Crime scene investigation is a highly popular occupation in the criminal justice field today. The essence of the crime scene investigator is to identify, documentation, collect, and preserve evidence. Unlike Hollywood’s dramatic presentation of crime scene investigation, crime scene investigators’ primary job is to make sure all evidence is properly documented, collected, and preserved from every crime scene. Crime scene investigators present only facts in court, rarely or never their opinion. Only their perfectly documented evidence is admissible. The crime scene investigator who does not document the crime scene thoroughly will be presented in the court room by the defense as having no integrity, perhaps compelling the judge or the jury to question his/her credibility.

Furthermore, crime scene investigators who do not document thoroughly are not well valued by their peers. Colleagues will not trust individuals who do not present reports, correspondences or other documents credibly or professionally. Moreover, criminal justice professionals will not want to work crime scenes with peers who lack effective verbal and non-verbal communication skills; one potential misgiving is a fear of repercussion.

Inability to communicate or document well is a liability to any agency. It is extremely likely that the crime scene investigator who does not document well in APA style, and who does not thoroughly document the crime scene, will not remain employed.
APA style is used by all criminal justice students at every university in the United States and by criminal justice professionals who write articles and papers to document where they found information. Writing credibly in APA style is vital.

• An APA in-text citation always contains the author’s last name only, year of publication, and page or paragraph number, is enclosed in parentheses, and is placed before the period at the end of the sentence, for example, (Jones, 2009, p. 7) or (Jones, 2009, para. 1).
• An APA in-text citation is a short version of an APA reference, which is used by the reader of an article or paper to locate the original source for further information.
• An APA reference for a regular textbook always contains the author’s last name and first initials, the year of publication, the title of the book, the city and state of the publisher and the name of the publisher at minimum.

Please respond to all of the following prompts:

• Research how a crime scene investigator documents evidence in a crime scene.
• Discuss how it is strikingly similar to APA style used by criminal justice professionals used to document sources for writing reports, articles, and papers and why it is so important to learn how to use APA style.

The minimum expectation for class discussions is to respond directly to each part of the discussion prompt and to respond to at least two other posts, either by a student or instructor, by the end of the week:

1. Submit one main post responding directly to each part of the discussion prompt.
   • This should be a substantive response to the topic(s) in your own words, referencing what you have discovered in your required reading and other learning activities.
   • You may use resources in addition to your textbook that support your post(s); however, you must mention the source(s) that you used in your post(s).
2. Reply to at least two posts. Responses can be made to students or to your instructor.
3. Responses to other individuals' posts should:
   • Expand on their ideas.
   • Discuss the differences between your thoughts and theirs.
   • Explain why you agree or disagree.