3. Report - Base on Case study Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

3. Report - Base on Case study - Assignment Example Cliff Lewis has been ranked the highest for providing adequate support to the employees for the growth of the department. Before appointing Cliff Lewis as a head of the Department of Town Planning, the department consisted of 55 employees. It has been identified that out of 55 employees, 35 are appointed for technical purpose, 5 are appointed as a project directors and 5 are appointed as expert coordinator. Moreover, rest of 5 employees are appointed for the administrative support. On the other hand, the Department of Economic Development is ascertained to be organised in an effective manner. Cliff Lewis has been identified to be making efforts to design the department in an organised manner. The Department of Economic Development has been restructured by Cliff Lewis by developing four business units with 25 employees. The employees are recognised to be assigned with specific job roles based on which operations are needed to be performed. The Department of Town Planning is suffering from a poor infrastructure. It has been also observed that the Department of Town Planning has failed to achieve several responsibilities within the due time. In this regard, numerous conflicts have been witnessed with the organisation for increasing complexities and lack of business effectiveness (Rochdale Borough Council, 2015a; Hickman & Banister, 2007). It is expected that after being appointed in the position of Head of Planning for South Berkshire Borough Council, Cliff Lewis has been planning to bring various changes in its operational performances as well as structural base. Cliff Lewis has decided to develop a new planning relating to Town Planning and Development Department (Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development, 2000). More elaborately, it can be ascertained that Town Planning is a part of national law of the country. Initially, Cliff Lewis has been planning to develop a

Editorial portrait Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Editorial portrait - Essay Example This is determined by indoor or outdoor situations where the approach is to light the interior and subject and calculate the exposure based on the interior and exterior lighting. A perfect example is the work of Art P Suwansang on the bridal image with outdoor lighting. This enables the photographer to take perfect photos valid for editorial portrait (Rand & Meyer, 125). The beauty of an editorial portrait is also determined by the wardrobe of the correspondents. This implies that clothes are essential factor in setting the scene and outlining hidden information behind the portrait. Many viewers and readers determine the feel of the portrait using clothes worn by correspondents. It places a subject in specific time to match the situation and motive of the portrait. For instance, renowned photographer Anna Williams believes that having the best wardrobe combination is a perfect idea in photography. That is why shirt or any piece of clothing may inspire viewers and readers in a photo. At the same time, a black leather jacket may inspire a rebel without cause themed shoot (Garret 1). Props also play an important role in telling a story in editorial portraits. An individual can use props to accentuate their message to their viewers and readers. According to Benning Arjan, a popular photographer, taking portraits entails gathering simple objects. When taking pictures, photographers should incorporate an interesting chair, an old clock or unique pair of glass to inspire an entire shoot. Keep the props in mind to fit the concept that has been developed for an entire shoot (Adler, 9). In conclusion, it is evident that environment, wardrobe and props are essential factors in creating a perfect editorial portrait. The photographers should be cautious in the entire shoot in order to come up with an interesting and fascinating picture for the readers and

The Bloody Chamber Essay Example for Free

The Bloody Chamber Essay The major sense of desperation arises when the heroine enters the bloody chamber in her newly wedded husbands castle. The impact of this moment is powerful because up to now the bride is portrayed as a nave blushing bride. At this point it can be sensed that death awaits her. Once she passes the ill-lit corridor she crosses the boundary into the realm of death, mutilation, blood and horror. The passage leading up to this point has been thoroughly described by Carter. Angela Carter goes as far as to personify the chamber walls, they gleamed as if they were sweating with fright. Initially the narrative begins in an excited garbled state, but as the description becomes detailed it invokes a sense of immediacy. At the height of suspense we are led to the dead corpse with, the dead lips smiled making the situation even more drastic. Carter then strangely begins to describe the surroundings with elegant imagery, yet the skull was still so beautiful, had shapes with sheer planes. As the bride becomes familiar with her surroundings there is a growing sense of tension and when she finally comes face to face with the previous bride she is overwhelmed and is forced to escape the horrors. The imagery used at this point is particularly gruesome and highlights the use of dismal situations by Angela Carter, She was pierced, not by one but by one hundred spikes. Angela Carters use of desperate circumstances transforms the fairy tale conventions beyond its boundaries and into the realm of gothic fantasy. Carter also uses sustained periods of tense feelings to create an atmosphere of pressure fear. Also by adding horrific detail and descriptive references to sexuality the story no longer fits into the classic fairy tale genre. Angela Carter makes good use of narrative, plots, imagery and language to create scenes in horrific detail that helps to capture the readers attention. Angela Carter also uses unpromising situations in The Tigers Bridei to capture the audience. The Tigers Bride is a reworking of beauty and the Beast. Angela Carter tries to engage the reader by using language and imagery; in fact the daughter is not disgusted by the tiger but by his mask. Carter also uses alliteration with the soft sound of s making the description of the beast sound comforting where in