After reading this chapter you will be able to:

• Discuss the evidence in the Beltway sniper investigation and explain how the perpetrators were identified.
• Identify the goals of the criminal investigation process.
• Discuss the three major problems with evidence in criminal investigations.
• Identify two different types of criminal investigations (reactive, proactive).
• Define the four stages of the reactive criminal investigation process.
• Identify the major undercover strategies (stings, decoys, undercover fencing operations).
• Discuss a criminal investigation as a battle, as a puzzle, and as a game.
• Explain the role of luck, logic, and inference in criminal investigations and identify the associated pitfalls of each.
• Describe the extent to which various crimes are solved by the police and explain the reasons why more crimes are not solved.