How to Design a Home Invasion Crime Scene Report

Home invasion crime scenes require thorough investigating to determine what happened and why.

Crime scene reports are one of the first steps in an investigation. The crime scene report typically includes a summary of what happened, details regarding the crime scene, evidence collected, witness interviews and statements and other information that might be relevant to an impending investigation. For a home invasion, the crime scene report would include what property was taken or destroyed, whether or not security measures were in place and possible motives for the invasion.

Things You'll Need

• Crime scene information
• Word processor program

Instructions

1. Include case identification information at the top of every page of the crime scene report. Identifying information includes the date of the incident, the primary investigating officer on the scene and the case number or other identifying code for the home invasion incident. This should be on every page in case a page falls out of the report folder or is misplaced.

2. Place the incident location information at the top of the first page of the home invasion crime scene report. This would be the address of the home, the owner of the home and a list of residents with their contact information.

3. Design sections of the report for all necessary information, leaving space for the information to be written by hand or typed on the computer. Necessary sections are "Summary," "Crime Scene Details," "Evidence," "Witnesses" and "Notes."

4. Create a large space on the crime scene report where the crime scene may be sketched. This could be associated with the "Evidence" section and in the crime scene sketch. The locations of evidence collected might be indicated with a number or letter value in the sketch that corresponds with the number or letter of the cataloged evidence.

5. Print or save the report for use with home invasion crime scene investigations. If printed, punch holes in the top and attach to the inside of a report folder where other information such as crime scene photos and witness statements will be placed.

   If saving as a report template, make the file name "home_invasion_report_template" or some variation on that title to denote a template. File out the template for each home invasion crime scene investigation, then do "Save As...," instead of "Save," and save the report as you would a specific incident report which preserves the template file for later use. Print the completed report for adding to the file.

References

• "Written Documentation at a Crime Scene"; Mike Byrd
• "Crime Scene Investigation: A Guide for Law Enforcement"; Technical Working Group on Crime Scene Investigation; January 2000