Author: splash305

Research– Splash305

Being an FBI Agent and What Comes With It

          Of all the occupations in the world, the most gruesome of them all has to be working in the FBI criminal intent unit. These types of people have to read and witness the most horrible crime scenes. Crime scenes so awful that the average person wouldn’t even be the same after witnessing such things. But with that they also have to be able to have a lot of mental strength dealing with the things they see.

When in the mind set of an FBI profiler or someone working in the criminal intent unit, there is a need to understand how to separate work life from social life. The person doing this cannot be like a seasoned homicide detective who builds a wall of what they call the `isolation of affect’ between themselves and the horrors they see. To do this job effectively one must be able to laugh and joke around with some child-killer or look at the horrors of some case and casually discuss what had happened to a victim. By trying to visualize and imagine what the victim experienced and try to figure out why the subject did these things to this victim. To be able to do that it really becomes emotionally and physically draining says John Douglas, but it is what has to be done in order to stay sane. As John shared more of his experience with us, he told us about some questions he would ask the prisoners he would visit just to better his knowledge and skills. He would ask questions like: Why did this killer select this victim over that one? And how did they get that child out of that shopping center? Did this suspect follow the press (reports)? Asking these questions helps give a better idea of what was going through the killer’s mind when he chose that specific victim or chose to commit that crime in this specific area.

To know the killer, one must know the victim and the crime scene. When it comes to the victim one must know everything there is to know. For example, how and where the crime took place, what happened verbally, physically, and sexually because without these aspects it is hard to really know who he is; to know the artist you must look at the artwork as John stated. John then goes into detail about his process prior to the interrogation with the killer: Before the interview he has to know the scene, he must look at the crime scene and the crime scene photographs. He also has to look at the preliminary police reports, autopsy photographs and read the autopsy protocol. John has to do an analysis of the victim called victimology, where he tries to ask the question, `Why was this victim the victim of this particular crime?’ Then, armed with all that information, he’ll go in there. Talking with the criminal is a crucial part of investigations, especially when there are multiple suspects. Talking with each one will help narrow down the options. Also with the more verbal communication the more John Douglas can watch the suspect and get a feel for his body language and the answers the suspect gives to the questions he is asked. Body language speaks very loudly to the types of people who study human behavior and criminology.

With different kinds of murderers comes different amounts of victims and different kinds of kills. There are three main categories murderers fall under and what makes each one different. For example, as John puts it in to perspective, a serial killer is a killer who kills three or more victims and there is a cooling-off period in between each of the killings. And the crimes are relatively sophisticated. They’re premeditated to the point the fantasy is there and they are looking to act out the fantasy. The mass murderer is generally one event. All these post office cases and school shootings are mass murders. We say it’s four or more victims are involved in the slaughter. Generally, it ends in suicide by the subject or suicide by cop, where the subject puts himself in the position. The spree killer–Andrew Cunanan, Angel Maturino Resendiz–is generally known to law enforcement and is in a fugitive status and is killing, killing, killing. He continues to talk about how most serial killers are male. People will sometimes say that it is unusual to have black serial killers. That was true up until 1981 with Wayne Williams (child murders in Atlanta). But we’ve had cases since then. Proportionately, by population generally it is the white male, and when he does kill it is much more bizarre, like decapitation. Women usually will kill people close to them. Serial killing is really a male thing, a testosterone kind of a thing. Which is something I found to be really interesting because in a lot of crime shows I have watched, there is a good number of women killing people they don’t know or abducting children and making them their own.

Criminal investigators undergo a lot of pressure and stress during different cases. Matthew Leone states a really good point of what stress does to someone. He states the three-stage process identified by Selye, which connected psychological stress to physical disease, became known as the General Adaptation Syndrome. The first stage of this stress response was called the Alarm reaction. In this stage, the reaction to the onset of stress is immediate, but short-term. This is where humans would exhibit a “fight or flight” reaction to this new stress. While this stage is brief, immune system suppression was still found to occur toward the end of this stage. In the second (Resistance) stage, the body is attempting to adjust to prolonged stress. He continues by saying Metabolic changes occur as a result of these adaptations, and if the stress does not subside, the body eventually moves into the third, or Exhaustion, stage. In this stage, the physical resources of the body are depleted and the organ function is beginning to weaken due to the prolonged and unrelenting effect of these psychological stressors. When the individual has reached the Exhaustion stage, stress has been experienced for an extended period of time, and physical function may diminish gradually, or it may collapse quickly. The immune system may become corrupted, resulting in infections or other diseases due to reduced immunity. Heart attacks and strokes also become possible due to high blood pressure which often accompanies prolonged stress. With each different case comes a different kind of stress and a different way of coping with what has been seen. For example, when it comes to murder cases as Dr. Laurence Miller states the sheer magnitude and shock effect of many mass-murder scenes and the violence, mutilation and sadistic brutality associated with many serial killings – especially those involving children – often exceed the defense mechanisms and coping abilities of even the most jaded investigator. In addition to that he also goes on to explaining how problems with other cases can be very emotionally damaging. As the investigation drags on, the inability to solve the crime and close the case further frustrates and demoralizes the assigned officers and seems to jeeringly proclaim the hollowness of society’s notions of fairness and justice.

As noted above, all the more disturbing are situations where the killer is known but the existing evidence is insufficient to support an arrest or conviction. This is one of the hardest to deal with, nothing is more shameful then having eyes on the killer and knowing who he is but there is just not enough to arrest him. To know how close the suspect was to being caught but because of the lack of evidence it leaves a feeling of such guilt and as if the killer is taunting the person who couldn’t gather enough evidence to convict this suspect. Stress and self-recrimination are further magnified when the failure to apprehend the perpetrator is caused by human error, as when an officer’s misguided actions or breach of protocol leads to loss or damage of evidence or suppression of testimony, allowing the perpetrator to walk. With that being stated it is a very exhausting effort in trying to solve these murder cases. Having a perpetrator walk free because of damaged or lost evidence can cause a person’s work quality to become hurt, they could start making sloppy errors which could increase a person’s vulnerability to more stress and failure with cases. Dr. Miller explains in rare cases when it comes to no-arrest cases, and particularly those involving children, some homicide or sex crime investigators may become emotionally involved with the victims’ families and remain in contact with them for many years. Some detectives become obsessed with a particular case and continue to work on it at every available moment, sometimes to the point of compromising their work on other cases and leading to a deterioration of health and family life. When it comes to cases related to sex crime investigations there is more of a frustration or sadness when it comes to those who were more vulnerable like children or the elderly. Most cases are hard to get through on a normal basis and it takes a lot of mental strength and coping skills to finish certain assignments. But those involving children that ended without an arrest or caught criminal can be even more damaging to someone’s mental process. Causing them to spend even more time on this case than others just to bring answers to the families that lost their children.  Criminal investigators need to use coping skills regularly when doing their assignments to be able to finish them effectively. Dr. Miller has stated some strategies that criminal investigators use to cope and has gone into detail about each of them.

