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Title: Overview of Forensic Investigation (Degree level)
Description: An overview of forensic investigation and what it does in the CJS.
Description: An overview of forensic investigation and what it does in the CJS.
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Forensic Investigation
Forensic Investigation
• Forensic investigation is concerned with the collection, analysis and interpretation of
evidence, often in the circumstances of an investigation into a crime
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• Who was responsible?
• Is there enough evidence to identify a suspect?
• Looking for truth not justice
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• To help the court to establish the events that occurred and assess the reliability of witnesses
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• Personnel involved: CSI’s, police officers, paramedics, pathologists etc
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• Stages of crime scene investigation: identification, preservation, searching, recording,
evidence recovery
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• Hazards – present and potential
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• Location – exact location using map references
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• Type – of incident
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• Evidence being destroyed
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• Loss of evidence
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• Scene Log
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• Incident Log
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• Investigative Record
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• Search Record
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• C
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D
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• Crime Scene Manager
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• Experts
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• Preservation of life and limb
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5 stages of CSI
1
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2
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3
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4
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5
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Identification
• Usually by a member of the public
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• FAO turns up and decides whom to call next, such as:
1
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2
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3
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4
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5
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6
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Preservation
• Protection from elements – tents etc
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• Protection from animal activity
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• Include all possible access and egress routes
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• You can always move the cordon inwards but never outwards
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• Crime scene suit – with hood up
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• Double gloves
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• Goggles
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• Wheel search
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• Zone search
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Recording
• Scene is meticulously recorded as it is searched
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• Photography
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Recovery
• “Collect and package evidence in such a way as to prevent any changes from taking place
between the time it is removed from the scene and the time it arrives at the crime
laboratory” (Saferstein, 2001)
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• Collect anything that may test the prevailing theory,
• Drive the investigation
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• Money
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Role of the CSI
• Meticulously search the scene
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• Identify exhibits
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• Set up chain of custody
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• Shows who has been in contact with the item and for how long
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• Seek information and reconstruct events
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• Evaluation/corroboration of witness statements
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• Provision of objective, unbiased, factual, scientific evidence
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M
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• Suspicious death – sudden, unexpected, violent, drug related, children etc
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• Involves external examination and recovery of trace evidence
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• Body photographed
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• Body weighed and height measured
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• Jewellery documented and removed
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• PM examination
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• UV photography
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•
•
•
•
•
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Visual appearance
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Fingerprints
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Odontology
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Types of injuries
• Abrasion – scrapes
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• Laceration – split skin
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• Stab wound
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• Defence wounds
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• Gun shot wounds
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• Internal organs removed
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• Skull sawed open
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• Each organ examined
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• All organs replaced into body in a plastic bin liner
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Time of death
• Algor mortis – cooling of body when dead
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• Rigor mortis – stiffening of muscles, can begin in face after 2 hours and usually ends after 3054 hours
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Other tests
• Histology – testing body samples
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• Toxicology – drugs and poisons
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• Locard, 1923
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• Virtual trace evidence: leaving traces around the internet/computer
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• Primary transfer: evidence transferred from surface 1 to surface 2
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2 way transfer: simultaneous transfer of fibres in both directions
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What is physical evidence?
• Items collected at a crime scene under the belief that they may provide the truth as to what
happened at a crime scene
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Link scenes
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Provide investigative leads
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Provide corpus delicti information
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Modus operandi information
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Assess witness statements
Factors affecting transfer
• Properties: what the thing is made of
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• Number: amount of times the contact takes place
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Forensic Biology
• Body fluids
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• Damage interpretation – penetration, defence wounds, damage to clothing
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• DNA
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• DNA
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Other tests
• Bodily fluids – presumptive test
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• Damage interpretation – identify damage type, action, corroborate witness testimony
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• Entomology – type and age
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• Environmental pollution
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• Identify the DNA source
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• DNA profile
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• Drugs – identify drug type, quantify, and link seizures
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• Fingerprints – locate prints, enhance prints, examine prints, compare prints
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Glass & paint – identify direction of breakage and compare
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Specialist Sciences
• Computer evidence
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• Archaeology
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• Pathology
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Title: Overview of Forensic Investigation (Degree level)
Description: An overview of forensic investigation and what it does in the CJS.
Description: An overview of forensic investigation and what it does in the CJS.