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The Investigation of Murder in France and England: a Comparative Account

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The Investigation of Murder in France and England: a Comparative Account View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by LSE Theses Online E. Charlotte Harris The investigation of murder in France and England: A comparative account A thesis submitted to the London School of Economics and Political Science for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Sociology December 2008 Declaration I certify that the thesis I have presented for examination for the PhD degree of the London School of Economics and Political Science is solely my own work other than where I have clearly indicated that it is the work of others (in which case the extent of any work carried out jointly by me and any other person is clearly identified in it). The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. Quotation from it is permitted, provided that full acknowledgement is made. This thesis may not be reproduced without the prior written consent of the author. I warrant that this authorization does not, to the best of my belief, infringe the rights of any third party. 2 Acknowledgements My PhD was funded by a three-year Economic and Social Research Council Studentship, a Bourse Marie Curie, and my father, Dr Gordon Harris, who paid for childcare. I thank everybody who has helped me in any way with the work that went into this thesis. As this began in 2002, when I started to improve my French language skills, there is a long list. Special thanks must go to the employees of the organisations who hosted both my fieldwork and language training and those who helped me arrange this. I cannot name the majority of the organisations or the people involved with this research, and it feels invidious to single out some but not others, but this doesn’t lessen the extent of my gratitude to all concerned. I would like to thank my supervisors Professor Paul Rock and Dr Janet Foster at LSE for their valuable insights and support, and also Renée Zauberman, of CESDIP, who gave me much needed guidance during my sojourn in France, as did her colleague Laurent Mucchielli, and a fortuitous cohabiter of my Résidence in France, Bron McKillop. One final thank you to Dr Stefano Biagini who assisted in innumerable ways, not least acting as a human Endnote when the computer version failed. Needless to say, any errors are his! 3 Abstract This thesis – based on 13 months’ fieldwork observing specialized murder squads and justice personnel - examines the processes and practices of murder investigation in France and England. There is relatively little, particularly ethnographic, research in this field and my work is - to my knowledge - the first comparison of how these countries, often contrasted as instances of the archetypal inquisitorial and adversarial criminal justice systems, respond in practice to criminal homicide. The thesis includes a detailed analysis of two similar cases that occurred in the French and English research sites. The cases are followed from the discovery of the body to the end of the trial. Highlighting two emblematic events within each process - the case conference in England and the reconstitution (or reconstruction) in France - I also explore the epistemological and sociological assumptions behind investigative procedures. Although some of the activities observed in the two countries were similar, key differences were also found in the methods by which the investigations were progressed and recorded, the involvement of detectives at various stages of the investigation, the manner in which the media were used, and the way in which the offender and victim were treated - all of which affected how the investigators viewed their work and the nature of what formed the substance of the cases. A key theme discussed is the way the words used to describe similar processes and roles revealed the different ways in which the two countries viewed the criminal justice process. In my conclusion, I suggest that part of the reason for the differences relates to the way the two societies conceive of the criminal. In England the criminal is seen as someone outside of society and this attitude to criminality affects all those who deal with it – including murder investigators. In France, crime and the investigation of murder has an accepted role in ‘normal’ life. 4 Contents Introduction 10 Chapter 1: Literature Review 17 The nature of the literature 17 The Anglo-American tradition 19 Government Reports – Macpherson, Smith and Byford 19 Murder investigation in England – Innes, the Home Office, Foster, Brookman and Stelfox 19 Journalistic accounts 24 American criminal investigation research – Sanders, Wilson, Ericson and Greenwood 24 Ethnographic studies of detectives – Hobbs 28 English criminal procedure research – Maguire and Norris, McConville, Sanders and Leng 29 The role of victims 31 French studies 32 Homicide statistics – Mucchielli 32 Ethnographic study of French Police Nationale – Lévy and Monjardet 33 The Gendarmerie 38 Legal research on French system by foreigners – Hodgson, McKillop, Leigh and Zedner, and Bell 39 American laboratory experimentation 44 Police and Juge memoirs 44 Journalistic accounts 46 Conclusion 48 5 Chapter 2: The Observer’s Story 50 My background 50 Why compare? 