Structure of Case Study Reports

Structure of Case Study Reports

The primary purpose of a report of this nature is to present the analysis of your findings in the way which is clearest and most helpful to the investigation.  It follows therefore that the most important part is the Conclusions, usually presented in a tabulated form at the end of the report and normally commencing with those which are considered the most reliable, or which are the most important in view of the terms of reference for the report.

 

Although the conclusions have a natural place at the end of the report this doesn’t mean that the rest of it is redundant!  Far from it!  The body of the report should set out the information you are relying on and your inferences and reasoning from them to generate a fuller understanding of the case.  Everything in the report before the ‘Conclusions’ should therefore be leading towards justification for your findings, and help an outside observer to see how you have arrived at the analysis you have.

 

It helps a lot to have a clearly defined structure for the report –

 

            1. It is best to set out the terms of reference for the report at its beginning.  These are the questions you have been asked to answer, and which therefore form the focus of the report.

 

            2. It is good practice to give a brief case summary, taking no more than a short paragraph to describe the basic circumstances of the offence.

 

            3. Next list your sources of information and set out any assumptions you have made and are aware of, as this is a convenient way to reduce any bias in the report.  The assumptions may be as simple as presuming that the information you have been given is accurate or that the sources of information (e.g. verbal and written briefings, witness statements, video recordings, scene visits) are complete in themselves, or that by themselves whether they can convey a full picture of the offence.  If the information is incomplete (as it often is) then it is helpful to say in what way you think this might affect the robustness of the conclusions.  If this leads to suggesting further specific lines of enquiry to improve the information available for analysis then these should be incorporated in the conclusions section at the end of the report rather than here.

 

            4. A reconstructed sequence of events is generally useful at this point, although you may have to develop this further if more than one sequence is more or less equally possible from the information at your disposal.  In that case you should set out all the potential scenarios but choose the one you think is most likely and explain why you have selected this particular one. You may also prefer to write about this after the section dealing with detailed consideration of offence factors rather than before it, if this helps the report to flow better from the point of view of understanding your reasoning.

 

            5. Detailed consideration of offence factors.  This can take up a lot of thinking and writing time and, together with the following section, will probably take up most of the report outside the conclusions.  The factors considered may vary according to the type of offence, and are best considered under separate sub-headings so that you can more readily see if you have missed any important areas.  They are likely to include such factors as Scene factors; Victimology; Evidence of advance planning or preparedness; Evidence of development of themes during the offence; Evidence of exit strategy; Evidence of forensic awareness; Level of offender satisfaction with the offence and Predicted post-offence behaviours.

 

            6. Discussion of offence factors.  In this part of the report you are reflecting on the patterns in your findings to date and comparing the patterns one with another to extract information that will help you understand the case and communicate this understanding to others, using a process such as referential inferencing to assist you.  Try to clearly separate the case information that is considered factual from inferences using this information, as these are will be speculative in nature and may of course legitimately change if the information changes.  Try also to distinguish between opinions based on your researches into a subject (and which will therefore be providing you with a ‘model’ within which to consider the offence) from your opinions based on the case evidence alone.  Both are valuable but sometimes differ in reliability, and the case-based conclusions may be more robust for the individual case you are considering.

 

            7. Finish the report with a section either headed ‘Conclusions’ or ‘Opinion and Conclusions’ depending on which you feel is the more accurate.  An independent reader of the report should be able to understand your lines of reasoning from your conclusions so that they know not just what your conclusions are but how you have reached them.  This then makes it much easier for another person to compare their understanding of a case with yours, and to decide how to best use the analysis you have presented in order to help the investigation.

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