Forensic Questions

3. If you were in charge of retrieving bullets at a crime scene, what steps would you take to retrieve a bullet and take it to the crime lab?

1.What is a questioned document? Describe at least one example of something that might be a questioned document.

On Sunday, December 4th at around 9:30 pm, a corrections officer was shot in her vehicle in New York City. Alastasia Bryan, 25 was sitting behind the wheel of her gray sedan when a man walked up to her vehicle and shot her to death through the window (NBCNewYork). The suspect has yet to be identified, but surveillance videos show a man exiting his vehicle, walking up to Bryan’s vehicle and shooting her to death. After the shooting, the unknown shooter walked back to his vehicle and drove off (NBCNewYork). Whether or not Bryan was intentionally targeted or not is still unknown. Sunday night investigators were seen examining the scene where they found numerous bullet holes in the driver side window of the gray sedan (NBCNewYork).

According to Turvey (2012), the Locard’s Exchange Principle states that evidence occurs when an offender comes in contact with a location or another person. When a crime is committed a crime is reconstructed based on the evidence left behind by the offender. From there the investigators are able to build a profile of the offender.

Please complete the following questions. It is important that you use full sentences and present the questions and answers when you submit your work. Submit the work as a file attachment. This means you complete all work in a word processing document (e.g., Microsoft Word) and attach the file using the dropbox tool. Use the Unit 1: Text Questions dropbox basket.

You did an excellent job answering this week’s discussion board question. On your answer for the following question I would like to expand in further detail.

This information will help investigators cluster the symptoms with a particular disease and rule out irrelevant information. The surveillance of the components gather in this step will put a perspective on the abnormal health events that are occurring on the outbreak timeline.

When completing a crime scene sketch, it is important to include specific information on each sketch. There should be the title block which contains the case number, the agency number, the name and title of the artist, the location of the scene, and the date and time at which the sketch was created. It might also state the victim’s name, the names of any suspects, or the type of crime. The title block should appear in the lower right corner of the sketch paper. The legend should contain the key to the identity

In any child abuse investigation, collecting as much information about the charges in question is key. This is accomplished with gathering evidence and conducting interviews with people associated with the child. This also includes interviews with the child. In this paper I will discuss the importance of this interview, called a forensic interview, and a widely used interview technique with children victims of possible child abuse.

Edmond Locard (1877-1966) was a French scientist specialised in both medicine and law. Inspired by the work of Hans Gross, it was Edmond that created the concept that all objects of any material should leave traces of itself upon whatever it touches, even if it is the minutest amount, simply put as “Every Contact leaves a trace,” Locard (1923). This is commonly known as Locard’s Exchange Principle. He believed that in circumstances such as a crime, his principle could be used to find evidence of who and perhaps even how that crime was committed by finding small materials, either physical or chemical at the scene of the crime that would directly link back to the offender.

Locard’s Exchange Principles suggests that there is an exchange of particles, fibers, hairs, and other physical evidence when an individual makes contact with an individual or object (Muraskin & Roberts, 2009, p.35). This means that despite the crime a criminal will leave some trace of evidence that he or she was there and the crime scene should be controlled and examined immediately. Evidence is crucial to any investigation when a crime as occurred. The more physical evidence left at a crime scene the odds of finding their person of interest climbs significantly higher. This means the better chance for an arrest to be made and justice for the victims involved.

Trace or transfer evidence can be any small, and to the untrained be a seemingly insignificant piece of material, whether man-made or natural, that has been left at a crime scene. Edmond Locard, founder of the Institute of Criminalistics at the University of Lyon, France, developed what has become known as Locard’s Exchange Principle. This states that every contact leaves a trace (Trace Evidence). Trace evidence can consist of just about anything. Some types of trace evidence include but are not limited to hair, blood and other body fluids, paint, glass, and residues. Throughout the years, trace evidence has become very important in the conviction and even the exoneration of those accused of certain crimes.

This write up deals with forensic science and its involvement with chemistry as a career. Forensic science deals with different categories of science such as chemistry and biology to help solve criminal and civil cases. Forensic scientists are important because they collect, preserve, and analyze scientific evidence during a criminal investigation. Some travel to the scene of the crime to collect evidence themselves, and others stay in the laboratory to analyze objects brought to them. A forensic chemist can identify unknown materials found in a crime scene.

To begin to understand about forensic science we must first understand what it means, how it came about, what role does it play in law enforcement today, and what role will it play in law enforcement in the future. Forensic science is basically the application of science in criminal and civil law. The word forensics come from the Latin term forensis, meaning “of or before the forum” and this is because during the Roman Empire a criminal charge meant presenting the case before a group of public individuals in the forum, thus giving it it’s meaning. Although forensics science is technically a modern finding it was slightly used in the ancient world.

Locard’s exchange principle states that “every contact leaves a trace” indicating that trace evidence left by the perpetrator will always be found in the scene of crime (1). These trace evidence include hair follicles, to sweat, to skin cells and footwear impression, etc. They are valuable information that can incriminate a person and enable the law to carry out appropriate punishment. The value of these evidence will however decrease if they are not treated or processed appropriately (2).