Posted: February 14th, 2023

The 5Ws and H Questions in Making Criminal Justice Reports

Criminal Justice Discussion
4-1 Discussion: Who? What? When? Where? Why? How?
Make sure to review the Module Four resources before posting to this discussion topic. Who? What? When? Where? Why? How? These questions are essential to creating a complete report and to ultimately pleading your case. For this discussion, describe the importance of each question and the difficulties that can arise if you cannot answer them. In response to your peers, identify what steps can be taken to overcome those difficulties.
To complete this assignment, review the Discussion Rubric document.
The questions Who? What? When? Where? Why? How? are important in the criminal justice system because they provide the necessary information to build a complete and accurate report.

Who: Identifying the person or persons involved in the crime is crucial to establishing a suspect and determining their involvement in the crime.
What: Describing the crime that was committed is necessary to understand the nature of the crime and what evidence is needed to prosecute it.
When: Knowing the time the crime was committed is essential in establishing a timeline of events and linking the suspect to the scene of the crime.
Where: Identifying the location where the crime was committed is important in locating evidence and witnesses.
Why: Understanding the motivation behind the crime is essential in developing a motive and establishing a connection between the suspect and the crime.
How: Describing the method or methods used to commit the crime is crucial in linking the suspect to the crime and building a solid case.
Difficulties that can arise if these questions cannot be answered include a lack of evidence, conflicting statements from witnesses, or inconsistencies in the suspect’s story.

To overcome these difficulties, steps that can be taken include:

Conducting additional investigations and interviews to gather more information.
Utilizing forensic evidence to link the suspect to the scene of the crime.
Consulting with experts to understand the motive behind the crime.
Re-interviewing witnesses to ensure their statements are consistent and accurate.
Building a comprehensive and convincing case by presenting all available evidence and arguments.
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The 5Ws and H Questions in Making Criminal Justice Reports
In writing clear, concise, and reports, writing answers to the 5Ws (what, where, when, why, and who) and H (how) questions is recommended. These fundamental questions will ensure that an event such as a crime is precisely described, such that it becomes easy to explain during pleading the case (Bell & Razey, 2018).
The ‘who’ questions aid in pointing out the individuals that did a particular activity. These include who discovered the incident or made a report or had emotive in the crime, among other incident related events (Nemeth, 2019). The ‘what’ questions answer on what transpired during the incident or crime. Other ‘what’ questions would include what do the witnesses know or what the weapons were used in the crime or what was the method of operation, among others. The ‘where’ questions answer queries regarding the exact place of a crime or where victims reside or where the suspects were caught, among others. The ‘when’ questions answer the time-related questions to the incident or crime. The ‘why’ questions give reason to the occurrence of the event or crime, utilization of particular tools (Nemeth, 2019). Deployment of specific methods, among others. Finally, the ‘how’ questions are significant in answering the process of how a crime occurred, the extent of severity of the crime, the amount of damages suffered, among others.
Failure to have answers to the various questions following this approach means that the investigator will not capture all the vital facts to solving the cases. The standard report prepared will not flow using facts, thus raising doubts on the final conclusion that are made.

References
Bell, A., & Rozey, B. (2018, May 13). Back 2 basics: How to write a proper police report. Retrieved from https://inpublicsafety.com/2018/01/back-2-basics-how-to-write-a-good-police-report/
Nemeth, C. P. (2019). Private security and the investigative process. CRC Press.
Zhang, D. and Peterson, D.S. eds., 2023. International Responses to Gendered-Based Domestic Violence: Gender-Specific and Socio-Cultural Approaches. Taylor & Francis.
Roux, C., Bucht, R., Crispino, F., De Forest, P., Lennard, C., Margot, P., Miranda, M.D., NicDaeid, N., Ribaux, O., Ross, A. and Willis, S., 2022. The Sydney declaration–Revisiting the essence of forensic science through its fundamental principles. Forensic Science International, 332, p.111182.
Faroque, S. and South, N., 2022. Law-enforcement challenges, responses and collaborations concerning environmental crimes and harms in Bangladesh. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 66(4), pp.389-406.