderón 

Mexican cartels represent a multifaceted and complex problem with significant implications for Mexico and the United States. These criminal organizations have long been a U.S. national security concern, which has become more severe with an increase of lethal drugs smuggled into the U.S., impacting millions of lives in North America. There are debates between governments and organizations on the most impactful way to combat these illicit groups. These have included the question of whether designating Mexican cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) would debilitate transnational criminal organizations and reduce the amount of drugs entering the United States. An FTO is a legal designation the United States government uses to identify foreign organizations that engage in premeditated, politically motivated acts of terrorism against noncombatant targets. Designating a group as an FTO carries legal and financial implications aimed at protecting national security. In the past, when Mexican cartels have harmed American citizens, members of Congress and other experts have been quick to propose an FTO designation for these organizations. However, designating a group as an FTO requires completing a specific and multi-faceted legal process and meeting certain criteria. The potential designation of Mexican cartels as FTOs is complex and contentious as it involves considering various implications, including security concerns, legal issues, and human rights impacts. This paper aims to explain the stages of an FTO designation and the roles of the various government stakeholders involved. Clarifying the complexities and technicalities of this process may prove beneficial when engaging in debates and weighing the potential impact of an eventual FTO designation for Mexican cartels.

Washington, DC:  Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, 2024. 16p.

By Garan Ho/mqvist 

Crime is an increasingly worrying social phenomenon in the developing world in general and in Latin America in particular. As shown in Figure 1~, the crime rate (measured by homicide lOO 000, as reported to the UN crime surveys by national police authorities) has virtually exploded since the mid-1980s in Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Eastern Europe. Latin America stands out as an exceptional case. Annually in Latin America, approximately 140,000 people are murdered (Londono & Guerrero 1999:27). Using other sources does not change this picture. Figure 2 confirms the exceptional position of Latin America, where the source in mortality statistics is collected from national health authorities instead of the police. Indicators of crime other than homicide are less reliable for international comparison, but estimates point in the direction of Latin America being way above the average for any other region of the world (Bourguignon 1999, Table 1). It has been estimated that 28 million Latin American families are victims of theft or robbery every year (Londono & Guerrero 1999:3). Crime and violence are now viewed as a development issue of importance, which was probably not the case two decades ago. Development agencies such as the World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) have quite recently initiated ambitious research projects on crime and violence. Projects directed to the judicial system or police authorities have increased their share in the project portfolio of multilateral as well as bilateral development cooperation agencies. More importantly, crime is becoming a major concern in the daily lives of an increasing number of citizens in the developing world, manifesting itself in national political agendas, in higher crime-related expenditures, and, not the least, in human suffering. There are several reasons to regard crime as a social phenomenon with strong and complex ties to the development process in general. In Latin America, crime is a potential threat to what most people would regard as encouraging development trends, especially after ''the lost decade" of the 1980s, in terms of democratization and resumed growth. The following examples may illustrate how continuous progress in these areas is being made more difficult by the increasing crime levels: 

 Iberoamericana. Nordic Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies Vol. XXX: 2 2000,pp. 23-53

By Paul Jeffrey Brantingham, George E. Tita,  and George Mohler 

The onset of extreme social distancing measures is expected to have a dramatic impact on crime. Here, we examine the impact of mandated, city-wide social distancing orders aimed at limiting the spread of COVID-19 on gang-related crime in Los Angeles. We hypothesize that the unique subcultural processes surrounding gangs may supersede calls to shelter in place and allow gang-related crime to persist. If the normal guardianship of people and property is also disrupted by social distancing, then we expect gang violence to increase. Using autoregressive time series models, we show that gang-related crime remained stable and crime hot spots largely stationary following the onset of shelter-in-place. Policy Implications: In responding to disruptions to social and economic life on the scale of the present pandemic, both police and civilian organizations need to anticipate continued demand, all while managing potential reductions to the workforce. Police are faced with this challenge across a wide array of crime types. Civilian interventionists tasked with responding to gang-related crime need to be prepared for continued peacekeeping and violence interruption activities, but also an expansion of responsibilities to deal with “frontline” or “street level” management of public health needs. 

