Forensic Evidence And Criminal Investigation

The film, Evidence and Forensic: Due Process, highlights the development of evidence used everyday in the criminal justice system. Putting to sleep, stereotypical Hollywood crime shows, by displaying acceptable criminal evidence, then analyzing the evidence, and applying the evidence in court. The program accounts on the important techniques and actions taken by not only law enforcement, but also forensics specialists and lawyers.

However, back in the 1980s, detailed studies were done to try to accomplish this task. One specific comprehensive study was done in 1984 by Peterson et al. In this study, the analysts found that physical evidence was discovered in only about twenty to thirty percent of serious crimes (Peterson, 2013). When each of the crimes were studied separately, however, they found that only crimes such as homicide, drug, or rape resulted in a large chance of physical evidence being found at the crime (Peterson, 2013). Cases such as attempted murder, burglaries, and robberies yielded lower chances of the retrieval of physical evidence from the crime (Peterson, 2013). When considering all of these possible crimes, the most commonly collected evidence were controlled substances, and then in lesser amounts, there was other physical evidence such as blood, hair, firearms, and fingerprints (Peterson, 2013).

Forensic evidence plays a huge role in most criminal cases. After the Daubert trial, forensic scientific evidence was reevaluated in criminal and civil cases. Scientific and forensic types of evidence can be extremely helpful in proving the case. It can help identify the suspect in a criminal case. That will help put a criminal in prison. There are many different types of forensic evidence that can be considered as scientific evidence. The different types include DNA matching, fingerprint identification, and hair evidence. The methods used to show these types of evidence are usually beyond the scope of knowledge that judges and juries know. Those types of forensic evidence are usually introduced as scientific evidence. Scientific evidence can sometimes be omitted from a courtroom or

Evidence is any property that comes into the custody of a law enforcement officer when such property may tend to prove or disprove the commission of a crime, or the identity of the suspect, pursuant to an official criminal investigation.

The impact of eyewitness testimony upon the members of a jury has been the subject of various research projects and has guided the policies formed by the federal government regarding its competent use in criminal matters (Wells, Malpass, Lindsay, Fisher, Turtle, & Fulero, 2000). Therefore, eyewitness studies are important to understand how

All these types of evidence can be used during a court case or it may be only certain types of evidence that is used. It all depends on the type of case and the severity. In any case, if a lawyer is trying to prove innocents or guilt, they will want to have some type of evidence to back up their claim. In the past couple of years there has been a number of police officers and department that have been in the spot light for some kind of wrong doing. In cases like this, evidence to prove these police officers innocents is

Forensic evidence is the proof that helps solve a crime. This evidence will be sent to crime labs where experts will analyze it. The evidence can affect or completely change the point of view of the investigation, if a suspect is charged, the evidence or findings will be presented to the jury.

This could be anything like DNA evidence to forensic evidence. A survey was conducted in order to see the correlation between the type of evidence that should be used, and people who watch CSI types of shows. The results showed that 46% of people expected to see scientific evidence in every criminal case, and 22% of people expected to see DNA evidence in every criminal case as well. The findings also indicated that different cases need different types of evidence according to viewers of crime shows. 46% of people expected to see DNA evidence in more violent or serious cases, along with the scientific evidence. In breaking and entering cases, 71% of the people wanted to fingerprint evidence along with the scientific evidence (Shelton,

Generally, many types of forensic evidence are often considered scientific evidence, like DNA matching, fingerprint identification, and hair/fibre evidence. The methods used to develop these types of evidence are generally beyond the scope of knowledge that judges and juries possess and are therefore normally introduced as scientific evidence. In general, a scientific theory must have established itself in the scientific community and become generally accepted as the truth before it will be asserted as evidence at trial. For example, because it has been around for so long and because it has proven to be reliable, evidence regarding fingerprint matching is generally admissible as forensic evidence in trial. In addition, things like radar and laser speed guns are generally accepted as being a valid method to tell the speed of a car at a given time and can be admitted as evidence. There will often be new types of scientific evidence that parties will attempt to submit at trial - science that may not have a solid foundation within the scientific

Forensic evidence is evidence found in the department of Forensic science which is the implementation of many different fields of study into one nice little bundle. In Forensic Science everyone of these fields works together to create Forensic evidence that is able to solve a crime or legal issue. Forensics contains genetics, chemistry, biology, and so on. In paragraph 3 this is all clearly

In order to prove a offender guilty in court police often use forensic evidence as proof instead of others such as testimonies, direct evidence, and circumstantial evidence because it is the most reliable and important type of evidence as stated in “Forensic: Evidence, Clues, and Investigation” by Andrea Campbell.

The world used to be a place filled with questions and answers that could not be found. As the years have gone by, evidence at a crime scene has become progressively more understood and the world is now a place filled with questions that there are answers to. To get where detectives are today, it took years of experiments, building and knowledge of technology that expanded the mind to places that are hard to believe. Technology is the basis of what it takes to find the vastest amount of information that evidence can provide. It can hold, prove and find information that in past years, could not. Due to the advances in technology, specifically through DNA, fingerprinting and lighting systems, crime scene evidence collection has grown tremendously.

Evidence is collected and constructed to make a case. Evidence can provide detailed information about the event. Police and investigators rely on evidence to uncover the truth. Evidence helps identify the guilt or innocence of a offenders. There are many type of evidence that can be admitted at a trial like testimony, direct evidence and others to help the case. In the passage “Forensic Science: Evidence, Clues, and Investigation” by Andrea Campbell, forensic evidence is the most important type of evidence is the most important type of evidence to be presented at a trial.

Today, more than ever, the quality of evidence in criminal cases is scrutinized because of contamination. Contamination is the introduction of something that physically corrupts a substance at a crime scene that was not previously there; it comes in many forms and most often times comes from the humans who investigate a crime scene. It is imperative that prevention of cross-contamination is implemented when gathering evidence. Several of the more sensitive forensic techniques such as trace analysis, bloodspatter interpretation, and DNA comparison are not being used to their fullest potential. Items of physical crime scene evidence are not always visible to the naked eye and may be easily overlooked so deliberate and methodical approach to collection and preservation of evidence is essential. Prosecutors have lost cases due to crime scene contamination; this could be prevented by simple and productive behaviors. The U.S. Supreme Court, in a leading case on physical evidence, stated:

Evidence is defined as any matter of fact, the effect, tendency, or design of which is to produce in the mind a persuasion, affirmative or disaffirmative, of the existence of some other matter of fact that a crime has been committed.(Paul B. Watson, 1986) In a legal sense, evidence is the information presented in court during a trial which enables the judge and jury to decide a particular case (Garland & Stuckey, 2000). There are two main types of evidence, which are testimony and physical items which can be presented to the judge and jury during a criminal trial. Physical evidence is any evidence found at the perpetrator’s