First, we have the defense mechanism and mental toughening, this is used as the most familiar way of blocking up unpleasant material who are used to taking a tough, suck-it-up attitude toward unpleasant aspects of the job. Next there is a strategy called compartmentalization or isolation, this affect is where negative emotions are separated out and put in a “mental file cabinet” in order to allow the rest of the officer’s cognitive faculties to keep functioning. Individuals differ in their ability to make this mental separation without undue emotional leakage into other areas of work and family life. Another strategy is intellectualization which is another strategy used to describe the process of detoxifying an emotionally wrenching task or experience by adopting the stance of detached, objective, intellectual curiosity: for example, the emotional revulsion and horror of encountering the remains of a sexually mutilated corpse is diffused and diluted by immersion in the technical scientific minutiae of crime-scene investigation and offender-profiling. Then we have the strategy of sublimation which refers to the process of turning a “bad” impulse into a socially acceptable, or even admirable “good” activity or vocation. For this strategy it can easily take the impulses that many people would consider bad or not natural and channel them into something acceptable while still getting that release. Humor is a strategy that plays a big role in coping when it comes to this job field. Being able to laugh about the horrors people see and the insane serial killers that walk this earth really helps with being able to play off that those things actually exist. Peer support and healthy humor from the people and the investigative team in the work place also play a big part in helping those in this work field stay sane.

With professionalism begins with a certain attitude that says the investigator will do his or her best because of a general service orientation and specifically because the work provides professional satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment. Professionalism encompasses the physical space in which the investigator works. There is no reason for the investigator’s office to be unnecessarily grim, but bear in mind that this office will have a wide variety of professionals and civilians circulating through it – from liaison officers of other agencies in multijurisdictional investigations, to distraught family members of slain or assaulted victims – so officers should choose their decor accordingly. Certainly, explicit illustrations, crime scene souvenirs or other inappropriate decorations should not be in plain sight. Confidentiality is an essential part of professionalism. As Dr. Miller talks about, Victims and their families must be certain that their sensitive material – testimony transcripts, crime scene photographs, videotapes, property used for evidence – will be seen only by those directly involved in solving and prosecuting the case. Aside from being the right and ethical thing to do, the assurance of reasonable privacy and dignity serves the practical function of encouraging better cooperation from victims and potential witnesses, which may yield information vital to closing the case. This helps give the families a piece of mind that the whole world won’t be watching or see the things that happened to their child or loved one. In a sense the case, crime scene tapes and photographs will be kept quiet and professional.

Professionalism extends to the investigator’s language and behavior. Again, this is not to encourage undertaker-like solemnity or schoolmarmish over correctness, but maintaining a certain decorum of speech and demeanor is important for the public and for co-workers. Remember, sex crimes investigators must struggle with the “creep factor” even among their colleagues, so anything that contributes to the impression of serious professionalism – proper and respectful handling of gruesome or pornographic evidence, for example – will serve to heighten credibility. Again, without encouraging inappropriate over formality, the use of technical terms, not slang, should be policy, especially when communicating with civilians. All professionals – doctors, lawyers, engineers, psychologists – have their own distinctive terminology that serves to facilitate communication among them and highlights the fact that these are members of serious professions with knowledge and experience in what they do. As Dr. Miller discussed these strategies as stated above, there are far more that play different roles in keeping calm and level headed while working on hard stressful and emotionally draining work.

Crime scene technicians collect evidence related to crime and are therefore exposed to many traumatic situations. The coping strategies they use are thus very important in the process of facing the psychological consequences of such work. The available literature shows that crime scene technicians are an understudied subgroup of police workers. Our study is therefore the first unfolding insights into technicians’ coping strategies, post-traumatic symptomatology and somatic health, based on a sample of 64 male crime scene technicians as Tinkara Pavšič Mrevlje states. Another interesting fact Tinkara Pavšič Mrevlje states is crime scene technicians mainly use avoidance coping strategies. Approach strategies that are more effective in the long-term—i.e. lead to a larger buffering of the effects of traumatic stress—are more frequently used if technicians are familiar with the nature of the task, when they have time to prepare for it, and if they feel that past situations have been positively resolved. Behavioral avoidance strategies were found to be least effective when dealing with traumatic experiences and are also related to more frequent problems of physical health. But aside from all of those things it really means so much when people get through those hard cases without damaging or losing evidence so the criminal doesn’t walk free.

This is related to expertise as a key component of professionalism. As Dr. Miller continues to explain, New York City police officer and author Vincent Henry notes how truly dedicated investigators spend much of their own time, often at their own expense, reading books and journals, attending seminars and conferences, conferring with colleagues and downloading software, all to increase their knowledge and expertise in forensic investigation. For such professionals, education does not end with their basic law enforcement or criminal justice curriculum; rather, it is a process that extends and suffuses into all of one’s professional career. Personally, I wish more doctors had this attitude.

Criminal profilers deal with a lot of things that go on around them and the things they see during a normal work day. I think it is honestly to their advantage being able have all this knowledge about other people. They can pick up on body language and get a sense of people if they strike them as off. Yes, the work field they are in can be very physically and emotionally draining and damaging. But they have all the people that work with them who understand and can help. Even is some people in this field are not the type who like to go to people and talk out their problems, there is a wide variety of coping methods. It may be difficult but with practice and the help of others around at work can make it a lot easier to deal with the things seen on a daily basis and in a way people become desensitized to it the more they are subjected to. When is comes to stress Matthew Leone made a really good point by stating in an effort to estimate the effect, certain events have on subjects’ stress levels, researchers have attempted to calculate a value for the stress associated with many life events. The Life Events Inventory lists life events and the relative stress (for both males and females) associated with each of these events. While the order varies slightly across gender, death is overall the most powerful cause of stress, and the death of a spouse, an immediate family member, or a close friend rank among the highest stressors for both men and women.

 

Work Cited

 Anonymous. INSIDE THE MIND OF THE MIND HUNTER: An Interview with Legendary FBI Agent John Douglas. 2017, Spring.

Miller, Laurence. “Dealing with the Stress of Criminal Investigation:” PoliceOne, 6 Mar. 2008.

Waugh, Jalika Rivera. Exposure to Traumatic Death Events and Traumatic Event-Related Stress in Crime Scene Investigators: A Multiple Regression Analysis. 2013.

