Active learning ideas
This topic focuses on the tools used to identify and link suspects to crimes, including DNA profiling, fingerprinting, surveillance, and offender profiling. Students must move beyond a basic description of these techniques to critically assess their usefulness and reliability within the English and Welsh legal framework. This aligns with WJEC AC 1.2, requiring a balanced view of how technology and psychology aid investigations.
Activity 01
Divide the class into two sides to debate whether the UK should have a universal DNA database. Students must use evidence regarding crime detection rates versus the right to privacy under the Human Rights Act.
How reliable is DNA profiling in securing a conviction?
Activity 02
Show a short video of a crime and then ask students to describe the perpetrator. Compare results in pairs to see discrepancies, then share with the class to discuss why the 'Turnbull Rules' are necessary in court.
What are the ethical implications of covert surveillance?
Activity 03
Display posters of famous cases involving profiling, such as the 'Railway Rapist' (Duffy) and the Rachel Nickell case (Stagg). Students move around the room to identify why profiling worked in one and failed in the other.
How does eyewitness testimony impact the trajectory of an investigation?
A few notes on teaching this unit
Watch Out for These Misconceptions
Offender profiling is a definitive science that identifies the exact killer.
Profiling provides a 'type' of person or a likely geographical area, not a name. Using a gallery walk of failed profiles helps students see that profiling is an investigative tool, not a forensic certainty.
DNA evidence is infallible and always leads to a conviction.
DNA can be planted, contaminated, or belong to an innocent person who was at the scene previously. Collaborative investigations into secondary transfer cases help students understand the limitations of forensic evidence.
Methods used in this brief
Personnel Involved in Criminal Investigations
An examination of the roles of police, crime scene investigators, forensic scientists, and pathologists. Students will assess how these professionals collaborate to secure evidence.
8 methodologies
Processing Evidence and Suspect Rights
An overview of the rules of evidence collection, chain of custody, and the rights of suspects under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE) 1984.
8 methodologies