RUNNING HEAD: ANALYSIS OF AN ANALYSIS
Analysis of an Analysis:
The Importance of Formality in a Crime Report
Megan Rutter
Northeastern University
ANALYSIS OF AN ANALYSIS
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Analysis of an Analysis:
The Importance of Formality in a Crime Report
Investigative intelligence is a rather new field, which acts to support law enforcement in
protecting citizens, and resolving threats to the community. The analysts that work in these
centers are an essential part of the criminal justice community, and fulfill a vital role as a
communication hub between municipalities, state and federal government, and local businesses.
A common product that is passed through the intelligence community is a crime analysis report.
A crime analysis report may vary from a single small incidence to a major terrorist attack, but no
matter its content, the report requires official and purely factual information. The sample report,
anonymously authored and entitled Local Serial Retail Burglaries 2009-2011, is from the
Pennsylvania State Fusion Center, and compiles multiple retail robbery cases that have been
identified to contain common themes, using linkage analysis. Included in the report are many
charts and maps that assist in location based analysis of the crimes and calculating statistical
similarities. The primary goal of a crime analysis is to compile all the available data into a fact
based, readable document that can be disseminated to local police departments for assistance in
catching the actors. After a critical analysis of the audience, purpose, and persona as aspects of
this crime report, conclusions suggest this goal was successfully accomplished.
The typical participants in the intelligence community include police, analysts,
detectives, agents, lawyers, and politicians. Therefore, it must first be stated that the wide variety
of participants, in the criminal justice community, requires certain discretion in use of police
jargon or complicated language. Most members have a background in criminal justice and
therefore the language may be more suited to that community versus the general public. In
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general, the discourse used is very simple and does not include any flowery language as all
documents are considered to be open for investigations and internal reviews.
This crime analysis was specifically meant for the state police locations, but the entire
discourse community may have access and therefore the language must follow to allow for that.
The primary audience for this crime analysis is the requesting officers and station personnel, for
whom the report was created. They have ordered the analysis be conducted and will receive it
directly from the analyst, but this may also lead to possible biases. The requesting officers are in
the middle of investigating this case, have an idea of what their investigative focus should be
before sending the information, and may interpret the analysis in a way that fits the scenario they
have created. This may also have an effect on the language of the analysis, as investigated later.
A secondary audience includes the other analysts at the intelligence center, so that they are aware
of the situation and are able to contact the appropriate people if a similar case is reported. The
secondary audience could also include any supervisors or other interested agencies that may have
possible connections or previous knowledge of the crimes occurring. This specific analysis is
also made available to tertiary audiences, including any lawyers that may use the document in
court at a later date and future analysts, as this analysis has been saved, as an example, in a semipublic archive.
The principal purpose of the analysis is to gather all information about the suspected
serial burglary case and compile all the information into one formal document. Information is
received from the original investigator and sent to the analyst, who then sends out a request for
other possible cases around the area. This information is enhanced with graphics and other
statistical data to provide the most complete picture of the situation. Another purpose is to assist
local law enforcement in narrowing down their suspect list or improving their ability to catch the
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actors during a burglary. The included maps serve a great purpose, because law enforcement are
able to see what specific shopping malls have been targeted highest and may be able to increase
surveillance to those areas.
In order to achieve this purpose, the information of the document is presented in
paragraph format with graphics interlaying the paragraphs with relevant text. The analysis reads
similar to a research paper, with an introduction to the case and paragraphs about specific
similarities that follow. The paper is separated into sections by actor characteristics, crime scene
actions, locations, statistical analyses, and conclusions. This organization provides a clear path
through the material and separates it with related information. These sections all include charts or
graphics that help associate an image with the somewhat lengthy text, allowing for a stronger
visual cue to assist in memory of the document. An additional element, to assist the purpose of
the essay, is that each page contains a header and footer with material about the source of the
analyst organization, their email and an additional phone number to reach for more information.
This header takes up about 10% percent of each page and is colored bright red, so that the
information catches the audiences eye constantly. This contributes to the overall purpose of the
essay by constantly reminding the reader that this report has been professionally compiled and
the reputation of the agency ensures that the information is trustworthy and verified.