Mrevlje, Tinkara Pavšič. “Coping with Work‐Related Traumatic Situations among Crime Scene Technicians.” Stress and Health, 2 Jan. 2015.

Leone, Matthew C., and Renee Keel. “Occupational Stress and the Crime Scene Investigator.”Journal of Law and Criminal Justice, vol. 4, no. 1, June 2016, pp. 63–74., doi:10.15640/jlcj.v4n1a4.

Sarapin, Susan H., and Glenn G. Sparks. Sci., Psi, and CSI: Police Officers and Students’ Paranormal TV Consumption, Real-Life Experience with Paranormal Phenomena, and Perceptions of Psychic Detectives. 3 Aug. 2014.

Chifflet, Pascale. “Questioning the Validity of Criminal Profiling: an Evidence-Based Approach.” Questioning the Validity of Criminal Profiling: an Evidence-Based ApproachAustralian &Amp; New Zealand Journal of Criminology – Pascale Chifflet, 2015, 12 May 2014.

 

Self Reflective– Splash305

Core Value I. My work demonstrates that I used a variety of social and interactive practices that involve recursive stages of exploration, discovery, conceptualization, and development.

Writing is a really complicated thing that I don’t think I will ever truly get the hang of. During the semester in this class I feel like I have gotten a better understanding of how writing is a multistage, progressive process. There isn’t just one draft to be made, do a little editing and it’s finished. To get it right there can be as much as rewriting an entire paper just to continue to enhance it. When writing a paper, it needs to be broken down into steps and those steps can be repeated as many times until it can’t be corrected anymore. But there is usually always room to find more corrections.  Having other people revise the work that has been done is another way to discover different aspects of writing that may not have stood out.

https://rowancounterintuitive.com/2017/09/23/purposeful-summaries-splash305/

Core Value II. My work demonstrates that I placed texts into conversation with one another to create meaning by synthesizing ideas from various discourse communities.

When I go about writing and I have to write about something I don’t have much knowledge on, it requires me to do some research. Once I have done the research I must then put myself in the position of the person I am writing about or the aspect of the topic. From using this style of writing it helps expand someone’s writing in more ways than one. Being able to put one’s self in the position of someone else or in some sort of topic shows the readers how enjoyable the writing can get, and how much easier it can be with a better understanding of the topic someone can have. Also by doing this it helps create and show that I have a better understanding of the topic and point I am trying to get across to my readers.

https://rowancounterintuitive.com/2017/10/08/visual-rewrite-splash305/

Core Value III. My work demonstrates that I rhetorically analyzed the purpose, audience, and contexts of my own writing and other texts and visual arguments.

My work shows that I understand the three concepts of purpose, audience, and contexts of my writings and others. The purpose of an argument is the reason behind something and the point that is planned on getting across. The audience is those who will be reading this argument but also the kind of audience that is wanted to be reading this argument. The context of writing is the circumstances or facts within writing that help support a specific topic of discussion. If using contexts from other texts I am always sure to provide correct citation and make sure it flows nicely within my work.  By incorporating visual arguments into pieces of writing is helpful to provide a better understanding to the reader of the topics and points being discussed within a paper.

https://rowancounterintuitive.com/2017/11/05/a08-white-paper-splash305/

Core Value IV: My work demonstrates that I have met the expectations of academic writing by locating, evaluating, and incorporating illustrations and evidence to support my own ideas and interpretations.

I have met the expectations of academic writing within my work with the proposal 5+. I have done this by finding different sources to use within my research essay. This exercise was made to help us be able to seek out proper sources and correctly incorporate them within our own work. The sources we were meant to find had to be through Google Scholar or the Rowan Campbell Library, for them to be more official of a source to use for our essay. When looking through these different sources we had to really search and read through each one to make sure it would be a good and correct addition to put into our essay. After we found these sources we had to figure out how to correctly incorporate them or to just use the knowledge within our writing.

https://rowancounterintuitive.com/2017/10/15/proposal-5-splash305/

Core Value V. My work demonstrates that I respect my ethical responsibility to represent complex ideas fairly and to the sources of my information with appropriate citation.

When writing anything during this semester I was always sure to incorporate the correct citation or give someone credit when using any of their work or ideas. This is done by always making sure if I use someone’s work I give them the credit in a proper citation. Or if I use their ideas I will use an indirect citation and also add a work cited page at the end of my essays or papers. By always being sure to do this it shows that I have respect and responsibility for all of those whose work I borrow or use within my paper. It also shows that I am aware of how to properly cite someone’s work and giving them an additional credit by adding a work cited page.

https://rowancounterintuitive.com/2017/11/12/casual-argument-splash305/

 

Bibliography– Splash305

1. Chifflet, Pascale. “Questioning the Validity of Criminal Profiling: an Evidence-Based Approach.” Questioning the Validity of Criminal Profiling: an Evidence-Based ApproachAustralian &Amp; New Zealand Journal of Criminology – Pascale Chifflet, 2015, 12 May 2014.

Background: This article talks about the different types of profiling and how it is used in criminal investigations to seek out criminals.

How I was used: I used it to read and learn more about the many different ways of profiling based on evidence and behavior. This article also gave me insight in this field so I could better understand what it is like.

2. Anonymous. INSIDE THE MIND OF THE MIND HUNTER: An Interview with Legendary FBI Agent John Douglas. 2017, Spring.

Background: This book talks about John Douglas’ personal experiance being an FBI profiler and the experiences he went through on and off of the job. He talked about what jobs he preformed and how many at a time and the impact it had on him.

How I used it: I used it by explaining how profilers go though a lot off difficult experiences and how it can really have affects on mental health. I used this also by going off of johns personal experience. I put direct quotes of his experiences in my paper.

3. Anonymous. Conference Presenter Spotlight: An Interview with Greg Cooper, MPA, FBI (Retired), Chief of Police (Retired). 2007, Summer.

Background: This article talks about a man Greg Cooper, and his experiences with the FBI criminal intent unit. He also shares how he worked closely with John Douglas.

How I used it: I ued it by reading  and educating myself about how Greg Cooper has had different everyday experiences even being retired from the force, this incudes different experiences from the normal everyday police officer.

4. Sarapin, Susan H., and Glenn G. Sparks. Sci., Psi, and CSI: Police Officers and Students’ Paranormal TV Consumption, Real-Life Experience with Paranormal Phenomena, and Perceptions of Psychic Detectives. 3 Aug. 2014.

Background: This article talks about the televised affect the criminal unit has on people and what it portrays to those who don’t know what really goes on in the real FBI criminal intent unit.

How I used it: This article did not provide me with any substantial evidence to put into my paper but it did provide me with a better knowledge of the people who watch the TV versions of FBI criminal units and how they have a comptetely different view of what actually goes into being a profiler and what they actually do.

