JSB235 Investigation and Evidence

Unit Outline: Summer 2024, Online

Overview

Few people in justice fields are trained investigators. Justice professionals are routinely communicating with and obtaining information from clients and others. Their roles may also require them to conduct an investigation and provide a report of their findings. The skills required to conduct an effective and ethical investigation are however quite specific and may ultimately result in the investigator giving testimony in court proceedings. Further the scope of possible investigations is very broad. While most will associate investigations to suspected breaches of criminal laws, investigations may relate to non-compliance with workplace policies e.g. health and safety incidents, negative workplace behaviour. Workplace Investigation Skills provides foundational investigation skills that will enable each student to plan an investigation, gather evidence, identify witnesses and suspects, and produce an professional report articulating the findings of the investigation.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit you will be able to:

1. Create an ethical investigation plan for analysing an incident drawing on theoretical principles, processes and procedures to identify elements of the alleged breach that need to be established during the investigation process. (Course Learning Outcomes 1.1, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 3.1, 4.1, 4.2 and 5.1)
2. Analyse and interpret relevant legislation, organisational policies and guidelines to identify appropriate avenues for the collection of evidence, identification of witnesses and persons responsible for committing breach/s. (Course Learning Outcomes 1.3, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3 and 2.4)
3. Gather, manage and evaluate evidence collected and make judgements about the value, weight and reliability of evidence. (Course Learning Outcomes 1.3, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 3.2, 3.3, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3 and 5.1)
4. Write a professional, investigation report that makes conclusions and recommendations informed by evidence using appropriate discipline specific language. (Course Learning Outcomes 3.1, 3.2, 4.1, 4.2, 5.1 and 5.3)

Content

Learning Approaches

This unit will be delivered fully online where you will have the opportunity to actively engage with your peers and teachers as part of an online learning community. A wide range of interactive learning resources and study materials will be available the Canvas site. These materials may include: online discussions and debates, pre-recorded lectures, readings, quizzes, problem solving tasks, industry guest speakers, synchronous tutorials, scenarios and real-world case studies. The unit is divided into four modules, which has a focus on the application of principles to real-world situations using authentic government, reports and research papers. It is expected as an online student you will sustain a regular study schedule and maintain regular contact with your online tutor.

Feedback on Learning and Assessment

Students will receive feedback in various forms throughout the semester, which may include:
informal: worked examples, such as verbal feedback in class, personal consultation
formal: in writing, eg criteria sheets, written commentary
direct: to individual students, either in written form or in consultation
indirect: to the whole class.

Assessment

Overview

There will be two pieces of assessment for this unit. All students will be required to submit their assessment items via the upload link provided on the Canvas site.

Unit Grading Scheme

7- point scale

Assessment Tasks

Assessment: Investigation Plan

You are taking on the role of an investigator and are required to review a case currently under investigation. As part of this process, you will need to develop an investigation plan, which will inform your final investigation report. This plan will provide the initial outline for your investigation report, detailing the steps in the review and investigation process.

This is an assignment for the purposes of an extension.

Assessment: Investigations Report

This investigation report requires you to review a case that is under investigation and critically evaluate the facts of the case. You will need to review the investigation progress and evaluate the weight of the evidence, noting among other aspects, whether the evidence has been ethically collected and what is missing in order to draw conclusions and make recommendations.

This is an assignment for the purposes of an extension.

Academic Integrity

Students are expected to engage in learning and assessment at QUT with honesty, transparency and fairness. Maintaining academic integrity means upholding these principles and demonstrating valuable professional capabilities based on ethical foundations.

Failure to maintain academic integrity can take many forms. It includes cheating in examinations, plagiarism, self-plagiarism, collusion, and submitting an assessment item completed by another person (e.g. contract cheating). It can also include providing your assessment to another entity, such as to a person or website.

You are encouraged to make use of QUT’s learning support services, resources and tools to assure the academic integrity of your assessment. This includes the use of text matching software that may be available to assist with self-assessing your academic integrity as part of the assessment submission process.

Further details of QUT’s approach to academic integrity are outlined in the Academic integrity policy and the Student Code of Conduct. Breaching QUT’s Academic integrity policy is regarded as student misconduct and can lead to the imposition of penalties ranging from a grade reduction to exclusion from QUT.

Resources

Risk Assessment Statement

Students are advised that some content in justice units may be confronting. If you are concerned that the content of a unit may impact your completion of the course, please see the unit coordinator. You can also access free student counselling through QUT Counselling via the QUT Student Homepage.