Criminology & Public Policy. 2021;20:423–436. 

By Mario Peucker, Thomas J Fisher, Jacob Davey

The media does not enjoy a high level of trust among Australians, as many people question the commitment of mainstream media to objective and nonpartisan reporting. While this mistrust is widespread, it manifests in particularly antagonistic ways within far-right milieus, where mainstream media is often seen through a conspiratorial lens as the ‘enemy of the people’ who actively conspire against the wellbeing of ‘ordinary’ or ‘white’ people. This almost unanimously hostile perception, however, does not stop people within far-right online spaces from posting mainstream media outputs to convey ideological messages in their online communities. Context This research report presents key findings from an analysis of far-right online communities on Facebook and the alt-tech fringe platform Gab, which has been described as a ‘right-leaning echo chamber’ (Lima et al. 2018:1). The study was conducted by researchers at the Institute for Sustainable Industries & Liveable Cities at Victoria University (VU), in collaboration with the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD), within the research stream ‘Dynamics of Violent Extremism’ at the Centre for Resilient and Inclusive Societies (CRIS). What we did The research combines quantitative and qualitative methods. We analyzed around 11,000 Facebook posts and 45,000 Gab posts by Australian-based accounts and users who meet our working definition of far-right (see section 2). This quantitative analysis offers insights into the prevalence of mainstream media sources in their far-right online messaging and which outlets are particularly frequently shared. In addition, we conducted a qualitative multimodal in-depth analysis of a quasi-random sample of 224 Facebook and 298 Gab posts that contained an outbound link to a URL domain associated with a mainstream media outlet. This qualitative analysis allowed us to identify how mainstream media are (re)framed and (mis)appropriated within these far-right online space to deliver certain ideological messages.    

Melbourne; The Centre for Resilient and Inclusive Societies. August 2022. 26p.

By Craig McGarty

An analysis of Twitter content from Victoria in 2020 found low levels of racial vilification of Asians. This surprising low level of public online racism is consistent with reanalysis of survey data. Racism directed against Asian Australians and others is an ongoing source of harm. There is not, however, good reasons to believe that hatred of Asians was successfully mobilized and exacerbated in Victoria in 2020 by mass online means. Racism needs to be confronted wherever it occurs, but the uncritical acceptance of media narratives is unlikely to help the cause of confronting it.     

Melbourne: Centre for Resilient and Inclusive Societies, 2023; 36p. 

By Leke de Vries

The association between crime and place is one of the most empirically supported notions in criminology. However, less is known about whether the internet has impacted the environmental conditions that contribute to crime in physical space. To address this gap, this dissertation examines the intersection of crime, place, and networks in the context of online promoted illicit massage businesses (IMBs). IMBs are establishments that host a wide variety of crimes and deviancies, and have recently gained attention due to their connection to human trafficking operations. While commercial sex and sex trafficking in IMBs are promoted through online classifieds and review boards, the illicit behaviors still require an offline act or transaction in stationary locations such as storefronts. Therefore, IMBs offer a compelling case to understand whether a criminology of place perspective applies to online-promoted crimes. Using innovative data and robust, quantitative and computational methods, this study shows that the geography and use of IMBs are driven by environmental conditions that are central to criminological theory about crime and place. However, the findings also suggest subtle changes to the geography of online-promoted crimes. In particular, IMBs and clientele demand were identified in neighborhoods that on the one hand feature aspects of social disorganization and crime opportunity theories, and on the other hand were theoretically unanticipated (e.g. in advantaged areas). Moreover, many clientele traversed neighborhood boundaries to frequent IMBs, connecting both spatially proximate and distant neighborhoods in patterns of crime. Lastly, the findings show the limitations of current policing models that are challenged by the locational flexibility of IMBs. Overall, these findings raise questions about a criminology of place in the digital age, call for theoretical integration, and a response model that engages online and offline domains and involves partnerships within and outside of the criminal justice system. 