5. Olson, Bernadette Faith. Critical Issues in Profiling: An Exploratory Analysis on the Role of Specialization. 2003.

Background: This article talks about the different behavioral traits each criminal can have and being able to seek that out right away. It also talks about how to learn to pick up on these factors.

How I used it: This article wasn’t used within my research paper but it was used by helping me better understand how some criminals need to be figured out first in order to go about talking to them. Also with the skills that are picked up start to be included in an everyday lifestyle with all of the people seen and met.

6.  Miller, Laurence. “Dealing with the Stress of Criminal Investigation:” PoliceOne, 6 Mar. 2008.

Background: This article talks about how being a criminal investigator really gets to you. It goes through each different type of crime and how each one has different negative affects. Then it goes through talking about different coping methods with the people in the same work place/field.

How I used it: I used it but providing examples from the article in my research paper to better explain the negative affects being a criminal investigator can have. I also provided some of the coping methods within my paper.

7. Arias, Elizabeth A., et al. “Police Officers Who Commit Suicide by Cop: A Clinical Study with Analysis.” Journal of Forensic Sciences, Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 25 Aug. 2008.

Background: This article talks about how when some cops can’t take it anymore, instead of commiting suicide they have a cop kill them on purpose. That way they aren’t the ones doing it and it doesn’t look like an actual suicide.

How I used it: I used it by providing a specific story into my rebuttal arguement about a cop who had a lot going on and chose to get caught up in a car chase. Therefore resulting in him getting shot and killed.

8. Waugh, Jalika Rivera. Exposure to Traumatic Death Events and Traumatic Event-Related Stress in Crime Scene Investigators: A Multiple Regression Analysis. 2013.

Background: This book talks about the tramatic levels of stress law and crime scene investigators go through when subjected to tramatic deaths. It even states that in some cases being subjected to this can have positive affects.

How I used it: I used this book to provide information and background in my causal argument about how experiencing this kinds of tramatic things can affect a persons mental health.

9.  Mrevlje, Tinkara Pavšič. “Coping with Work‐Related Traumatic Situations among Crime Scene Technicians.” Stress and Health, 2 Jan. 2015.

Background: This article talks about how being exposed to tramatic situations can have many psychological consequesnes. Then it goes through the different varieties of helpful unstudied coping methods in this work field.

How I used it: I used this article to provied more useful information in my paper by providing specific examples. Also a better understanding of the diiferent tramatic experiences and coping methods.

10. Leone, Matthew C., and Renee Keel. “Occupational Stress and the Crime Scene Investigator.”Journal of Law and Criminal Justice, vol. 4, no. 1, June 2016, pp. 63–74., doi:10.15640/jlcj.v4n1a4.

Background: This article talks about the different kinds of stresses that are involved with different sitiations that are experienced in the law enforcement types of fields. It talks about the result of these stressors and how to go about fixing or coping with said stressors.

How I used it: I used this article by providing specific examples and using the knowledge I got from it to help me better explain the different kinds of stressors, results from them, and how to fix or cope with them.

Rebuttal Argument– Splash305

Suicide Among Cops and FBI Agents

Many people who work in this kind of field deal with many mental stressers. Many of police officers and FBI agents get so overwhelmed with the things going on in and out of the work place, they can’t seem to find healthy ways to deal with them. In most cases when cops feel the need to commit suicide because of whatever they having going on they can’t deal with, they often do it in directly. They will have another cop shoot and kill them. As explained by Elizabeth A. Arias she gives us a specifice case study where this took place. A 36-year-old Caucasian male (A.A.) drove into a local convenience store to obtain gas for his car. He put $11.75 worth of gasoline in his vehicle and drove off without paying. A civilian followed A.A. and persuaded him to return to pay for the stolen gas. Police officers had already been called to the scene and upon A.A.’s return to the store, they approached him while he was still in his car. He refused to speak to the officers, backed his vehicle up, nearly striking two other officers, and began what turned into a high speed chase. During the chase, A.A. drove recklessly, reaching speeds up to 100 mph, and several times turned off his headlights and turned on a blue strobe light. Deputies attempted to block the vehicle several times, but A.A. managed to elude the roadblocks. The chase ended after about 10 min. When the officer’s approached A.A.’s car, he exited his vehicle with a thermos in one hand and a 0.45 caliber semi-automatic handgun in the other. After he pointed his weapon at an officer, he was fatally shot. It was later determined that A.A.’s gun was not loaded. Inside the thermos were several bags of cocaine which police believed were stolen from the police evidence room.

A.A. had previously served as a sheriff’s deputy for 13 years, but at the time of the incident—and for the prior 5 years—he was an identification and evidence technician for the local police department. On the day of the incident, he was off-duty and was driving a police department van with the police decals removed. It is not clear whether he was the one who removed the decals. The van and A.A.’s use of the blue strobe light led officers to believe that the suspect they were chasing was indeed a police officer. Of importance is that all local police officers were allowed to get free gas directly across the street from where A.A. stole it, which suggests his motivation for creating the incident.

In the months preceding the deadly encounter, A.A. spoke with his supervisor about his financial hardships: mounting bills, growing debt that was covered with borrowed money, maxed out credit cards, and a re-mortgaged home. Approximately 2 weeks prior to the incident, A.A. told his supervisor that his wife had incurred even more debt and he felt increasingly depressed over the situation. Other police officers who were in contact with A.A. on the day before the shooting did not observe anything remarkable. He had no psychiatric history and had always been in good standing with the police department. Although a toxicology report was positive for cocaine and amphetamines at the time of his death, A.A. had never failed a drug test with the department.

 

Works Cited

Arias, Elizabeth A., et al. “Police Officers Who Commit Suicide by Cop: A Clinical Study with Analysis.” Journal of Forensic Sciences, Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 25 Aug. 2008, onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1556-4029.2008.00861.x/full.

