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In 2021, three documentary series revitalised the unsolved murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier in 1996 in West Cork, Ireland, for a global audience of true crime enthusiasts. This article analyses the podcast West Cork (Audible 2018/iTunes 2021) and two streaming series, Murder at the Cottage: The Search for Justice for Sophie (Sky Crime 2021) and Sophie: A Murder in West Cork (Netflix 2021) and argues that they conferred documentary celebrity on their central figures, Sophie Toscan du Plantier and Ian Bailey. The celebritisation of these individuals as victim and villain, was achieved through the development of a convergent narrative across the three series, one salted with the plot twists, end-of-episode cliff hangers, emotional confrontations and supernatural speculation familiar to viewers of true crime, reality television and serial drama. Moreover, the gendered discourse deployed by these documentaries posthumously transformed Sophie Toscan du Plantier into a world-famous victim while providing an opportunity for Ian Bailey, who remains the prime suspect, to self-brand as a Gothic villain. Bailey's 2022 announcement that he would launch a podcast and television series and his self-promotional activity on TikTok confirm the cultural capital associated with documentary celebrity, even, or especially, for the infamous. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2014, students of the Police Academy of Lower Saxony have processed the analysis of cold cases in cooperation with the responsible police departments and the district attorney. This study summarizes the early experiences of the training program and analyzes the benefits for both students and for the police and public prosecutors. The project's aim is to find supporting evidence through the implementation of a structured reconstruction of a crime, constructing data on victimology and possible offender's motives, and finally, to create a lead file controlling process on the complete cold case. All in all, students controlled 693 leads on 7 cases. 527 leads were finished or dead ends, but 166 had to be re-evaluated. Of those, 103 leads remained open while 23 leads were worthy of further investigative effort. Forensic re-analysis was recommended in 14 leads. Twelve times, the students came upon previously undetected cross-reportings of persons within a case or between different cases. Initial experiences with the program show that: (1) from the law enforcement authorities' view, the students' objective analysis does not reach the status of evidence but resulted in new leads in all cases that were worthy of investigation by professional detectives; and (2) the students report that they gained insight into how homicide investigations are organized and how to watch for factors that influence the solvability of homicides in a negative way. Summarizing, we can state that the program is a win-win for all involved. The overall aim to generate new starting points for an investigation was reached in all cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the aftermath of an unsolved homicide, surviving family members are forced to cope with the murder and how it affects their family unit. This paper examines the experiences of 12 cold case homicide survivors from four families, providing a much needed voice to cold case homicide survivors. Utilizing in-depth interviews to understand the survivors' stories, five themes emerged including time spent with related survivors, becoming overprotective, impacts on existing relationships, pressure to stay strong and the difficulties of family traditions. The findings provide an initial framework for understanding the impact of a cold case homicide on the family unit for both survivors and related practitioners. The data indicates that throughout the grief process survivors should be encouraged to engage in private and collective grieving, recognize and address their behavioral and emotional changes, openly discuss the perceived impact on their relationships and reshape family traditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This exploratory study investigates offending patterns of perpetrators of serious sexual assaults (SSA) who were not initially identified at the time of the offense. Thirty-eight adult male offenders were identified through Operation Advance, a phased approach program that forensically reviewed historical sexual offense cases submitted to the UK Forensic Science Service during 1989 to 1999. Results indicated that approximately one-third of the SSA offenders received a post-offense conviction for a sexual‐contact offense. Results showed greater chronicity and versatility of the subsequent offenses for those younger index offenders. Explanations for the findings are discussed with implications for suspect prioritization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Advances in forensic techniques have expanded the temporal horizon of criminal investigations, facilitating investigation of historic crimes that would previously have been considered unsolvable. Public enthusiasm for pursuing historic crimes is exemplified by recent high-profile trials of celebrities accused of historic sexual offences. These circumstances give new urgency to the question of how we should decide which historic offences to investigate. A satisfactory answer must take into account the ways in which the passage of time can erode the benefits of criminal investigation, the costs associated with investigating old crimes, and the need to prioritize investigations in the face of limited police resources. This article emphasizes the first of these factors. It begins by considering the moral goals of a criminal justice system and the contribution of criminal investigations to the achievement of these goals, distinguishing between contributions that depend on further steps in the criminal justice process, such as prosecution and punishment, and contributions that can have value independently of these further steps. Using this important distinction, the article then examines a range of factors that relate the passage of time to criminal justice goals, including the seriousness of the crime; deterioration of evidence; death of the offender, victim and others affected by the crime; and diminished psychological connectedness between those affected by the crime and their current selves. While the range and non-uniformity of relevant factors preclude a simple answer to the question of when historic crimes should be investigated and call instead for case-by-case assessment, we find that the analysis does support some general conclusions that can guide such an assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Over the past two decades ‘cold case review conferences’ have become an established component of how police forces respond to long-term unsolved major crimes. This article examines the place of cold case major crime reviews in UK policing in an age of austerity. In particular, it focuses on examining how police justify expending resource on these reviews, considering why particular motivations have been advanced and in turn what these reveal about modern policing. Informed by empirical data collected during an eight-month ethnographic study of a Major Crime Review Team and interviews with key actors involved in managing and conducting cold case reviews, the article suggests a typology of motives used to justify the continued investment in reviewing historic unsolved major crimes. The discussion concludes by considering what these motivations and their invocation reveal about the current policing practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This lecture sets out to tell the story of why Jacana Media, an independent South African publisher, failed to publish Evelyn Groenink's book about the 1988 unsolved murder of the African National Congress representative in Paris, Dulcie September. In doing this, I tried to understand the ways in which governments and powerful interest groups from across the political spectrum have misrepresented the truth towards various ends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1960 when the homicide rate in the United States was 9,110 the clearance rate stood at 92% (FBI, 1997), accounting for the clearance of 8,382 murders (Harris, Thomas, Fisher, & Hirsch, 2002; Regoeczi & Miethe, 2003; Litwin, 2004). Unfortunately, by 2002 the reported number of homicides solved and cleared by arrests had dipped to 62% (FBI, 2002). The unsolved rate in 2002 in the United States represented a 76% increase since 1960. The increase in unsolved/ uncleared homicide offenses has grown during the last 45 years in spite of the advances in investigative technologies, educational and training enhancements for investigators, and operational emphasis by law enforcement agencies towards community policing. The article explores issues and inferences from current research regarding reasons for the decline in the past decades in the solving of homicides in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]