Physical Evidence Surrounds The Known End Tale

Physical evidence is anything that can establish a crime has occurred and anything that links the crime to a criminal. Three examples of physical evidence are fibers, weapons, and hair.

One of the most important purposes of physical evidence is to establish the identity of a suspect or victim. Some of the most valuable clues at a crime scene are fingerprints. "Processing a crime scene" is a long, tedious process that involves focused documentation of the conditions at the scene and the collection of any physical evidence that could possibly shed light on what happened and point to who did it.

Crime scenes are known to have many clues left behind. The obvious would be a the body or bodies, clothing, and sometimes even the murder weapon. While these are great way to solve a case there's another kind of evidence; trace evidence. Trace evidence are small pieces of evidence that are laying around a crime scene. There are many types of trace evidence some of them include metal filings, plastic fragments, gunshot residue, glass fragments, feathers, food stains, building materials, lubricants, fingernail scrapings, pollens and spores, cosmetics, chemicals, paper fibers and sawdust, human and animal hairs, plant and vegetable fibers, blood and other body fluids, asphalt or tar, vegetable fats and oils, dusts and other airborne

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 has been shown to be reliable due to many factors of evidence such as DNA, blood, fingerprints, etc.; however, many cases have shown that

Crime scenes are known to have many clues left behind. The obvious would be a the body or bodies, clothing, and sometimes even the murder weapon. While these are great way to solve a case there's another kind of evidence; trace evidence. Trace evidence are small pieces of evidence that are laying around a crime scene. There are many types of trace evidence some of them include metal filings, plastic fragments, gunshot residue, glass fragments, feathers, food stains, building materials, lubricants, fingernail scrapings, pollens and spores, cosmetics, chemicals, paper fibers and sawdust, human and animal hairs, plant and vegetable fibers, blood and other body fluids, asphalt or tar, vegetable fats and oils, dusts and other airborne

In the United States, crimes are constantly being committed. Some of the crimes that are committed are simple, and other crimes are extremely complex. Every complex crime comes with its own challenges in distinguishing material evidence. Some evidence can be tiny as a hair, or a fiber that can be located on a piece of clothing or carpet. Even though, the size of the evidence is not important, the information that it provides investigators is crucial to finding the suspect of the crime. With the assistance of trace evidence, investigators can obtain the small particles that can transfer from two objects come together. Collecting material from any crime scene can yield a plethora of information. However, by properly collecting material evidence like the tire print impression, pubic hairs, multiple dog hairs, and foreign fibers. Investigators, were able to convict Cecil Sutherland for kidnapping, sexual assault, and three counts of murder.

Above all, physical or real evidence is the most important evidence because it can be used to eliminate other possibilities separate of eyewitnesses. As a result, the eyewitnesses testimony can be compared with unquestionable physical evidence to measure the truth and certainty of the eyewitnesses' understanding of this event. More importantly, physical evidence is crucial because it does not have bias. In fact, physical evidence remains independent of anyone's expectation's or desires, which is why it is crucial for physical evidence to be discovered, properly examined, and not contaminated (McShane,

Behind every court case there’s a train of forensic science evidence and research. Forensic science is the application of scientific principles of criminal justice. In many court cases a forensic scientists is the one on the scene collecting finger prints, photos, blood samples and other evidence. Unfortunately one of the controversial issues in the forensic world is the evidence and its lack of verification of its reliability. In the field of forensics there are issues in finding proof in generating conclusion, fundamental knowledge to solve problems, and the whole false memory defense in the court. These issues can be solved in many ways like extensive research, preparation and training. These issues

Physical evidence/scientific examinations is the evidence found at the scene of the crime. This can include clothing, blood, fingerprints, weapons and much more. An example of physical evidence could be any listed above but also a bloody knife or a casing from a bullet.

Trace evidence- very small amounts of certain physical evidence that is found at a crime scene. Example of trace evidence include blood, hair particles, glass, gunpowder and fingernails. The different types of trace evidence are biological and physical. Biological evidence are samples collected at a crime scene that contain biological material. Examples of biological evidence include hair, tissue, bones, teeth, blood, semen or other bodily fluids or evidence containing biological material. Physical evidence is any item that comes from a nonliving origin. Examples of physical evidence includes fingerprints, footprints, tire marks, fibers, paints and building materials. The importance of trace evidence in forensic science specifically hairs and fibers are that they contain DNA, which can be traced back to the origin. An important figure in the history of forensic science was Edmond Locard who came up with the transfer of evidence. He called this Locard’s exchange principle which means that when two objects come into contact with one another a cross-transfer of materials occurs. An example of Locard’s exchange principle can be when jean fibers come into contact with a computer chip and a transfer of materials occurs. In this example Locard’s exchange principle relates to

They have to make sure that before they entered the crime scene, nothing in the scene should have been moved. While they are going through a walk-through, they may have to construct theories about what happened in the crime scene based on visual examination. Investigators have to take photographs of the scene and will later on be collected. Taking photographs of the scene will help them solve the crime because there are some points of the investigation that investigators may have overlooked evidence, and that evidence could be found in the photographs. After taking photographs of the scene, they will start to collect clue and evidence that may lead them to their possible suspect(s). What they may find in the crime scene are fingerprints which can be done using colored powder and a brush, other thizngs such as blood, firearms, hair, glass and many more things that can be found in the crime scenes.

The book gives a general overview of the field of forensic science. The sections of the book include “The Scene of the Crime; Working the Scene--The Evidence; Working the Scene of the Body Human;

There are many uses of physical evidence and why it is so vital in a criminal investigation. For one physical evidence is found to be more reliable than a witness as there are numerous variables which can make witness evidence unreliable, bad view or sight, emotional involvement, what can be gained by lying, and not having a good recollection or believable one. Additionally, physical evidence can prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that a crime has been committed with science which can be tested and will still have the same outcome. It can also prove a story or testimony to be true or false and can identify the persons involved and what their involvement was. For example, if someone were to testify that they did not see the murdered person in

According to Saferstein (2016), physical evidence is any object that can establish that a crime has or has not been committed or can link a crime and its victim or perpetrator. Physical evidence is very important for many reasons. One reason is physical evidence can establish identity of suspects that are associated with the crime. Physical evidence can also seem more reliable than eye witnesses to the judge.