Causal Argument– Splash305

Dealing With Being an  FBI Profiler

Criminal investigators undergo a lot of pressure and stress during different cases. Matthew Leone states a really good point of what stress does to someone. He states the three-stage process identified by Selye, which connected psychological stress to physical disease, became known as the General Adaptation Syndrome. The first stage of this stress response was called the Alarm reaction. In this stage, the reaction to the onset of stress is immediate, but short-term. This is where humans would exhibit a “fight or flight” reaction to this new stress. While this stage is brief, immune system suppression was still found to occur toward the end of this stage. In the second (Resistance) stage, the body is attempting to adjust to prolonged stress. He continues by saying Metabolic changes occur as a result of these adaptations, and if the stress does not subside, the body eventually moves into the third, or Exhaustion, stage. In this stage, the physical resources of the body are depleted and the organ function is beginning to weaken due to the prolonged and unrelenting effect of these psychological stressors. When the individual has reached the Exhaustion stage, stress has been experienced for an extended period of time, and physical function may diminish gradually, or it may collapse quickly. The immune system may become corrupted, resulting in infections or other diseases due to reduced immunity. Heart attacks and strokes also become possible due to high blood pressure which often accompanies prolonged stress (Selye, 1936). With each different case comes a different kind of stress and a different way of coping with what has been seen. For example, when it comes to murder cases as Dr. Laurence Miller states the sheer magnitude and shock effect of many mass-murder scenes and the violence, mutilation and sadistic brutality associated with many serial killings – especially those involving children – often exceed the defense mechanisms and coping abilities of even the most jaded investigator. In addition to that he also goes on to explaining how problems with other cases can be very emotionally damaging. As the investigation drags on, the inability to solve the crime and close the case further frustrates and demoralizes the assigned officers and seems to jeeringly proclaim the hollowness of society’s notions of fairness and justice.

As noted above, all the more disturbing are situations where the killer is known but the existing evidence is insufficient to support an arrest or conviction. This is one of the hardest to deal with, nothing is more shameful then having eyes on the killer and knowing who he is but there is just not enough to arrest him. To know how close the suspect was to being caught but because of the lack of evidence it leaves a feeling of such guilt and as if the killer is taunting the person who couldn’t gather enough evidence to convict this suspect. Stress and self-recrimination are further magnified when the failure to apprehend the perpetrator is caused by human error, as when an officer’s misguided actions or breach of protocol leads to loss or damage of evidence or suppression of testimony, allowing the perpetrator to walk. With that being stated it is a very exhausting effort in trying to solve these murder cases. Having a perpetrator walk free because of damaged or lost evidence can cause a person’s work quality to become hurt, they could start making sloppy errors which could increase a person’s vulnerability to more stress and failure with cases. Dr. Miller explains in rare cases when it comes to no-arrest cases, and particularly those involving children, some homicide or sex crime investigators may become emotionally involved with the victims’ families and remain in contact with them for many years. Some detectives become obsessed with a particular case and continue to work on it at every available moment, sometimes to the point of compromising their work on other cases and leading to a deterioration of health and family life. When it comes to cases related to sex crime investigations there is more of a frustration or sadness when it comes to those who were more vulnerable like children or the elderly. Most cases are hard to get through on a normal basis and it takes a lot of mental strength and coping skills to finish certain assignments. But those involving children that ended without an arrest or caught criminal can be even more damaging to someone’s mental process. Causing them to spend even more time on this case than others just to bring answers to the families that lost their children.  Criminal investigators need to use coping skills regularly when doing their assignments to be able to finish them effectively. Dr. Miller has stated some strategies that criminal investigators use to cope and has gone into detail about each of them.

First, we have the defense mechanism and mental toughening, this is used as the most familiar way of blocking up unpleasant material who are used to taking a tough, suck-it-up attitude toward unpleasant aspects of the job. Next there is a strategy called compartmentalization or isolation, this affect is where negative emotions are separated out and put in a “mental file cabinet” in order to allow the rest of the officer’s cognitive faculties to keep functioning. Individuals differ in their ability to make this mental separation without undue emotional leakage into other areas of work and family life. Another strategy is intellectualization which is another strategy used to describe the process of detoxifying an emotionally wrenching task or experience by adopting the stance of detached, objective, intellectual curiosity: for example, the emotional revulsion and horror of encountering the remains of a sexually mutilated corpse is diffused and diluted by immersion in the technical scientific minutiae of crime-scene investigation and offender-profiling. Then we have the strategy of sublimation which refers to the process of turning a “bad” impulse into a socially acceptable, or even admirable “good” activity or vocation. For this strategy it can easily take the impulses that many people would consider bad or not natural and channel them into something acceptable while still getting that release. Humor is a strategy that plays a big role in coping when it comes to this job field. Being able to laugh about the horrors people see and the insane serial killers that walk this earth really helps with being able to play off that those things actually exist. Peer support and healthy humor from the people and the investigative team in the work place also play a big part in helping those in this work field stay sane.

With professionalism begins with a certain attitude that says the investigator will do his or her best because of a general service orientation and specifically because the work provides professional satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment. Professionalism encompasses the physical space in which the investigator works. There is no reason for the investigator’s office to be unnecessarily grim, but bear in mind that this office will have a wide variety of professionals and civilians circulating through it – from liaison officers of other agencies in multijurisdictional investigations, to distraught family members of slain or assaulted victims – so officers should choose their decor accordingly. Certainly, explicit illustrations, crime scene souvenirs or other inappropriate decorations should not be in plain sight. Confidentiality is an essential part of professionalism. As Dr. Miller talks about, Victims and their families must be certain that their sensitive material – testimony transcripts, crime scene photographs, videotapes, property used for evidence – will be seen only by those directly involved in solving and prosecuting the case. Aside from being the right and ethical thing to do, the assurance of reasonable privacy and dignity serves the practical function of encouraging better cooperation from victims and potential witnesses, which may yield information vital to closing the case. This helps give the families a piece of mind that the whole world won’t be watching or see the things that happened to their child or loved one. In a sense the case, crime scene tapes and photographs will be kept quiet and professional.

Professionalism extends to the investigator’s language and behavior. Again, this is not to encourage undertaker-like solemnity or schoolmarmish over correctness, but maintaining a certain decorum of speech and demeanor is important for the public and for co-workers. Remember, sex crimes investigators must struggle with the “creep factor” even among their colleagues, so anything that contributes to the impression of serious professionalism – proper and respectful handling of gruesome or pornographic evidence, for example – will serve to heighten credibility. Again, without encouraging inappropriate over formality, the use of technical terms, not slang, should be policy, especially when communicating with civilians. All professionals – doctors, lawyers, engineers, psychologists – have their own distinctive terminology that serves to facilitate communication among them and highlights the fact that these are members of serious professions with knowledge and experience in what they do. As Dr. Miller discussed these strategies as stated above, there are far more that play different roles in keeping calm and level headed while working on hard stressful and emotionally draining work.

Crime scene technicians collect evidence related to crime and are therefore exposed to many traumatic situations. The coping strategies they use are thus very important in the process of facing the psychological consequences of such work. The available literature shows that crime scene technicians are an understudied subgroup of police workers. Our study is therefore the first unfolding insights into technicians’ coping strategies, post-traumatic symptomatology and somatic health, based on a sample of 64 male crime scene technicians as Tinkara Pavšič Mrevlje states. Another interesting fact Tinkara Pavšič Mrevlje states is crime scene technicians mainly use avoidance coping strategies. Approach strategies that are more effective in the long-term—i.e. lead to a larger buffering of the effects of traumatic stress—are more frequently used if technicians are familiar with the nature of the task, when they have time to prepare for it, and if they feel that past situations have been positively resolved. Behavioral avoidance strategies were found to be least effective when dealing with traumatic experiences and are also related to more frequent problems of physical health. But aside from all of those things it really means so much when people get through those hard cases without damaging or losing evidence so the criminal doesn’t walk free.