50 Choosing qualitative methods - What’s right with ethnography? 59 Ethnography: Reliability and validity 60 Choosing fieldwork sites 61 Access – Getting In 62 ‘Access relationships’ 66 Anonymisation of sites 67 Description of fieldwork sites 68 In the field 71 ‘Sur le terrain’ 74 The nature of observation – Finding an observation point and choosing what to observe 78 Filling the gaps: Interviews 80 Filling the gaps: Case and policy files 81 Filling the gaps: Secondary data analysis 82 Field relationships 83 Personal reflexivity – my effect on the research and its effect on me 85 The direct Hawthorn Effect 87 Isolation and dealing with death 88 “Writing up” 89 Fieldnotes 89 Coding 90 Similar case analysis 91 Epistemological reflexivity 93 Chapter 3: England - The case of the body in a suitcase 95 Stage 1. From discovery of the body to charging of the suspect – “ A good proper job” 95 Discussion 109 6 Stage 1 – “initial response” and “information collection”/”secondary activity” 109 Detectives’ evaluation of the case 110 The detectives at work – and play 111 Stage 2. Post-charge and pre-trial activity – “The work starts here” 112 Discussion 123 Stage two – “production of evidence” to “construct” a “case” 123 The nature of the investigation and the records made of it 126 How officers viewed their work 128 Chapter 4: France - L’affaire “X-femme” 130 Stage 1. Investigation en flagrant délit – “transport sur les lieux” 130 Discussion 133 Manner of working 133 The relationship between police and magistrat 134 The language of French criminal justice 136 Stage 2. The enquête préliminaire –“X-femme” 137 Discussion 138 The French working life : The “family” group and attitudes to work 138 The contents of the dossier 141 Stage 3. Commission Rogatoire - “You become an intimate of someone who the day before was completely unknown” 141 Discussion 155 The investigations - and the curious incident of the use of the media 155 Garde à vue, Interrogatoire and confession 157 The French working life : Communication and supervision 161 The French working life : Women 162 The French working life : Visitors 163 Stage 4. Mis en examen and further investigation by the Juge and police 164 Discussion 168 The end of the pre-trial phase 168 7 The treatment of the victim’s family 169 The treatment of the Mis en examen 170 French working life: Coffee 171 Chapter 5: The reconstitution and the case conference, searching after truth versus constructing crime? 173 The reconstitution 173 The case conference 185 Discussion 188 Chapter 6: The English trial and re-trial 200 The first trial – “match fit?” 200 Activity between the first trial and the second – “an opportunity to re-look at the evidence” 216 The second trial – the “second-leg” “scrap” 218 Discussion 228 The trial - The test of truth? 228 The trial - “The true test” 230 The relationship between police and the media - “The media as investigative resource” 231 The relationship between police and the family of the victim 232 The relationship between police and Counsel 235 The role of experts 237 Chapter 7: French trial - Les débats et le jugement 238 Les débats 238 Discussion 248 The lawyers 238 The dynamics of le procès/ les débats 250 8 Chapter 8: Conclusions 253 References 270 Appendix 1 282 Glossary of terms 286 9 Introduction This thesis examines the processes and practices of murder investigation in France and England. It compares how police detectives and judicial officials in the two countries conduct inquiries and the investigative tools they prioritise; how they treat suspected offenders and the families of victims; how they prepare cases for court hearings; and how their work, and their attitude to it, is shaped by the wider criminal justice system in which they operate. Murder investigation is an under-researched field. The reasons for this are not entirely clear but could be linked to a number of issues. For policy makers, murder is a relatively rare event and its investigation often unproblematic - the detection rate for murder is consistently higher than for other types of crime, at around 90% (Povey et al, 2008; Mucchielli, 2002); primarily because of the frequent close personal link between offender and victim (Polk, 1994). For practitioners themselves, until recently there appeared to be no need for research in a domain in which they already seemed to perform so well, and among whom there was a decided culture of unteachable craft and professional know-how which could not and should not be inquired into too much by outsiders (Hobbs, 1988). Finally, for the academic researcher, there were the practical difficulties of setting up observational research of an unpredictable event (Rock, 1998).
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