Technological Changes in Crime Investigation and Occupational Identity

• Grant number: 23/11340-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research
• Start date: January 29, 2024
• End date: June 22, 2024
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Administration - Administration of Specific Sectors
• Principal Investigator: Rafael Alcadipani da Silveira
• Grantee: Rafael Alcadipani da Silveira
• Host Investigator: Michael Gerard Pratt
• Host Institution: Escola de Administração de Empresas de São Paulo (EAESP). Fundação Getúlio Vargas (FGV). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Boston College (BC), United States

Abstract

The research internship at Boston College is an expansion of the project "Grand Challenges of Society: Police Organizations and Criminal Investigation," funded by FAPESP. Employing an ethnographic and inductive approach, the original research examines how daily police investigation occurs. To date, 42 interviews and field observations have been conducted, identifying that the investigation is influenced by where and for whom it is conducted. It was found that technology is impacting the way investigation is conducted, replacing traditional methods and altering the profile of investigators. The analysis of technology's impacts on investigation is nascent in the literature on policing and reveals how emerging technologies are transforming professional occupations. In the research proposed in this BPE, the intention is to analyze, in the case of Brazilian police investigators, how technology is affecting their occupational identity, with the aim of building theorization in Organizational Studies on this phenomenon and contributing to the literature on occupations, identity, and technology in the field.