Creativity as determinant of thinking style in police investigations

Abstract

This paper is concerned with how police detectives experience, understand, and think about the process of doing serious and complex criminal investigations. Imagination and creativity are considered inevitably essential components of this process. Investigative thinking by detectives is classified into four styles: method, challenge, skill and risk style. Some of these styles are expected to require more creativity than other styles. Our research proposition suggests that more creative detectives apply higher investigative thinking styles. Support for this proposition was found in empirical evidence collected among police investigators in Norway, as both the skill style and risk
style were significantly related to the extent of creativity.