reality he is far from it, He must bathe himself in scent, soak his shirt. The heroines reaction to the beastsisituation is pity and she confronts her fear by exposing herself to the beast as well. The actual moment of the tigers nakedness has a powerful impact on beauty. This can be supported by, The annihilating vehemence of his eyes, like twin suns. Beautys response to the beasts naked form is, I felt my breasts ripped apart as if I suffered a marvellous wound. The final transformation occurs when Beauty joins the tiger in his own environment, where the laws of the material world have no meaning. This is a key point where all the disturbed emotions become resolved. This can be proven when beauty says, I, white, shaking, raw approaching him as if offering, in myself, the key to a peaceable kingdom in which his appetite need not be my extinction. Carters use of a desperate situation where the heroine is not a victim but a character that is strong and in control, takes this story away from the traditional convention of fairytales. Also Beautys transformation takes this genre into the realm of fantasy. The strong references to sexuality also go against the conventions of fairy tales. In the climax of the story where the situation seems to become desperate and hopeless, Carter empowers beauty. Consequently beauty is able to control her desires. I believe by doing this Carter can manipulate the structure and rules of the genre. Cartersiuse of desperate situations and emotional instability totally contradicts the fairy Carters use of the above techniques takes apart the readers expectations of this genre, leaving them open minded to almost anything. Ultimately Carter thus keeps the reader interested and intrigued.

Writing Proficiency Exam Paper Essay Example for Free

Writing Proficiency Exam Paper Essay Many factors can cause stress in our communities. These factors range from the result of violence in schools to the proliferation of social media tools, such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Stress affects people in different ways. Some ways can drive a community apart while others can bring them together. This paper will provide evidence to show it is possible for communities to take action, adapt to changes in positive ways and reduce stress. Taking Action Action can take many forms. Action can be physical, verbal, or silent. In recent years, protesters took to the streets in opposition to the government bailout of Wall Street. The protesters assumed the name of the 99 Percent. The 99 Percent marched through the streets shouting down the Wall Street bankers, but their main weapon was not the megaphone, it was ‘silent occupation.’ Soon, this action became known as Occupy Wall Street. The goal of the Occupy movement was to show the wealthy bankers that they were not going to get away with their crimes and get a free handout from the taxpayers. As a result, the politicians on Capitol Hill listened and began to implement a wider set of reforms and consumer protections. Communities can accomplish similar changes. One of those ways is to leverage current forms of technology. Social media tools like Twitter have the power to spread news quickly. Community groups can use Twitter to organize grass-root actions, such as marches, and to keep  members connected by quickly sending updates and detailed meeting notes instantly. Recently, a local community organized an effort to force their local government to reinstate a local sheriff who was fired due to their sexual orientation. The local movement shamed the city council and the sheriff was rehired within weeks. Adapt to Changes in Positive Ways It is possible for communities to adapt to stressors in positive ways. In my opinion, a person has the power to choose how they want to react to certain stimulus. So, if an individual has this power, why not a community? For example, if someone were to spit on the local mayor, this technically constitutes an assault. The mayor could call the sheriff and have the man arrested and jailed; however, the mayor could first try to talk with the individual to come to an understanding of the person’s issues. Afterwards, the mayor should have him arrested; otherwise, others may be motivated to follow suit with the spatter. The mayor demonstrated an act of compassion by choosing to talk and mostly likely earned a few points with the constituents. My point is that if one person can adapt positively to factors of stress, a community can choose to take action in positive ways as well. Reducing Stress Turning negative stress into a positive outcome can be challenging but not impossible. Communities can be very complex. One reason is that communities are comprised of many individuals, each with their own thoughts, values, and ethics. If an act of violence were to take place at a local school campus, some individuals might choose to hide and wait it out. However, others may believe the best action is to fight fire with fire and take the to the streets like vigilantes. In my opinion, both of these reactions will lead to a great amount of stress because they are reactions based upon fear. A better way to react would be to put trust in the local authorities. The local authorities are better trained to handle crises. Another way to avoid or reduce stress would be to shut off the television or computer. Turning off these devices would minimize the stress of constant news updates that would only serve elevate fear. Conclusion In closing, this paper set out to address the issues communities face when  faced with negative factors. School violence and stress caused by social media are common issues dealt with across the country. How we choose to react to these issues can affect our local communities for the good or in bad ways. Parents could decide to pull their children out of school. Angry fathers could act out violently and take matters into their own hands. Constructive alternatives are available. The local police department can invest in better infrastructure and communications networks. They can also improve communication with the surrounding communities to build confidence in their ability to respond during emergencies. Communities can build a stronger bond by choosing to look at stressful factors in positive ways and increase their understanding of how they can prepare and respond during periods of high stress.

