Samuy Turnblom

Turnblom 1

Samuy Turnblom

Rae L. Oman

Criminal Justice 1010

April 30, 2013

Police and Investigationcareers

I chose to research on this career because I am majoring in criminal justice but I am not sure what field I really want or best at so I decided maybe I should write about rape case and what they do and how much they get paid. I want to be an investigator so I decided to write this assignment about rape case and a little about what the procedures are and what the impact to the rape victims. Due to our society today, I feel that we need more police or investigator to protect and to prevent crimes. I believe that to be police officers or investigator don’t get much pay,however, I feel that they are the one that facing the death row.

As most of the students do, before they deciding to get into any kind of major or career they need to know how much that career will get paid a year? What are the benefits? And what are their duties? Well according to what I have been told from other officers, itdepends on what region, position, skill, and what are your abilities. There are many kinds of police investigators such as rape, robbery, murder, assault, drugs etc. Due to my interest and wanted to continue my education, I certainly want to write about the investigation of rape the reason is that I want to get my master in psychology after I get my bachelor. Therefore, I have asked my psychology professor Mrs. Marcia Flocken about the profession of being a psychologist and what she does, she told me that she is an investigator for rape case and other secret investigations that are related to psychology.

I did my research on the salary base pay but there is nothing that have shown exactly how much they will get pay but I found out from the Utah Police Department that average rape investigator or detective salaries nationwide are 3% lower than average salaries for all job postings. According to the UPD officer said, since 2009 the salary was $62,110 per year but if the person have bachelor degree in criminal justice and more experience the salary can be up to $99,980 a year. To be able to pursue this career a person needs to be US citizen, have bachelor in criminal justice, have high responsibility, be able to pass the physical exam, have not been convicted of any felony, be at least twenty oneyears of age, and other requirements. Furthermore each of the investigators has already worked as police patrol before they become a police investigator.

What are their responsibilities as an investigator? Rape investigator or other investigation has similar duties the differences are, they don’t use the same procedure, and every agent (as the investigator calledhis or herself) has different techniques of how to handle their job. Their duties are: interview the witness, observe suspect and witness, and also examination. The investigators have to keep all the record and document that they have received. Also, it is their duty for appearing at the court as if it’s required from the jury. “Police or investigator usually work 40 hours per week and most of the time they work overtime” said Mr. Johnsen a criminal investigator for the Salt Lake City Police whom I interviewed on the phone.

I’m mostly interested in helping rape victims.I found that most of women or men who have been raped were impact mentally because of being threatened orpossibly beating from the suspect. Some of the rape victim fear to ask for help to get justice. Some become stronger people; however, they might, then, have issues trusting other people. I am an open minded person and I don’t think there is nothing wrong with the rape victim I think that they are a survivor not a victim. I have learned in my psychology class that most of the psychologist always put themselves inan others mind which what I would try to do if I am an investigator. I don’t know what those rape victims have been through so I don’t judge them. I personally don’t think that most of the raped victims were fear of the dependence but I think they scare of what is going to happen when their family, relative, or the people who know found out about them. For thisreason the police and psychologists who interview the victims have found many ways to helpthem to investigatethese cases properly.

Privacy and safety are important for victim so the police officer or the psychologistwork hard to keep them away from the media and outsiders. In some cases, the victims will hardly tellanyone about the abuse because of the embarrassment or ridicule from the family members and sometime due to their culture or beliefs. In my culture, as an example, you cannot have sex before marriage and if you got raped there would be a less chance to get married. In some family think that daughters put shame on her family. This doesn’t just happen in my country but there is other that are strict to the women such as India, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, and other who willingly murder their daughter or sister if they know that she had lost her virginity. I have read many accounts of this bad news from many countries including my own.

In “Understanding attribution of blame in cases of rape: An analysis of participant gender, type of rape and perceived similarity to the victim” Was said that most of the case was hard to prosecute because they found that attractive women were at more risk to be rapedby men. I totally disagree with that because many rape victims are not super models. I think that victims are not asking for those to rape them and there is not just women that got raped but male also have the risk of being rape. I believe that rape was not just about sex but it about power. The defendant can say whatever they want to protect themselves from prosecuting no matter if the defendant might be right in some point about this label below but for me I think that they just want to put the fault to victims or women.