All of these specific design features are universally understood in this intelligence
discourse community. The template for the report is widely available and ensures that any person
reading the report understands where the vital information is located and how to navigate the
report. The heading on each page ensures authenticity and the footing provides legal coverage for
any unauthorized reader. Interestingly, the text is written using a sans serif font, which is
sometimes seen as less formal. This document was sent out via email and later published on the
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Internet, so it holds that a sans serif font is more readable. Computer monitors have a much
lower resolution than printed work and therefore sans serif text is clearer on a monitor. The only
color is the document is the red heading and a colored map. The charts and graphs are all blackand-white, but the map is the typical yellow with orange roads and crime locations marked with
a red triangle. This allows for a constant, warm color scheme and allows the reader to take pause
over the more visually important graphics. This variety of design allows the purpose of the
document to become more focused and clear, in that it lays out the fact in an easy to find format,
without interrupting the integrity of the writing.
The overall style of this analysis is modest and straightforward. The language is not
complex and makes no illusions or metaphors, where the sentence structure remains simplistic
and active. For example, The actors cut the phone lines, to disable the alarm system to the
building in 15 cases ("Local Serial Retail Burglaries," 2012). The sentence structure controls for
misinterpretation of the facts and provides no additional analysis, other than what has been
reported to the analyst, limiting possible biases from the reader. It is not in the expertise of the
analyst to make generalizations about the information or include any investigative suggestions,
as it is not his or her case, and they will not be responsible for any arrests or court cases.
Typically in the law enforcement field, words like suspect or offender are not utilized, as
these imply guilt, which is only acceptable after a trial or confession. Note in the example
sentence, the term actors is used. The analysis is written in third person, which protects the
analyst from further influencing the information with personal assumptions or biases.
These previously mentioned features give the document a certain persona. The influence
of the writer, as removed as they are supposed to be, shines through certain aspects of the
analysis. Every analyst comes from a different background and provides a unique perspective.
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The author of this piece is left anonymous, but every individual writing style varies, so there
remains some uniqueness to the piece. The tone remains cold and emotionless, as it is simple the
gathered facts laid out in essay format. A supporting example is, Of the 36 cases, nineteen
occurred on Sunday night, accounting for 53% of all cases ("Local Serial Retail Burglaries,"
2012). The overarching goal of this analysis is to combine all of the information into one
readable document for police to familiarize themselves with. This is successfully accomplished
through the use of straightforward language and graphics.
This is a typical example of a crime analysis produced by an analyst at an intelligence
fusion center. By addressing the potential audience, purpose, and persona of this analysis, a basic
understanding of the type of document produced from the criminal justice field was
accomplished. These documents are critical to connecting cases, finding criminals, and
protecting the citizens of the jurisdictions. By composing a cohesive document that covers these
specific goals, an intelligence analyst provides the research and final documentation that allows
effective policing to flourish.
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Works Cited
Local Serial Retail Burglaries 2009-2011. (2012). Retrieved from the Pennsylvania State Crime
Report Public Records.
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Response Letter:
I would like to thank the reviewers for their highly valued comments, which assisted me
greatly in the revision process. I was able to rewrite my thesis because of their comments, and I
think it is now a lot stronger. I have also included the full document title earlier in the essay, but
was not about to provide any information about the author or more details, as the document is
blacked out in areas. Both reviewers suggested adding more detail from the report to enhance
understanding, however a lot of the report is classified information and therefore I was not able
to include specifics. All reviewers also mentioned that included quotes would help strengthen my
analysis, but again since the report is classified I did not want to include quotes with blacked out
content. I considered finding a less blacked out document to use, but I felt that this document
really represented the products I had seen and helped create over the summer so continued to use
it.
One of the comments made by a reviewer included that it may take to much time to get to
the main analysis of the features of the document, but I went a different way. Most of the
discussion board responses and reviews I have received mentioned that they had never known
that an organization like this did not exist. Therefore I felt it was important to the overall
understanding to begin with the discourse community and an overview of the work done by
intelligence centers. This same reviewer mentioned making stronger transitions between
paragraphs and I think that was very helpful and I have gone through and made appropriate
changes.
Another very helpful comment was that I was not using strong enough language
throughout the essay, stating would be and could be instead of using strong action verbs. I
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have gone through and realized how this makes my writing not confident and so I changed all of
those instances to action verbs.
All reviewers mentioned that my document source was incomplete. I received this
document after reaching out to my old boss and therefore only have knowledge of the database
that he sent it from. There is no author information or specific publication date and through my
research of APA citing, this was the best I could come up with using the information provided