Speech Recognition using Epochwise Back Propagation

Speech Recognition using Epochwise Back Propagation International Journal of Computer Applications (0975 – 8887) Volume *– No.*, ___________ 2013 Speech Recognition using the Epochwise Back Propagation through time Algorithm Neelima Rajput S.K.Verma Department of C.S.E. Department of C.S.E. GBPEC, Pauri Gharwal, GBPEC, Pauri Gharwal, Uttrakhand, India. Uttrakhand, India ABSTRACT In this paper, artificial neural networks are used to accomplish the English alphabet speech recognition. The challenging issue in the area of speech recognition is to design an accurate and effective speech recognition system. We implemented a new data classification method, where we use neural networks, which are trained using the calculated epoch values of audio signal. This method gave comparable result to the already implemented neural networks. In this paper, Back propagation neural network architecture used to recognize the time varying input data, and provides better accurate results for the English Alphabet speech recognition. The Epochwise Back Propagation through time (BPTT) algorithm uses the epoch values of input signal to train the network structures and yields the satisfactory results. Keywords Artificial Neural Network, Back Propagation Neural Network, Epoch, Speech Recognition. I INTRODUCTION Speech recognition system enables the machine to understand the human speech and react accordingly. It allows the machine to automatically understand the human spoken utterances with the speech signal processing and pattern recognition. In this approach is the machine converts the voice signal into the suitable text or command through the process of identification and understanding. Speech recognition is emerges as a vast technology in current time. It also plays an important role in information theory, acoustics, phonetics, linguistics, and pattern recognition theory and neurobiology disciplines. speech recognition technology become a key technology in the computer information processing technology as there is rapid advancement in the software, hardware and information technology. The features of input audio signal are compared with the voice template stored in the computer database in speech recognition system by using the computer systems. Recognition results are mainly depends up on the matching techniques used for matching the audio signal characteristics. To improve the recognition rate and better recognition results neural networks are used. A neural network is a powerful tool which used to adapt and represent the complicated input outputs. Neural nets are basically interconnected networks of relatively simple processing units, or nodes that work simultaneously. They are designed to mimic the function of human neuron biological networks. The processing units of neural networks are termed as neurons. A neural network provides better results over the existing approaches in speech recognition systems [1]. 2 BASICS OF NEURAL NETWORKS The basics of neural networks are discussed as follows. There are many different types of neural networks, but they all have four basic and common attributes: †¢ Processing units †¢ Connections †¢ Computing procedure †¢ Training procedure . Processing Units A neural network contains several processing units, which are roughly analogous to neurons in the human brain. All these units activate in parallel and perform the task simultaneously. Processing units are responsible for the overall computation; there is no any other unit for the corporation of their activity. Each processing unit computes a scalar function of all its local inputs at every moment of time and then further broadcast the result to their neighboring units [2]. The units in a neural network are basically classified into input units, which used to receive data from the outside; hidden units, used to internally transform the data; and output units, which serve decisions or target signals. 2.2 Connections All processing units in a neural network are organized in to a defined topology by a set of connections, or weights, shown as lines in a diagram. Each weight consist a real value, which ranging from ∞ to + ∞. The value of a weight represents how much impact a unit has on its neighbor units a positive weight causes one unit to excite another, while a negative weight causes one unit to inhibit another. Weights of the processing units are usually one-directional (from input units towards output units), but it may be two-directional sometimes, especially when there is no distinction between input and output units. Figure 1.Neural network topologies: (a) unstructured, (b) layered, (c) recurrent, (d) modular [3]. The above figure shows the topology of different neural networks. Unstructured Neural Network is mainly used in processor which is operated in parallel to provide the computational power for the speech recognition system. Layered neural net algorithms are self-organizing and their internal speech model maximizes the performance and produces better results comparable to existing systems. Recurrent Neural network are mainly used in pattern sequencing as it follows the sequences changes time to time. Modular neural network are used in designing of complex systems by using simple components. Neural nets offer an approach to computation that mimics biological nervous systems. Algorithms based on neural nets have been proposed to address speech recognition tasks which humans perform with little apparent effort. 