Works Cited

“Dealing with the Stress of Criminal Investigation:” PoliceOne, 6 Mar. 2008, http://www.policeone.com/archive/articles/1669755-Dealing-with-the-stress-of-criminal-investigation-It-gets-to-you/.

Robust Verbs–Splash305

There is a huge problem in Vancouver with heroin addicts committing crimes to support their habits. The “free heroin for addicts” program is doing everything they can to stop the addicts. The problem is that there is a large crime rate due to the addicts. It is obvious that addicts have a hard time getting through their day to day lives. Daily activities such as jobs, interactions, and relationships are hard to maintain because of the fact that they are using. By heroin users being addicted, they will do whatever they have to do to get their hands on the drug. The types of crimes committed are those of breaking and entering as well as stealing. There are no limits to where they will go to retrieve this drug so that they can feed their addiction. The problem with this program is that it won’t help to ween these addicts off using heroin. It is only trying to save the city from rising crime rates that they’re up to. By providing the drug, these addicts will be off the streets, which in turn will prevent them from committing minor street crimes. This will also keep the heroin users out of the hospital. It is pointless that the hospitals have to deal with people that want to use bad drugs or unsanitary needles and find themselves being unable to afford hospital bills and hard to cope without the drug. This program gives people free heroin in the cleanest way possible. This will in turn fix the city  but not the addiction that these people face.

A huge problem in Vancouver with heroin addicts committing crimes to support their habits. The “free heroin for addicts” program is doing everything they can to stop the addicts. The problem with the large crime rate is due to the rising rate of addicts. This group is trying to make it obvious how addicts have a problem getting through their day to day lives. Daily activities such as jobs, interactions, and relationships with people are hard to maintain for those under the influence of drugs. Heroin users who are very addicted, will do whatever it takes get their hands on drugs. The types of crimes committed for example are breaking an entering and stealing. When it comes to addicts, limits to how far they will go to retrieve the drug to feed their addiction does not exist. This program’s problem is not helping by weening these addicts off of using heroin. By removing the drug, these addicts will be off the streets, which in turn will prevent them from committing minor street crimes. This will also keep the heroin users out of the hospital because of their use of drugs. It’s pointless for hospitals to deal with people that want to use bad drugs or use unsanitary needles and find themselves being unable to afford hospital bills, and having a hard time coping without the drug. This program is giving people free heroin in the cleanest way possible in hopes to keep them off the street. This will in turn fix the city but not the addiction that these people face everyday.

Enough About You–Splash305

Money seems to have a big role in our society; you can’t do much or get far if you don’t have any. Money is valuable in different ways, even when you don’t see it physically. In today’s society you must have faith in the government and in the banking system that your money is being handled in the proper manner; if not, then you would have to hide all of your money under your mattress or around your house. I have no clue what happens in the banks, or how they take care of your money. I always thought money was simple; you either have some or you don’t—that’s it. However, being introduced to this assignment, the Yap Fei, US gold, French francs, Brazilian cruzeros, and debit accounts now seem similar. You don’t actually see your money being transferred. When you get paid, you aren’t handed cash, you don’t receive a physical check, the money’s all directly transferred to your bank account, and you just have to trust that you got more money.

Money seems to have a big role in our society; people can’t really do much or get far if there isn’t any in their pockets. Money is valuable in different ways, even if it isn’t seen physically. In todays society, having faith in the government and in the banking system that holds all of the money and hoping it is being handled properly; if not we’d all be hiding money under mattresses and around the house. I have no clue what happens in banks, or how they take care of money. I always thought money was simple; it’s either owned by someone or it isn’t–that’s it. However, being introduced to this assignment, the Yap Fei, US gold, French francs, Brazilian cruzeros, and debit accounts now seem similar. We don’t actually see money being transfered. When we get paid, we aren’t handed cash, we don’t receive a physical check, the money’s all directly transferred to peoples bank accounts, and there just has to be a trust that we got more money.

White Paper–Splash305

Content Descriptions:

  • Understanding how to separate work life and social life
  • Getting inside the mind of the criminal
  • Different kinds of killers that are dealt with
  • How to deal with the horrific things you see mentally
  1.  Working Hypothesis 1

With the knowedge and the experiences you have being an FBI profiler you can either use it to your advantage, or you can let the horrific things you see negatively impact you.

Working Hypothesis 2

When it comes to the different kinds of killers, you have to know them as well as they know themselves in order to crack them.

2. Topics For Smaller Papers

Definition/Classification Argument 

 When in the mind set of an FBI profiler or someone working in the criminal intent unit, we need to understand how to speparate our work life from our social life. To do this you cannot be like a seasoned homicide detective who builds a wall of what they call `isolation of affect’ between themselves and the horrors that they see. To do this job effectively you must be able to laugh and joke around with some child-killer or look at the horrors of some case of what happened to a victim. You try to visualize, imagine what the victim experienced and try to figure out why the subject did these things to this victim. To do that it really becomes emotionally and physically draining, says John Douglas but it is what has to be done in order to stay sane. As John shared more of his experience with us, he told us some questions he would ask the prisoners he would visit just to better his knowlege and skills. He would ask questions like: Why did you select this victim over that one? And how did you get that child out of that shopping center? Did you follow the press (reports)?

To know the killer we have to know the victim, we have to know the crime scene. When it comes to the victim we must know everything there is to know. We must know how and where the crime took place, what happened verbally, physically, and sexually because without these aspects we don’t really know who he is; to know the artist you must look at the artwork as John stated. Then John goes into detail about his process prior to the interigation with the killer: Before the interview, I have to know the scene. I have to look at the crime scene, the crime scene photographs. You also have to look at the preliminary police reports, autopsy photographs, read the autopsy protocol. I have to do an analysis of the victim, called victimology, where you try to ask the question, `Why was this victim the victim of this particular crime?’ Then, armed with all that information, I’ll go in there.

