Summary Of Fingerprints And Talking Bones

The popular television show, CSI: Crime Scene Investigations has been on the air for 12 years, and it has brought forth the behind-the-scenes actions of criminal investigations, even if its portrayals are not always scientifically accurate. This has caused an interest in the forensic sciences that has led most people to a skewed view of how a criminal investigation actually works. The reality of a criminal investigation is that it is generally more tedious and difficult than the theory of criminal investigation would have you believe. By examining the forensic and investigative procedures of the case of Pamela Foddrill, it is apparent that the theory of criminal investigation was not representative of the procedures concerning examination

One of the most common evidence an investigator deals with on a daily basis is fingerprints. Everyone has them, and they are unique to every single person. There are no two alike. Fingerprints, unless altered by scarring or other means, are

The case I chose to write on is based on a DVD that we watched in class called ‘Beaten by a hair’. In this case, a woman was reported missing after she went to work and never returned home. After the police discovered a bloody pillow case in the woods, near her house, they linked it to the missing pillow case in the woman’s room, and then realized that they had a murder case on their hands. A mystery in the case was that one of the local neighbors had mentioned seeing the woman leave through the front door of her house but the evidence says different, so investigators had to find out who left the house that morning. I am interested in this case because it was very intriguing how the forensic officers put all the pieces

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).

Type of Evidence Collected: I collected a fingerprint that was lying on the handle of the door leading to the backyard that was the main point of interest during the investigation after receiving the lead from John Couey.

There are times when certain forms of evidence, such as blood and fingerprints, need to be obtained before the accused has time to destroy them (Inabau 2).

McDougall, Liam. “How much more evidence is needed for a public inquiry? SHIRLEY McKIE: US fingerprint expert: murder evidence fabricated, testimony perjured ; UK fingerprint expert: evidence more likely to be fabricated than incompetent: [Final Edition].” Sunday Herald [Glasgow, UK], 19 Feb. 2006. ProQuest Newsstand, search.proquest.com/news/docview/331281486/4DF56AD20C7C44EBPQ/12?accountid=15011. Accessed 3 Mar. 2017.

Forensic Evidence helps eliminate the suspects of a case. This evidence serves as the weight to tip the scales of justice as proven in paragraph seven. The fingerprints in this evidence because it shows where the suspect has been and what he’s touched. This usually proves the suspect guilty or not. Forensic Science usually ends the case using

Forensic spend most of their time in labs instead of moving to different places. Even forensics are humans and mess up on situations, they aren’t perfect. Some of the cases in the book are heartbreaking and causes you to wonder why people do those things. In fact, some are really good at covering their tracks in the murder, but not all get away with it. Not all are guilty some are innocent, some get lucky and support.

I have always loved suspenseful whodunit television shows, movies, and books that use forensic science to crack the cases. My favorite television show is The First 48, my favorite movie is The Silence of the Lambs, and my favorite book is The Body Farm. Therefore, I was excited to have the opportunity to take this course and learn even more about the subject of forensics. This essay gives a summary of N. E. Genge’s book, The Forensic Casebook: The Science of Crime Scene Investigation, and includes the things I disliked and liked about the book.

For many years criminal profiling has been used in crime shows such as CSI, Law & Order, and Criminal Minds. The audience is always on edge and thrilled as to how they accurately and briskly catch the perpetrator; and get a detailed and heart felt confession at the end of the hour long episode. However, as we have focused on in this Psychology class, that is not an accurate portrayal of the real thing. Criminal profiling and forensic science is useful, but can we really say exactly how useful they are in the real world? In this article review, it focuses on the crime solving tools used in history, the evolvement of forensic science and the explanation of criminal profiling and its actual use in real life cases, it is titled “The Utilization

Mystery novels have been an intriguing subject to a lot of readers. A famous mystery novel writer, Edgar Allan Poe, had explained meaningful life lessons within his words, in his story, The Murders in the Rue Morgue. His story contains a strenuous case to investigate and the character, Inspector Dupin, is the only key to figuring it out. The outcome of the turning point had an immense influence to several things in the story. The discovery of the broken nail is significant because of its effects on how the killer got in and out, how carefully Dupin analyzed his clues, and proving even the smallest clues have a big impact.

“The corpse is a silent witness who never lies” I believe this sentence sums up Forensic Science. Every answer you need to solve a crime comes from the corpse, i.e. the environment they were found in, DNA found on the body and cause of death. It amazes me how forensic science has developed from several years, from discovering DNA and finding out whose DNA it is, to connecting how the murder took place by just using the evidence found. I want to study Forensic Science because I am engrossed in the chemical aspects of forensic science, such as analysing samples using gas- liquid chromatography, mass spectrometry and genetic fingerprinting.

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

Though antemortem fingerprints, dental, and DNA reference material are thought to be fairly easy to obtain, this is not always the case (Christensen & Hatch, 2014). Many times DNA is not available and a body may be dismembered or so badly burned or decomposed that soft tissue features such as the face and fingerprints are not available for comparison. In cases like this, forensic radiology can serve as an extremely reliable identification tool and has long been used to establish identity when more traditional methods of identification are not possible (Christensen & Hatch, 2014; Brogdon, 1998). The most common identification technique used by forensic anthropologists, radiographic comparison involves the side-by-side or superimposed comparison of skeletal traits using antemortem and postmortem radiographs (Brogdon, 1998). Forensic radiologists and investigators agree that, “many parts of the human skeleton can serve as bony prints of the identification of human remains, and in certain respects bones have a uniqueness similar to that of footprints (Atkins, 1978).”