2.3 Computation Procedure Computation of neural networks begins after applying an input data to the input units of the network. Then the activation function of all the units is calculated either simultaneously or independently depends upon the structure of the neural network. The computation process in the unstructured network is termed as spreading activation and in layered network is known as forward propagation as it proceed from the input units to the output units. First we compute the net input of the processing unit and then we compute the output activation function of the net input to update a given processing unit. 2.4 Training Procedure Training a network means enable the connections adaptive so that the network shows the actual computational behavior for all the input patterns. In training process usually weights are updated but sometimes the modification of network topology also takes place, i.e., addition and deletion of connections from the network topology [4]. Modification of weight is easy and beneficial than topology modification as a network with bulk connections able to set any of its weight zero, which is equivalent as deleting such weights. 3. RELATED WORK The past research concluded that the use of the neural networks in the speech recognition system provides the better recognition result compared to the other existing approaches. The latest study of neural networks actually started in the 19th century, when neurobiologists first introduce the extensive studies of the human nervous system [5]. Cajal (1892) determined that the nervous system is comprised of some basic units i.e. discrete neurons, which communicate with the other neurons by sending electrical signals down their long axons, which ultimately activated and touch the dendrites(receptive areas) of thousands of other neurons, transmitting the electrical signals through synapses (points of contact, with variable resistance). Firstly, the different kinds of neurons were identified, and then analyze their electrical responses, and finally their patterns of connectivity and the brain’sgross functional areas were mapped out. According to the neurobiologists study the functi onality of individual neurons are quite simple and easy. Whereas to determine how neurons worked together to achieve high level functionality, such as perception and cognition are very difficult.[6] In 1943 McCulloch and Pitts proposed the first enumeration model of a neuron, named as binary threshold unit, whose output was either 0 or 1 depending on whether its net input exceeded a given threshold. There are various approaches proposed by the researchers to design an accurate speech recognition system for various purposes. In [7] Al-Alaoui algorithm is used to train the neural network. This method gives the comparable better results to the already implemented hidden markov model (HMM) for the recognition of the words. This algorithm also overcomes the disadvantages of the HMM in the recognition of sentences. An algorithm based on neural network classifier [8] for speech recognition used a new Viterbi net architecture which is recognized the input patterns and provided an accuracy of recognition rate more than 99% on a large speech database. This system is used for isolated word recognizer. In [9] author accomplishes the isolated word speech recognition using the neural network. The methodology of this approach is to extract the feature of speech signals using the Digital Signal Processing techniques and then classification using the Artificial Neural Network. This algorithm concluded that the better accurate recognition results are obtained from the probalistic Neural Network PNN. In [10] author implemented a pre- trained deep neural network using the hidden markov model (DNN-HMM) hybrid architecture which is used to train the DNN to produce the better recognition results of large vocabulary speech database. 4. PROPOSED WORK Speech recognition using the Epochwise Back propagation through time algorithm is proposed in this paper.In the proposed system neural network training is based on the calculation of epoch of the audio signal and then used these epoch value for the training of the neural network. The input data sets used to train the neural network can be partitioned in to the independent epochs. Each epoch representing a temporal value of the input data. Back propagationneural network used in the system in following steps. First choose and fix the architecture for the network, which will contain input, hidden and output units, all of which will contain sigmoid functions. Assign the weights between all the nodes. The assignments of weights usually between -0.5 and 0.5. Each training example is used, one after another, to re-train the weights in the network. After calculating each epoch for input audio data, a termination condition is checked. In neural network architecture the weights of input and hidden layers are adjusted according to the target output values [11] The input data is considered as E which is propagated through the network so that we can record all the observed values Oi(E) for the output nodes Oi. At the same time, we record all the observed values hi(E) for the hidden nodes. Then, for each output unit Ok, we calculate its epoch as follows: (1) The epoch terms from the output units are used to calculate epoch terms for the hidden units. In fact, this method gets its name because we propagate this information backwards through the network [12]. For each hidden unit Hk, we calculate the epoch as follows: (2) Here, we take the epoch term for every output unit and multiply it by the weight from hidden unit Hk to the output unit. We then add all these together and multiply the sum by hk(E)*(1 hk(E)). Having calculated all the epoch values associated with each unit (hidden and output), we can now transfer this information into the weight changes Δij between units i and j. The calculation is as follows: for weights wij between input unit Ii and hidden unit Hj, and summation of all units are as: (3) Back Propagation Neural Network architecture is shown in below figure Fig.2 Back propagation Neural Network The main steps of this system are defined as follows. Read the input audio Signal. Extract the epoch values Train the neural network on the basis of epoch values. Applied the back propagation neural network for the classification. Matching the input data with the trained data. Recognized the input. The data flow diagram of the proposed system represented in given figure C Figure 2 Proposed approaches for Speech Recognition 5. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS The experiment conducted on the audio database of English alphabets. Matlab R2010a (Math works) in Windows 7 was used to implement the proposed algorithm. The input signal is used to calculate the epoch values and then by using calculated epoch values the neural network is trained.The epoch rate of multi-layered networks over a training set could be calculated as the number of miss-classified data values. There are many output nodes, all of which could potentially misfire (e.g., giving a value close to 1 when it should have output 0 and vice-versa), we can be more sophisticated in our epoch evaluation. In practice the overall network epoch is calculated as: This is not as complicated as it first appears. The calculation simply involves working out the difference between the observed output for each output unit and the target output and squaring this to make sure it is positive, then adding up all these squared differences for each output unit and for each input signal. The calculated epoch values for audio signal A is listed in tabular form. Table: 1 Calculated Epoch values for input data Then epoch values are basically instant of significant excitation of the vocal-tract system during production of speech. Table 1 represented the Epoch values for the input English alphabet A in terms of time in mili seconds. These epoch values are stored in the computer for the further matching by using the neural networks to the recognition purpose. Similarly, epoch values are calculated for each input English alphabet and then train the network through these input patterns and stored in the system for recognition Figure 3 Performance graphs of epoch values. The figure 3 shows the performance of the system based on epoch values. The best validation performance epoch value is selected from the different epoch on the basis of Mean Square error. The graph is plotted on epoch and means squared error values. Table: 2 Performance of the proposed system In Table: 2 the recognition rate is calculated for five input English alphabet which is 98.8%. The new proposed Epochwise Back propagation through time algorithm yields the satisfactory results. 6. CONCLUSION In this paper, we implemented the Epochwise Back propagation through the time varying epoch calculation. The experiment is conducted on the small set of English Language alphabet to calculate the recognition rate of the system. Some different sound samples (i.e., with different sampling frequency) of each alphabet are taken and used for testing the system. The above results show the performance of our proposed algorithm in speech recognition. 7. REFERENCES Jianliang Meng, Junwei Zhang,Haoquan Zhao, â€Å"Overview of the speech Recognition Technology†, 2012 Fourth International Conference on Computational and Information Sciences. L. Fausset, Fundamentals of Neural Networks. PrenticeHall Inc., 1994, ch 4. Jiang Ming Hu, in the Yuan Baozong, Lin Biqin. Neural networks for speech recognition research and progress. Telecommunications Science, 1997, 13(7):1-6. H. Boulard and N. Morgan, â€Å"Continuous speech recognition by connectionist statistical methods,† IEEE Trans. Neural Netw., vol. 4, no. 6, pp. 893–909, Nov. 1993. Mohamad Adnan Al-Alaoui, Lina Al-Kanj, Jimmy Azar, and Elias Yaacoub, â€Å"Speech recognition using Artificial Neural Network and Hidden Markov Model†, IEEE Multidisciplinary Engineering Education Magazine Vol. 3, No.3, September 2008. RICHARD P. LIPPMANN, â€Å"Neural Network Classifiers for Speech Recognition† The Lincoln Laboratory Journal, Volume 1, Number 1 (1988) Gulin Dede, Murat Husnu SazlÄ ±, â€Å"Speech recognition using artificial neural network.† Digital signal processing  © 2009 Elsevier Inc. George E. Dahl, Dong Yu, Li Deng, Alex Acero,† Context-Dependent Pre-Trained Deep Neural Networks for Large-Vocabulary Speech Recognition† , IEEE Transaction on Audio, and Language Processing, Vol. 20, No.1, January 2012. H. Paugam-Moisy, ‘Parallel neural computing based on network duplicating’,in Parallel Algorithms for Digital Image Processing, Computer Vision and Neural Networks, ed., I. Pitas, 305–340, JohnWiley, (1993). Stefano Scanzio, Sandro Cumani, Roberto Gemello, Franco Mana, P. Laface, â€Å"Parallel implementation of Artificial Neural Network Training for Speech Recognition.† Pattern recogonition letters,  © 2010 Elsevier B.V. N. Morgan and H. Bourlard, â€Å"Continuous speech recognition using multilayer perceptrons with hidden Markov models,† in Proc. ICASSP,1990, pp. 413–416. Y. Hifny and S. Renals, â€Å"Speech recognition using augmented conditional random fields,† IEEE Trans. Audio, Speech, Lang. Process., vol.17, no. 2, pp. 354–365, Feb. 2009.

Breast Feeding vs Formula Essay -- Comparing Breast Feeding and Formu

Breast-feeding is nutritionally, emotionally and physically superior for a mother and her child. â€Å"Human breast milk is not standard nor is it interchangeable with cow’s milk. It is a dynamic fluid that changes in composition to meet the needs of the baby as it grows† (â€Å"Giving your Baby... Diet.† par. #10). Breast milk contains growth factors and antibodies which stimulate the growing baby and protect it from illness such as diarrhea, ear infections, rashes, allergies, asthma, skin problems, pneumonia, respiratory illness and other serious illnesses. Breast-feeding also improves a baby’s chance of remaining healthy. These antibodies are not found in formula. They can not be sustained. Breast-fed babies are also neurodevelopmentally more advanced than those fed formula. This is because the ingredients found in breast milk promote brain development. (Neifiert, pars. #5 ) Breast-feeding is the preferred method for feeding babies because it offers many benefits for both mothers and babies. There are many advantages for babies who are breast-fed. Babies can digest breast milk easily because the proteins and curds in it are softer than those in cow’s milk. The proteins in breast milk destroy harmful bacteria and help protect a baby against infection (Giving your Baby... Diet.† par #20). A breast-fed baby will have loose bowel movements that are easy to pass. Manufacturers do attempt to lower the curd tension in formula so that it will act as breast milk does. They do this by producing formula that has a higher whey content than cow’s milk. But it is impossible to exactly replicate human milk. Because of the gentleness of breast milk in a babies system, constipation is rare in breast fed infants. Another advantage for breast-fed ch... ...e. 19 May 2003. http://proquest.umi.com/pqweb? Georgieff, Michael K. â€Å"Taking a Rational Approach to the Choice of Formula.† A Thomson Healthcare Company. Aug. 2001: 48 Health Reference Center-Academic. Lansing Christian School Lib. , Lansing MI. 19 May 2003. http://www.infotrac.galegroup.com. â€Å"Giving Your Baby an Ideal Diet.† A Thomson Healthcare Company. 2001: 79. Health Reference Center- Academic. Lansing Christian School Lib. , Lansing, MI. 13 May 2003. http://www.infortrac.galegroup.com. Gupta, Sanjay M.D. â€Å"Of Brains and Breast Milk.† Time. 20 May 2002: 92. Neifert, Marianne. â€Å"The Advantages of Breast-Feeding.† McKesson Health Solutions LLC. 2001: 15. Health Reference Center – Academic. Lansing Christian School Lib. , Lansing, MI. 13 May 2003. http://infotrac.galegroup.com. Sheehy, Maura. â€Å"Breast-Feeding 911.† Parents. July 2001: 149-150.

