An Introduction to Forensic Science

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An Introduction to Forensic Science

• Forensic Science I

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Course Topics Perspective

• Forensic science is the application of scientific
  knowledge to questions of civil and criminal law.
  
• This course is a lab-based, hands-on course that
  will explore what forensic scientists do. You
  will learn modern forensic methods and use
  scientific methods to solve legal problems.

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Course Topics Perspective

• Course focus is on the collection and analysis of
  crime scene evidence (such as serology,
  toxicology, entomology, odontology and trace
  evidence), and the
• Exploration of lab analysis techniques, (such as
  chromatography, DNA analysis, fingerprinting, and
  hair and footprint analysis).

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Course Topics Perspective

• Forensic scientists are also required to testify
  in court about their analysis of evidence.
• To make a convincing case, you need to be able to
  clearly and concisely explain your results and
  their significance in lab reports.
• Finally, mock crime scenes will be investigated
  and real case studies analyzed.

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Interdisciplinary Relationships

• Forensics is a diverse field, and rarely are
  forensic scientists generalists people who
  specialize in all aspects of forensic science.
  Forget what you see on CSI.
• Forensic scientists dont wear pumps to a crime
  scene, they rarely interview suspects or make
  arrests, and they are not experts in all areas of
  forensic investigations. Rather, forensic experts
  usually specialize in one or two branches of
  forensic investigation.

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Interdisciplinary Relationships

• A botanist may be an expert in forensic botany.
  An entomologist may be an expert in forensic
  entomology. Chemists may specialize in forensic
  toxicology or arson and bomb analysis. People
  with expertise in physics may focus on firearms
  and ballistics or blood spatter analysis.

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Interdisciplinary Relationships

• It would be impossible to survey all areas of
  forensic science in a semester long high school
  course.
• Rather, we will explore a range of fields, topics
  and methodologies to give you a sense of the
  diverse fields of study in forensics.

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Interdisciplinary Relationships

• Nevertheless, forensic science is an applied
  scientific discipline, and your success in this
  course will require you to apply your basic
  understanding of physics, chemistry, biology and
  even math to explore the range of topics
  surveyed.

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Forensic Science Defined

• Forensic Science (or Criminalistics) is the use
  of science technology to enforce civil
  criminal laws.
• It is somewhat hard to pin down exactly what a
  forensic scientists does because it includes so
  many other areas of science.

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Why do we look to science for assistance in our
legal system?

• Increasing Crime Rates
• New or Changed Laws
• New Crimes
• New Weapons (see next slide)
• Response to Public Concerns
• Response to Law Enforcement Concerns

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Basic Services Provided by Crime Laboratories

• Physical Science Unit
• Biology Unit
• Firearms Unit
• Photography Unit

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Physical Science Unit

• Chemistry (drugs, explosives)
• Physics (glass, scratches)
• Geology (soil, rocks)

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Biology Unit

• Bloodstains
• Body fluids
• Hair and fiber
• Botanical materials (wood and plants).

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Firearms Unit

• Firearms
• Bullets
• Cartridge Shells
• Ammunition
• Garments

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The Functions of Forensic Scientists
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Collect and AnalyzePhysical Evidence
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Demands Constraints

• When and where do we collect?
• How do we collect?
• For what purpose?

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New Weapons?
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Applying Science to Law

• Applying science to the Criminal Justice System
  depends on a scientists ability to supply
  accurate objective information that reflects
  the events that have occurred at a crime.

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Civil vs. Criminal Law
CIVIL LAW CRIMINAL LAW
filed by a private party. a corporation an individual Penalty a guilty defendant pays the plaintiff for losses caused by their actions. no incarceration filed by the government Penalty a guilty defendant is punished by incarceration (in jail/prison) fine paid to the govt execution (death penalty) Crimes are divided into 2 classes misdemeanors - lt 1 year incarceration felonies - 1 year sentence
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History Development of Forensic Science
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When in Rome

• Forensic comes from the Latin word forensis
  meaning forum.
• During the time of the Romans, a criminal charge
  meant presenting the case before the public.
• Both the person accused of the crime the
  accuser would give speeches based on their side
  of the story.
• The individual with the best argument would
  determine the outcome of the case.

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Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

• Mystery author in late 1800s
• Popularized scientific crime-detection methods
  through his fictional character Sherlock Holmes.

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Mathieu Orfila(1787-1853)

• Father of Toxicology
• Wrote about the detection of poisons their
  effects on animals.

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Alphonse Bertillon (1853-1914)

• Father of Anthropometry
• Developed a system to distinguish one individual
  person from another based on certain body
  measurements.

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Anthropometry
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Francis Galton(1822-1911)

• Father of Fingerprinting
• Developed fingerprinting as a way to uniquely
  identify individuals.

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Leone Lattes(1887-1954)

• Father of Bloodstain Identification
• He developed a procedure for determining the
  blood type (A, B, AB, or O) of a dried blood
  stain.

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Calvin Goddard(1891-1955)

• Father of Ballistics
• Developed the technique to examine bullets, using
  a comparison microscope, to determine whether or
  not a particular gun fired the bullets.

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Albert Osborn(1858-1946)

• Father of Document Examination
• His work led to the acceptance of documents as
  scientific evidence by the courts.

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Walter McCrone(1916-2002)

• Father of Microscopic Forensics
• He developed applied his microscope techniques
  to examine evidence in countless court cases.

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Hans Gross(1847-1915)

• Father of Forensic Publications
• Wrote the book on applying all the different
  science disciplines to the field of criminal
  investigation.

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Edmond Locard(1877-1966)

• Father of the Crime Lab
• In 1910, he started the 1st crime lab in an attic
  of a police station in Paris, France.
• With few tools, he quickly became known
  world-wide to forensic scientists criminal
  investigators eventually founded the Institute
  of Criminalistics in France.
• His most important contribution was the Locards
  Exchange Principle

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Locards Exchange Principle

• Every Contact Leaves a Trace.
• He believed that every criminal can be connected
  to a crime by particles carried from the crime
  scene.
• When a criminal comes in contact with an object
  or person, a cross-transfer of evidence occurs.

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J. Edgar Hoover

• Father of the FBI - Director of Federal Bureau
  of Investigation during the 1930s
• Hoover's leadership spanned 48 yrs 8
  presidential administrations. His reign covered
  Prohibition, the Great Depression, WWII, the
  Korean War, the Cold War, the Vietnam War.
• He organized a national laboratory to offer
  forensic services to all law enforcement agencies
  in the U.S.
• VERY CONTROVERSIAL
• He exceeded abused his authority with
  unjustified investigations illegal wiretaps
  based on political beliefs rather than suspected
  criminal activity
• FBI directors are now limited to 10-year terms

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Applications of Forensic Science

• Identification of Criminals or Victims
• Solving Mysteries
• Past crimes (unsolved or wrongfully convicted)
• Cause, Location, Time of Death
• