Investigative and
Forensic Consulting

Investigating Staged Crime Scenes (2 Day/16 Hour Course)

The concept of staged scenes is a well known event to experienced detectives and understood to occur in a multitude of different types of crimes. However, much of the contemporary police professional literature tends to focus upon a limited areas such as the purposeful staging or posing of a sexual homicide victim within a crime scene. Such as, “where the perpetrator changes elements of the scene to make a death appear to be a suicide or accidental in order to cover up a murder; thereby, altering the scene and often providing false statements in support of the alterations to purposefully misdirect the police investigation.

Although the sexual stylized positioning of a body and changing a murder scene to resemble an accident or suicide are certainly examples of staged crime scenes, these few examples do not adequately explain or define the full continuum of the staged crime scenes. To better understand the dynamics of these events, this course explains the nature of “staging” and explains how to approach the incident from a crime scene and investigative perspective. Students will learn the three distinct categories of staged scenes and how to recognized them. The intent of this course is to provide the crime scene and criminal investigator with a greater understanding and additional data concerning the act of crime scene staging as applied to the investigative equation, “Why + How = Who.”

Course Instruction Topics:

​THE CONCEPT OF STAGING

• ​What is Staging?
• How Many Staged Scenes

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MOTIVES AND TYPES OF STAGING

• ​False Statements
• Categorizing Staged Scenes
• Motives

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PRIMARY STAGING

• ​Ad Hoc Primary Staged Scenes
• Premeditated Primary Staged Scenes

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SECONDARY STAGING

• Modus Operandi (MO)
• Personation
• Depersonalization
• Undoing
• Body Posing
• Ritualistic of Symbolic

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TERTIARY STAGING OR INCIDENTAL SCENE ALTERATIONS

VICTIMOLOGY

• Risk Factors
• Factual Information
• Subjective Criteria
• Gathering Victimology Information
• Investigative Uses of Victimology
• Low, Medium and High Risk Victims
• Offender Risk

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INVESTIGATING STAGED SCENES

• Red Flags
• Overall Nature of the Report
• Timing of Events
• Coincidences
• “Victim” Reactions to the Event
• Method of Entry
• Forensic Findings
• Offender Behaviors
• Proprietary Interest
• How Prepared was the Offender to Commit the Crime?

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STAGED PROPERTY CRIMES

• Burglary
• Point of Entry
• The Search
• Vehicles
• Arson

ROBBERY, KIDNAPPING AND PERSONAL INJURY

INTERRUPTED BURGLARIES AND HOME INVASTIONS

HOMICIDE STAGED AS SUICIDE

• Suicide Risk Factors
• Investigative Considerations
• Victim and Scene factors
• Victim Antemortem Actions and Statements
• Suicide Notes
• Precipitating Event
• Suicides Staged to Resemble Homicides

STAGED SEX CRIMES AND FALSE COMPLAINTS

• Staged Sexual Homicides
• False Rape Complaints
• Motives for False Rape Complaints
• Cautions

WORKING WITH PROSECUTORS

• Primary Staging
• Admitting Primary Staging Into Court
• Profiling Vs Crime Scene Reconstruction, Analysis

COURSE SUMMARY