Different Types of Criminal Justice Reports Management Essay

Different Types of Criminal Justice Reports
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Institution
Different Types of Criminal Justice Reports
There are various reports in criminal justice and their names, format, and contents depend on the role of the report writer in the criminal justice system (Miller & Whitehead, 2015). This paper discusses the different types of reports, their key elements, and applicability in the criminal justice system.
Police Report
These are reports written by police officers documenting the facts surrounding an incident (Miller & Whitehead, 2015). The key elements of a good police report include the who, what, when, where, and how (Davis, 2017). The who describes the individuals involved in the incident or crime, the what describes the incident or crime itself, the when describes the initial time that the incident occurred, and the where describes the place in which the incident occurred. Finally, the how describes how the incident occurred. Police reports can be used by prosecuting attorneys to make a case against an offender and determine the appropriate charge against the crime.
Forensic Report
A forensic report documents the information collected from forensic and crime laboratories. The main elements include the list of items submitted for analysis, the steps taken by the investigator and a clear outline of th...