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to criminalistics homeCRIMINALISTICS: AN INTRODUCTION
TO FORENSIC SCIENCE
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Definition: Forensic Science is the application of science to those criminal and civil laws that are enforced by police agencies in a criminal justice system.
Crime Laboratories
•approximately 320 in the US----forensic experts.
•The FBI maintains the largest and best equipped US laboratory, but others are also maintained by the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Department of Treasury - Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, the US Postal Service.UNITS
- •Some states have comprehensive statewide systems such as Alabama, California, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, Virginia, and Florida
- •Other states have central labs that serve various agencies and some large cities such as New York and Chicago maintain there own.
COMPONENTS OF THE INVESTIGATION
PROCESS
•1. Crime scene investigation
•2. Processing the evidence in the
laboratory
•3. Communication of the information
•4. Expert testimony at the trial
INTEGRITY OF THE MATERIALS
• Documented Chain of Evidence
• Materials are suitable
CREDENTIALS OF THE WITNESS
•1. Degrees and training
•2. Present position or employment
•3. Experience in the tests and
materials at hand
•4. Certification
FRYE PRINCIPLE
THE TRIAL
DEFINITION: The study of humans and skeletal remains for the purpose of criminal or legal investigation.
GOALS
•Basic Reference Literature
•Proper Death Scene Search
•Time Since Death
TECHNIQUES:
• Age,
• Sex, Race,
• Individualization,
•Identification,
•Cause of death
DISCOVERY AND SEARCH
TIME OF DEATH
•U. Tennessee and elsewhere- experimental
study of donated and unclaimed bodies
FORENSIC ENTOMOLOGY
•Life stages of the insects, from
on body and in soil underneath
INVENTORY OF SKELETAL REMAINS
•Krogman, Wilton M. and Iscan, M.Y
1986 The Human skeleton in Forensic Medicine (2nd ed.) Charles C. Thomas,
Springfield
AGE
•Pubic Symphysis of Pelvis
•Auricular Surface of Pelvis
SEX
STATURE
Sorting out animal bones
Best for the Identification of
Young
•Teeth
•Dental Growth and Eruption,
•Growth and Fusion of long bones
• Diaphysis and Epiphysis
BURIED REMAINS - ARCHEOLOGY
•Grid off site
•careful controlled hand excavation
•Measurements, Drawings and photography
to document location
•Complete recovery - screening,
floatation
CASE STUDY
•Cummins Prison - Mr. Tom Murton
1 January 1968-March 1968
Clyde Snow examined the remains
Identification by:
X-ray (RADIOGRAPHY)
•Maceration - defleshing
•Locate medical x-ray and records
•Take x-ray in same position
•Match them up
•Concordance - How many points needed
for identification
CAT SCAN - COMPUTER ASSISTED TOMOGRAPHY
Comparison of the Sinus patterns
Plotted the points of identity between
the ANTEMORTEM and POSTMORTEM Cat scans
DESTRUCTION BY FIRE - CREMATION
yellow-light brown; black-blue-gray;
white
CALCINED
The checked pattern indicates that
the bone was burned green -
covered with flesh - fresh
Articular surfaces - reticulated
cracking pattern, shaft fragments - wet bone - transverse or oblique ring
fractures in lineal sequence also with warping.
ANIMAL GNAWING
high parts - protuberances
FORENSIC DENTISTRY / ODONTOLOGY
•Particularities of dental positioning
and morphology -recorded as bite marks - butter, cheese, chewing gum, victim
Paul Revere who identified the body
of General Joseph Warren
Dr. George Parkman Harvard University
November 1849 off to visit Dr. John
White Webster - professorship in chemistry and mineralogy and a medical
degree
owed Parkman $2,432
Oliver Wendell Holmes, anatomist,
Dean of Harvard Medical College, and father of famous Justice of Supreme
Court
Dr. Jeffries Wyman, graduate of
Harvard Medical College and Professor of Anatomy
Dentist Dr. Nathan Keep
Next to finger prints considered
to be one of the best means of individuation and identification
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