 Boston: College of Social Sciences and Humanities of Northeastern University  202o. 124p

By: Alexandra Lysova

Homicide statistics are often seen as the most reliable and comparable indicator of violent deaths around the world. However, the analysis of Russian homicide statistics challenges this understanding and suggests that international comparisons of homicide levels can be hazardous. Drawing on an institutionalist perspective on crime statistics, official crime-based homicide statistics in Russia are approached as a social construct, a performance indicator and a tool of governance. The paper discusses several incentives to misrepresent official homicide data in contemporary Russia, including politicization of homicide statistics as a legacy of the Soviet’ era’s falsified crime statistics and the role of policing. Mainly, the paper identifies and describes the exact legal, statistical and country-specific substantive mechanisms that allow homicide statistics to be distorted in Russia. By considering legal mechanisms alone, the more accurate homicide rate may be at least 1.6 times higher than that reported in the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime Global Study on Homicide 2013.

European Journal of Criminology 1 –21

By: Dr. Arshad M. Khan

If there is a mass shooting and anyone is asked where, the answer is likely to be the United States. The reason of course is the easy availability of guns, even guns that fire like machine guns. The Second Amendment allows the 'right to bear arms' -- to prevent tyranny say the proponents. Yet, the world has moved beyond guns for the tyranny we face today is a tyranny not of guns but of the mind.

Modern Diplomacy Oct 07, 2017

By: António Castanho

This report concerns the review of a domestic violence homicide situation that was the subject of case No. 2892 / 15.9JAPRT of the Comarca of Porto Este, whose final decision resulted from a judgment of the Court of Appeal of Porto, 22.2.2017.

In this case, B, a male, aged 60, was convicted of qualified homicide [articles 131 and 132, paragraphs 1 and 2 b), e) and i) Criminal Code] and attempted qualified homicide (art. 22, 23, 73, 131, 132, paragraphs 1 and 2 (a), (c), (e) and (h) Criminal Code) and sentenced to 23 years and 10 months’ imprisonment.

• The events occurred on September 27, 2015.

• The victim of the murder was his wife - M who was 58 years old.

• The victim of the attempted murder was the father of the attacker - J, aged 87.

The report includes:

• a) The presentation of as much information as is known about the incident, the behaviour patterns of the perpetrator, the factors that influenced him, as well as the responses and support provided to the victims and the perpetrator; and

• b) Analysis of the above with the aim of extracting lessons from this case so that changes are made to reduce the risk of further homicides.

Agency contact and involvement with the victims and perpetrator were considered from 2010 and included justice, police and health.

The review process began on 04/17/2017; the preliminary report was drawn up on 9/1/2017; the review meetings were convened on 9/9/2017, 27/9 and 10/25/2017.

The Domestic Homicide Review Team (EARHVD) was composed of its permanent members plus a non- permanent member representing the Republican National Guard (Territorial Command of Porto), the police force that had jurisdiction in the area in which the events occurred.

Case no1/2017-AC

By: Kacper Choromański

Currently, there are over a thousand unsolved homicide cases in Poland. Up to this point, numerous, mostly popular science, research papers have been focusing on the individual units in charge of these difficult cases. This paper, however, is an attempt to represent the current state of investigations that were discontinued due to the fact that the perpetrators could not be found, hereinafter referred to as Cold Case Homicides. This paper depicts both the researcher's perspective and the statistical side of such conduct. Furthermore, it presents the first results of a pilot study conducted among the prosecutors, concerning the problem of Cold Case Homicides from their perspective, the possibility of cooperation with the academics, and their opinion on the idea of complex research, concerning the reconstruction of events in this specific area of crime.

International Journal of Legal Studies No 2(8)2020