With different kinds of murderers comes different amounts of victims and different kinds of kills. There are three main categories murderers fall under and what makes each one different. For example as John puts it in to perspective, a serial killer is a killer who kills three or more victims and there is a cooling-off period in between each of the killings. And the crimes are relatively sophisticated. They’re premeditated to the point the fantasy is there and they are looking to act out the fantasy. The mass murderer is generally one event. All these post office cases and school shootings are mass murders. We say it’s four or more victims are involved in the slaughter. Generally, it ends in suicide by the subject or suicide by cop, where the subject puts himself in the position. The spree killer–Andrew Cunanan, Angel Maturino Resendiz–is generally known to law enforcement and is in a fugitive status and is killing, killing, killing. He continues to tell us about how most serial killers are male. People will say that it’s unusual to have black serial killers. That was true up until 1981 with Wayne Williams (child murders in Atlanta). But we’ve had cases since then. Proportionately, by population, generally it’s the white male, and when he does kill it’s much more bizarre, like decapitation. Women kill people close to them. Serial killing is really a male thing, a testosterone kind of a thing.

 Cause/Effect Argument

Dealing With Being an  FBI Profiler

Criminal investigators undergo a lot of pressure and stress during different cases. With each different case comes a different way of coping with what has been seen. For example when it comes to murder cases as Dr. Laurence Miller states the sheer magnitude and shock effect of many mass-murder scenes and the violence, mutilation and sadistic brutality associated with many serial killings – especially those involving children – often exceed the defense mechanisms and coping abilities of even the most jaded investigator.

In addition to that he also goes on to explaining how problems with other cases can be very emotionally damaging. As the investigation drags on, the inability to solve the crime and close the case further frustrates and demoralizes the assigned officers and seems to jeeringly proclaim the hollowness of society’s notions of fairness and justice.

As noted above, all the more disturbing are situations where the killer is known but the existing evidence is insufficient to support an arrest or conviction. Stress and self-recrimination are further magnified when the failure to apprehend the perpetrator is caused by human error, as when an officer’s misguided actions or breach of protocol leads to loss or damage of evidence or suppression of testimony, allowing the perpetrator to walk.

With that being said it is a very exhausting effort in trying to solve these murder cases and having a perpetrator walk free can be really damaging to your work quality and cause you to start making sloppy errors and increases your vulnerability to more stress and failure with cases.

Dr. Miller explains in rare cases when it comes to no-arrest cases, and particularly those involving children, some homicide or sex crime investigators may become emotionally involved with the victims’ families and remain in contact with them for many years. Some detectives become obsessed with a particular case and continue to work on it at every available moment, sometimes to the point of compromising their work on other cases and leading to a deterioration of health and family life.

When it comes to cases related to sex crime investigations there is more of a frustration or sadness when it comes to those who were more vulnerable like children or the elderly.

Most cases are hard to get through on a normal basis and it takes a lot of mental strength and coping skills to finish certain assignments. Criminal investigators need to use coping skills regularly when doing their assignments to be able to finish them effectively. Dr. Miller has stated some strategies that criminal investigators use to cope and has gone into detail about each of them.

First we have the defense mechanism and mental toughening, this is used as the most familiar way of blocking up unpleasant material who are used to taking a tough, suck-it-up attitude toward unpleasant aspects of the job.

Next there is a strategy called compartmentalization or isolation, this affect is where negative emotions are separated out and put in a “mental file cabinet” in order to allow the rest of the officer’s cognitive faculties to keep functioning. Individuals differ in their ability to make this mental separation without undue emotional leakage into other areas of work and family life.

another strategy is intellectualization is another strategy used to describe the process of detoxifying an emotionally wrenching task or experience by adopting the stance of detached, objective, intellectual curiosity: for example, the emotional revulsion and horror of encountering the remains of a sexually mutilated corpse is diffused and diluted by immersion in the technical scientific minutiae of crime-scene investigation and offender-profiling.

Then we have the strategy of sublimation which refers to the process of turning a “bad” impulse into a socially acceptable, or even admirable “good” activity or vocation. For this strategy you can easily take the impulses that many people would consider bad or not natural and channel them into something acceptable while still getting that release.

Humor is a strategy that plays a big role in coping when it comes to this job field. Being able to laugh about the horrors you seem and the insane serial killers that walk this earth really helps with being able to play off that those things actually exist.

Peer support and healthy humor from the people and investigative team around you also play a big part in helping you stay sane in this line of work.

With professionalism begins with a certain attitude that says the investigator will do his or her best because of a general service orientation and specifically because the work provides professional satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment.

Confidentiality is an essential part of professionalism. As Dr. Miller talks about, Victims and their families must be certain that their sensitive material – testimony transcripts, crime scene photographs, videotapes, property used for evidence – will be seen only by those directly involved in solving and prosecuting the case.

As Dr. Miller discussed these strategies as stated above, there are far more that play different roles in keeping calm and level headed while working on hard stressful and emotionally draining work. But aside from all of those things it really means so much when you get through those hard cases without damaging or losing evidence so the criminal doesn’t walk free.

   Rebuttal Argument

Suicide Among Cops and FBI Agents

Many people who work in this kind of field deal with many mental stressers. Many of police officers and FBI agents get so overwhelmed with the things going on in and out of the work place, they can’t seem to find healthy ways to deal with them. In most cases when cops feel the need to commit suicide because of whatever they having going on they can’t deal with, they often do it in directly. They will have another cop shoot and kill them. As explained by Elizabeth A. Arias she gives us a specifice case study where this took place. A 36-year-old Caucasian male (A.A.) drove into a local convenience store to obtain gas for his car. He put $11.75 worth of gasoline in his vehicle and drove off without paying. A civilian followed A.A. and persuaded him to return to pay for the stolen gas. Police officers had already been called to the scene and upon A.A.’s return to the store, they approached him while he was still in his car. He refused to speak to the officers, backed his vehicle up, nearly striking two other officers, and began what turned into a high speed chase. During the chase, A.A. drove recklessly, reaching speeds up to 100 mph, and several times turned off his headlights and turned on a blue strobe light. Deputies attempted to block the vehicle several times, but A.A. managed to elude the roadblocks. The chase ended after about 10 min. When the officer’s approached A.A.’s car, he exited his vehicle with a thermos in one hand and a 0.45 caliber semi-automatic handgun in the other. After he pointed his weapon at an officer, he was fatally shot. It was later determined that A.A.’s gun was not loaded. Inside the thermos were several bags of cocaine which police believed were stolen from the police evidence room.

A.A. had previously served as a sheriff’s deputy for 13 years, but at the time of the incident—and for the prior 5 years—he was an identification and evidence technician for the local police department. On the day of the incident, he was off-duty and was driving a police department van with the police decals removed. It is not clear whether he was the one who removed the decals. The van and A.A.’s use of the blue strobe light led officers to believe that the suspect they were chasing was indeed a police officer. Of importance is that all local police officers were allowed to get free gas directly across the street from where A.A. stole it, which suggests his motivation for creating the incident.

