There are three major guidelines of Report Writing in Criminal Justice. The guidelines are known by the acronym ABC’s, which standards for accuracy, brevity, and completeness. First, accuracy refers to the precision of word usage. It is important not to use vague words that can have multiple means. As pointed out by Miller and Whitehead (2015), value judgements and conclusory statements are to be completely avoided, as an alternative the details surrounding the circumstances or issue should be given. Secondly, Brevity concerns the style in that the report is written in not the length. The writer …show more content…
One of the most important reasons is that recording information ensures that it will be readily available in the future. Secondly, reports are used to share information with other people without them physically being present. Reports are written by various people. There are different types of reports such as law enforcement reports, security reports, correctional, and probation and parole officer reports. These reports have both operational and administrative purposes. For example, the operational purpose of law enforcements reports are documented actions that is taken by persons that has be involved in a crime, incidents or accidents. This information will later help the prosecutor decide whether or not an individual, and what charges the accused will be charged with if probable cause exist. Lastly, an administrative purpose of the report can be used to determine what types of administrative actions needs to be taken. This can include sending the reports to various agencies such as the FBI that gathers information for the Uniform Crime Report. (15 …show more content…
The three types are real evidence, direct evidence, and circumstance evidence. First, real evidence is defined tangible or touchable, identifiable objects, such as weapons, clothing, or blood. However, a person must be cautious about listing evidence that physically appears to be evidence but may not be. That is why it is important to label items as what they appear to be such as, it appears to be blood on a shirt. Records of evidence must be kept as accurate as possible to protect the integrity of item. Second, Direct evidence is an individual or other be know and perceive based on their five sense, such as hearing, sight, touch, smell, and taste. For example, Peter heard guns shots coming from Paul’s house, and called the police. That is when he seen Paul’s girlfriend running outside of the house with a gun, which appears to be a murder weapon. The two sense used in this case is sight and hearing. For accuracy of direct evidence, the individual must be competent to make observations, and unbiased. Lastly, circumstance evidence is evidence in which inferences are extracted. The inference can be based on a fact or multiple facts that will prove the components of the alleged crime. An example of circumstance evidence is a blood foot print in the drive way. If they suspect is known, inference can be drawn about whether or not the suspect is a man or woman. (20