The Importance of Crime Scene Investigation

Crime scene investigation is often a challenging and difficult line of work for even the most experienced law enforcement agent. There are some crimes that are more difficult to handle spiritually and emotionally than others. Crimes against children and the elderly are often most difficult to excuse and most difficult for crime scene investigators to process psychologically (Swanson, Chamelin & Territo, 1999: 313). Such investigations often result in tremendous psychological burden with time (O'Hara, 2003: 178). Homicide in generally is often difficult to recover from emotionally, and often requires the investigator become deeply involved in the forensics model or inner workings of the mind of the criminal to help solve a case (O'Hara, 2003). This can result in increasing psychological stress with time. This paper will review a recent criminal investigation of homicide to two young children and the psychological and emotional effects the crime had on the family of the victims and the criminal investigator. In this case the researcher probes into how a crime scene investigation can result in significant emotional, spiritual and in some cases physical trauma to both the victims family and the crime scene investigator. Here the crime scene demonstrates how emotionally vulnerable crime scene investigators are, much like crime victims in many circumstances. In this particular case two children were murdered by their mother who suffered from severe PPD or post partum depression. The event occurred in the middle of the night and was not revealed until 24 hours later when the father returned from a late night work shift and morning binge. The crime was reported to authorities immediately upon discovery. In this case the two boys, twins, appeared to be suffocated by the mother while sleeping one night. The crime scene was not overly violent. The victims home appeared unkempt however, with trash piling up in the kitchen and littering other rooms of the house. The children were dressed in unclean clothing and the house looked as though it had not been cleaned or attended to in several months. Walking into the family area there was a noticeable lack of children's toys. There were multiple bottles of alcoholic substances and other paraphernalia suggesting one or both of the parents suffered from substance abuse problems. This crime had a particularly devastating effect on me, as I could imagine what it would be like if my family had suffered a similar crime, if my brothers or sisters had been murdered by a family member. Homicide is never an easy crime to cope with. In this case multiple law enforcement agents that were also present at the crime scene had a difficult time coping with the tragic loss of two unique and innocent lives. Not helping the fact were family members that were present wailing and crying out regarding the injustices of the world. Each of the family members present was blaming him or herself for the crime, having recognized the potential for disaster early on but taking no action to prevent it. The father in this case once located and grandparents appeared noticeably distraught. The grandparents were particularly upset, blaming themselves for the incident. The father seemed to waffle between disbelief, shock and terror. The father clearly suffered some sort of substance abuse problem and reportedly was at work when the murders occurred (he works a night shift). Spiritually I found myself questioning how this could happen to two innocent children. The children were not more than a year old. Both were tiny and innocent victims and for moments I considered these parents unworthy of such blessings. Emotionally I wondered what such a tragedy might do to my own family, possibly destroying my motivation for living. There is some indication that the father in this case might be placed on suicide watch, suffering psychologically from these deaths and the death of his wife (who it seems from the investigation took a lethal dose of prescription pills after suffocating the children). The individual lost his life partner but also his children. This crime is in no way justifiable and reveals just how cruel the world can sometimes be to even the most innocent of victims. Even in cases where evidence exists that the perpetrator of a crime was not of sound mind or spirit, there is little justification in cases of homicide. There are in many cases explanations for individual's behavior, as may be the case in this particular instance. The crime scene investigation here suggests that there is evidence to support the idea that the mother in this case was not psychologically fit for parenting at the time in question. There is also evidence to suggest she lacked the support necessary to cope with a difficult situation. That does not excuse her actions nor her substance abuse behavior, but does help explain how a crime like this could have happened. If I were in this particular case I would have ensured early medical intervention and increased familial support to prevent the severe depression that ensued and forced the mother to kill herself and her children. Clearly she was also suffering emotionally and physically, and did not feel she had the resources or support necessary to seek help and solve her problem without resorting to drastic measures. It is possible she suffered from some sort of psychosis. In this case other family members should have stepped in to facilitate earlier intervention and prevent this horrendous crime from occurring. Crime scene investigations are often difficult for crime scene investigators to handle emotionally and psychologically. While the job seems straightforward at first, with time crime scene investigators come to realize how difficult managing the psychological, spiritual and emotional aspects of the job are. Of particular challenge are homicide investigations. It is vital when handling such cases that the investigator separate himself from the investigation so he or she does not associate what is going on in the investigation with any personal situations or circumstances. This can exacerbate the stress experienced by a crime scene investigator. Fortunately there are a number of support mechanism in place that can help crime scene investigators cope with the devastating and trying scenes they encounter from day to day. It is important that these resources be made readily available in the cases where crime scene investigations involve violent criminal activity. While familial support is encouraging and helpful, support among peers and even counselors may be warranted to help crime scene investigators deal with the day to day. Stress management and other relaxation inducing techniques also may help alleviate some of the burden crime scene investigators face when handling difficult or violent cases.