Students will be assessed on their court report of a case file (75%), addressing outcomes 1, 2 & 3 and for the role play on their appearance in court (25%), addressing outcome 4.

Practical sessions will include the video taping of interview assignments.

Additional Assessment Details:
Students will be provided with full details of the assessment criteria for all the elements of assessment in the module handbook.

Formative Assessment:
Students will have the opportunity for "practices" of elements of assessment and will receive formative feedback in timetabled feedback sessions.

The Investigative skills module will require the student to study and put in to practice the techniques and requirements relating to interview skills, when dealing with suspects, witnesses and victims of crime, including young and vulnerable persons. Role play exercises will support the theoretical principles of interviewing, and the preparation of a comprehensive case file completed to a standard required by the crown prosecution service to progress a case through a court of law. Students will be required to follow a scenario through its entirety, concluding with the presentation of a comprehensive case file to the crown prosecution service.

6 x 1h lectures covering the techniques and approaches to interviewing suspects, witnesses and victims. Group role play sessions for both formative and summative assessment. Sessions with victims/witnesses will take place at the crime scene house using groups of 4, with each of the group members playing the role interviewee and interviewer and a tutor playing the opposite role. The initial sessions will be videoed to provide the basis of formative feedback for the second summative session. A similar process will be used for interviewing the suspect. Each group session will be 1h and the formative feedback will combine groups and be 1h duration, total per group of 5 x 1. The students will be cross-examined in a moot court as an officer investigating a case and will receive training for this as part of their lecture programme with additional support through tutorial sessions (4 x 1h). Non contact independent study should include practice sessions with other students on the module, background reading to support the contact sessions and possibly visits to Court to experience presentations and cross-examinations.

Crime scene house
Interview room
Recording Equipment
Blackboard VLE

Minimum

Blackstone's 'Policing manuals' Oxford press 2006
Shorts E Human rights in law 2001
Bevan, Lidstone The Investigation of crime a guide to the law of criminal investigation 2004
Hewson Seizure of confidential material