In the months preceding the deadly encounter, A.A. spoke with his supervisor about his financial hardships: mounting bills, growing debt that was covered with borrowed money, maxed out credit cards, and a re-mortgaged home. Approximately 2 weeks prior to the incident, A.A. told his supervisor that his wife had incurred even more debt and he felt increasingly depressed over the situation. Other police officers who were in contact with A.A. on the day before the shooting did not observe anything remarkable. He had no psychiatric history and had always been in good standing with the police department. Although a toxicology report was positive for cocaine and amphetamines at the time of his death, A.A. had never failed a drug test with the department.

3. Current State of My Research Paper

My research paper is going alright. I enjoy my topic very much and I think it has a lot of potential to be something thrilling. But it seems I have some trouble wording everything I need to say correctly to make sense as to what point I am trying to get across. There are many different aspects of things to write about when it comes to this topic, and I feel as though I am trying to put them all into one essay. Other than that I think I have all the information I need to continue.

Definition Argument– Splash305

When in the mind set of an FBI profiler or someone working in the criminal intent unit, there is a need to understand how to separate work life from social life. The person doing this cannot be like a seasoned homicide detective who builds a wall of what they call the `isolation of affect’ between themselves and the horrors they see. To do this job effectively one must be able to laugh and joke around with some child-killer or look at the horrors of some case and casually discuss what had happened to a victim. By trying to visualize and imagine what the victim experienced and try to figure out why the subject did these things to this victim. To be able to do that it really becomes emotionally and physically draining says John Douglas, but it is what has to be done in order to stay sane. As John shared more of his experience with us, he told us about some questions he would ask the prisoners he would visit just to better his knowledge and skills. He would ask questions like: Why did this killer select this victim over that one? And how did they get that child out of that shopping center? Did this suspect follow the press (reports)? Asking these questions helps give a better idea of what was going through the killer’s mind when he chose that specific victim or chose to commit that crime in this specific area.

To know the killer, one must know the victim and the crime scene. When it comes to the victim one must know everything there is to know. For example, how and where the crime took place, what happened verbally, physically, and sexually because without these aspects it is hard to really know who he is; to know the artist you must look at the artwork as John stated. John then goes into detail about his process prior to the interrogation with the killer: Before the interview he has to know the scene, he must look at the crime scene and the crime scene photographs. He also has to look at the preliminary police reports, autopsy photographs and read the autopsy protocol. John has to do an analysis of the victim called victimology, where he tries to ask the question, `Why was this victim the victim of this particular crime?’ Then, armed with all that information, he’ll go in there. Talking with the criminal is a crucial part of investigations, especially when there are multiple suspects. Talking with each one will help narrow down the options. Also with the more verbal communication the more John Douglas can watch the suspect and get a feel for his body language and the answers the suspect gives to the questions he is asked. Body language speaks very loudly to the types of people who study human behavior and criminology.

With different kinds of murderers comes different amounts of victims and different kinds of kills. There are three main categories murderers fall under and what makes each one different. For example, as John puts it in to perspective, a serial killer is a killer who kills three or more victims and there is a cooling-off period in between each of the killings. And the crimes are relatively sophisticated. They’re premeditated to the point the fantasy is there and they are looking to act out the fantasy. The mass murderer is generally one event. All these post office cases and school shootings are mass murders. We say it’s four or more victims are involved in the slaughter. Generally, it ends in suicide by the subject or suicide by cop, where the subject puts himself in the position. The spree killer–Andrew Cunanan, Angel Maturino Resendiz–is generally known to law enforcement and is in a fugitive status and is killing, killing, killing. He continues to talk about how most serial killers are male. People will sometimes say that it is unusual to have black serial killers. That was true up until 1981 with Wayne Williams (child murders in Atlanta). But we’ve had cases since then. Proportionately, by population generally it is the white male, and when he does kill it is much more bizarre, like decapitation. Women usually will kill people close to them. Serial killing is really a male thing, a testosterone kind of a thing. Which is something I found to be really interesting because in a lot of crime shows I have watched, there is a good number of women killing people they don’t know or abducting children and making them their own.

Work Cited

 Anonymous. INSIDE THE MIND OF THE MIND HUNTER: An Interview with Legendary FBI Agent John Douglas. 2017, Spring.

 

Safer Saws — Splash305

1A: Manufacturers- The saw has a feature that allowes the blade to stop when the sensor attched to the blade picks up the detection of flesh. It stops fast enough to prevent any sort of injury.

1B: The saw has a feature that detects flesh and can prevent injury.

1C: Factual claim, it states the fact that the saw stops fast enough to prevent injury.

1D: This claim provides us with logic in wanting to change the ways of wood working to provide people with safer saws. It reassures us that with this technology people can avoid serious injury.

11A: Amputees- “My father put his hand through the table saw and it was terrible. It was an accident on an old saw that was caused by a lack of safety features (anti-kickback)”.

11B: If the saw had the safety feature attached then this person would still have their hand.

11C: Proposal claim, if he would have had the safety feature installed there would have been no injury.

11D: This claim provides us with logic, saying if we want to continue to have both hands it is worth spending the money for a safety feature.

2A: Customers- “I note the people opposed to sawstop don’t own one. I own 2. Jobsite and contractor. Used professionally, and I won’t let anyone on a jobsite use another saw.”

2B: People that don’t own sawstop say it isn’t worth it and saws can be safe if people pay attention but that is just because they don’t have one.

2C: Opinion claim, he thinks sawstop is the best and safest saw to have where as others find it unnessesary.

2D: This claim provides accuracey in the opinion being stated that safe saws may not be for everyone but when used they do what is told.

10A: Power Tool Product Reviewers- ” I care about the fact that there is a technology out there that can protect me and others who will not always be entirely 100% focused 100% of the time.”

10B: Not everyone is going to be fully focused all of the time, so we need the technology that is going to protect us when we are not.

10C: Evaluation claim, he is saying that the use of this technology will come in handy when peopl lose focus which is very common to do.

10D: This claim provides logic in letting us know that not everyone will be fully alert at all times of the day, and when they aren’t it is not to have advanced technology to bet there for our protection.

12A: Steve Gass Reviewers- “The more I see from Sawstop, and the more I hear about Gass, the more I hate them. The issues with Sawstop’s lack of quality control and their horrendous company in general is why I stay away from that brand at all costs.”

12B: His opinion of Steve Gass is the reason he dislikes the sawstop product and finds them to be a waste of time.

12C: Opinion claim, he lets his opinion of Steve Gass get in the way of seeing the reasoning behind this product and its safety.

12D: This claim provides persuasivness in trying to get people to think Steve Gass isn’t a good guy and therefore getting them to dislike his products.