Jessica Lunsford Case Study

After securing the outside perimeter, Crime Scene Investigators meticulously searched inside the dwelling; taking videos, photographs, and collecting over 1,000 fingerprints. The bedrooms had been ransacked but very few items of value had been taken. In fact, other items of value were left untouched such as cash (which was left in the open) and a safe, leading investigators to believe that robbery was not the motive. Among all of the evidence collected, two pieces of evidence

I read the book “Fingerprints and talking bones” written by Charlotte Foltz Jones. I choose to read this book because in the introduction it has been told that every criminal takes something but always leaves a clue that can lead the detectives right to him.As an example it can be said that”every mystery of a crime can be solved by any piece of evidence left no matter how small or big”.I also choose this book because it has everything about evidence that leads to a concluding point to the text.

Topic POV: The point of writing this essay is to discuss how a forensic scientist help assist the police in solving a crime.

All over the world and as far as many people can remember, fingerprints have been used as a symbol of truth and justice in the forensics domain. The art of fingerprinting has been seen as a closure to many major crimes that have put many people in prison. However, in his article “Do Fingerprints Lie?” Michael Specter examines that fingerprinting has given rise to many questions as of the late 20th century. Fingerprints have been taken for granted, almost like money, which in this century, people believe is the best item to be handed to us. People tend to take what they hear, and just go with it without research or background knowledge. This practice has not been challenged as many concepts should. Specter brings in a solid argument with a lot of knowledge to support his claims and factual evidence to set his article with high credibility. While Specter builds a strong argument, he fails to consider how fingerprints have improved the forensic process.

As a crime scene fingerprint specialist you adhere to a variety of guidelines according to the department’s Standard Operating Procedures. When you come initially onto the murder scene, it has already been, cleared, secured, photographed, measured, sketched, and notes taken on the location of the evidence. This actually makes fingerprinting easier to accomplish correctly because the majority of difficult tasks associated with a murder scene has been completed. All non-movable items should be processed on scene using black magnetic powder, gray powder, or black powder. After using the chosen powder, utilize a camera (both in color and black and white), prior to lifting any prints to ensure that all prints are recorded encase destroyed during

One of the most essential tools in a crime scene is fingerprinting. Jan Evangelista noticed different ridges on peoples fingers in 1823 (UXL). When he noticed that people started to look into it and found out that no two people have the same prints. Fingerprints are left because sweat and oils collect on the ridges of your finger and then left on the item you touched in the exact same pattern. The FBI has a library of fingerprints so they can see who commited the crime if they can find fingerprints (UXL). Henry Faulds, an english doctor, was credited as the first person to use fingerprinting in crime scene investigation. He used fingerprinting to catch a criminal that broke into his hospital. The most common way to get a fingerprint

In 1891, Juan Vucetich used fingerprinting to incriminate a woman who had killed her children. The woman cut her own throat as a way to claim that someone else killed her kids. One of the only reason she didn’t get away with it is because she left her fingerprint on the door and it was found (Crime Scene Forensics, 2015).

A Simplified Guide T O Fingerprint Analysis. National Forensic Science Technology Center. Web. 1 Oct. 2015. .

Every day, individuals touch countless objects and each time an object is touched an individual’s fingerprints are left behind. For more than one hundred years, fingerprint analysis has been used by law enforcement to identify suspects in order to solve crimes. One of the most important uses of fingerprint analysis is to assist investigators when they need to link two crime scenes to the same individual. Fingerprint analysis also assist investigators with obtaining an individual’s criminal record and any previous arrest they have had.

DNA or the fingerprint was discovered in 1984 by Alec Jeffreys. One of the good thing about DNA is that it can lead the investigators to the right suspect for the crime. The DNA proves who the suspect with fingerprints

After conducting my own research regarding the admissibility of fingerprints in court to determine the identity of suspects and raising questions about its legality and reliability, I came to the conclusion that fingerprint analysis is not only necessary but exceptionally crucial in our legal and justice system. Reviewing the recorded debate helped reaffirm my stance because advocating students from Team 3 effectively argued in defense of fingerprinting, and they came to a similar conclusion based on several factors that I have considered.

To begin, detectives need evidence to piece together a crime, but determining what is evidence and what's not is the most difficult part of solving a case. There is a method, however, for figuring out whether a clue may be used in the case or not. This method is part of Holmes method, the scientific method, where the investigation follows the process of: observing, speculating, deducting and making inferences about the crime. During the step of observing, every detail is taken in, even the most irrelevant details, which allow the investigators to make sure that they have all the information needed to solve their case. Next comes the hardest part, a clump of the last three steps, involving the process of analyzing every single detail a case has, speculating its place in the case and deducting the information if it doesn’t fit to the speculated case. Eventually, those logical speculations that fit the case are formed into inferences, which are used to investigate the case

Knowledge: He used his knowledge of footprints, shoeprints, horse prints or wheel tracks to identify the murder suspects by analysing and practising several experiments. It is sure that he studied footprints and fingerprints for quite some time however, some previous experiences

During the past few years, physical evidence has become increasingly important in criminal investigations, these are referred to as trace evidence.

This stage begins when the fingerprint expert examines a latent print and first makes a decision as to whether it contains details that are sufficient quantitatively and qualitatively to exceed the ‘Value’ threshold standard. If in his estimation the print does exceed the quality and quantity Value standard, then he continues with the analysis.[1] According to [4], most of the prints recovered from crime scenes are considered of no value.