Purpose

This article explores how homicide detectives make sense of and manipulate multiple physical, digital and informational artefacts when assembling case narratives. The authors introduce the concept of mosaicking to illuminate how different modes of information, deriving from different investigative methods, are used in concert at key moments of the investigative process – defining what type of crime has occurred; the incrimination and elimination of suspects; and decisions to charge key suspects.

Design/methodology/approach

The data qualitatively analysed include several hundred case papers, interview transcripts (n = 144) and detailed ethnographic fieldnotes relating to 44 homicide investigations across four police services. These were collected during a four-year ethnographic study of the use of forensic sciences and technologies (FSTs) in British homicide investigations.

Findings

Mosaicking describes how investigators blend and combine information, intelligence and evidence generated via different techniques and methods, to make sense of “who did what to whom and why?” Through processes of convergent and divergent mosaicking, detectives are able to “lean” on different kinds of material to reinforce or connect key points of evidence or intelligence.

Originality/value

The findings fill a gap in knowledge about how investigators blend and composite diverse sources of information in the construction of case narratives. The findings present a more complex and nuanced understanding of the epistemological and interpretative work conducted by contemporary detectives, given the array of investigative technologies they increasingly have at their disposal.

中文翻译：

---

“镶嵌”：警察调查的交叉构建、意义和方法

目的

本文探讨了凶杀案侦探在组装案件叙述时如何理解和操纵多个物理、数字和信息人工制品。作者介绍了镶嵌的概念，以阐明源自不同调查方法的不同信息模式如何在调查过程的关键时刻协同使用——定义发生了何种类型的犯罪；定罪和消灭嫌疑人；以及起诉关键嫌疑人的决定。

设计/方法/方法

定性分析的数据包括 数百份案例文件、采访记录 ( n = 144) 以及与四个警察部门的 44 起凶杀案调查相关的详细民族志实地记录。这些是在对法医科学和技术 (FST) 在英国凶杀案调查中的使用进行的为期四年的民族志研究期间收集的。

发现

Mosaicking 描述了调查人员如何融合和结合通过不同技术和方法生成的信息、情报和证据，以弄清“谁对谁做了什么以及为什么？” 通过收敛和发散镶嵌的过程，侦探能够“依靠”不同种类的材料来加强或连接证据或情报的关键点。

原创性/价值

这些发现填补了关于调查人员如何在案例叙述的构建中融合和组合不同信息来源的知识空白。鉴于他们越来越多地掌握各种调查技术，这些发现对当代侦探进行的认识论和解释工作提出了更复杂和微妙的理解。