There are many reason or conditions to blame the victims for his or her own action for being rape because that is what justice is all about, the defendant put the fault to prosecutor and prosecutor put the blame to the defendant. That is why we have all the technology, DNA sample, or all the laboratory experiment on the victims’ body to see if she or he has been rape so that they can bring justice. “Understanding attribution of blame in cases of rape: An analysis of participant gender, type of rape and perceived similarity to the victim” also shown that the victims who had been rape have negative impact to themselves such as: depression, blame themselves of what happened, shame, have low self-esteem, lack of social life, and suicide attempt. But that is not what this research is all about, this research also saying that the defendant feel unfairly when most people blame them but not the victims. In my opinion, everyone always wants to be right so nothing can lie to the evident whether you raped or not.

Police or investigator have the responsibility to arrest and be told to the suspects of what degree of rape when the court order but they cannot arrest anyone without the court order. So what are the degrees of rape? According to “Criminal Justice” wrote by Gaines/Miller there are four felonies and misdemeanors, “1. Capital offenses, for which the maximum penalty is death. 2. First degree felonies, punishable by maximum penalty of life imprisonment. 3. Second degree felonies, punishable by a maximum of ten years’ imprisonment. 4.Third degree felonies, punishable by a maximum of five years’ imprisonment” (Chapter 3, Defining and Measuring Crime page. 70) The prosecutors will put into one of these four degrees depending on what age of the victim he or she raped. First degree of rape usually involved with threating by using lethal weapon, kidnapping, and breaking and entering. Defendant who convicted of first degree usually in prison for five year to 20 year depends on how many crimes he or she has committed. Second degree, also have similarity to the first degree but it involved with forcing and the victims physic and mentally impact. The person who convicted second degree rape usually go to prison for five minimum, lifelong incarcerate, also he or she can receive an execution.Third degree of rape is when the suspect accused of rape the 16 years old or disability victims, the suspect normally go to prison for 15 years and register as sex offender.

As I have discovered about degrees of rape suspect I have found the news that relate to it. “GOP activist facing 23 charges of kidnapping, rape” reported on July 19, 2012 by Pat Reavy. The suspect named Gregory Nathan Peterson, 37 years old, live in Orem. He accused and raped 5 women who he met on LDS dating website. The prosecutor charged “with seven counts of rape, three counts of object rape, two counts of aggravated kidnapping, nine counts of forcible sexual abuse, forcible sodomy, assault, burglary and sexual battery” (Reavy, 1). According to the article, Peterson raped three victims that he met online, and another one at a church function. “Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill said his office considered filing charges in cases involving five women, but did not have strong enough evidence in one of the incidents. “One of the four women first went to the Wasatch County Attorney's Office but prosecutors there declined to file charges, Gill said. She then went to the Unified Police Department in March, where investigators started putting together pieces of information from several alleged victims” (Reavy, 2). As the article has stated, the prosecutor took the one of thevictim to his cabin against her will as he promised to take her somewhere and successfully rapes the victims. The others were in their bedrooms. Peterson also was held Thursday on $750,000 bail. This article is an example of defendant being prosecuted and charged with 23 felonies.

Inclusion, the investigator investigate the rape case, help the rape victim, and interrogate the suspect. Every investigator knows and used difference techniques of their career, however, according to some regions their salaries will pay differently but they still do their best to keep people safe and to help the victims. After knowing the basic of being a police investigator, I am excited to continue my education in this career.

Works Cited

ReavyPat.“GOP activist facing 23 charges of kidnapping, rape” SALT LAKE CITY July 19th 1012. 1. Print

RoseGrubb Amy& HarrowerJulie."Understanding Attribution of Blame in Cases of Rape: An Analysis of Participant Gender, Type of Rape and Perceived Similarity to the Victim."Journal of SexualAggression15 (2009): 63-81. Print.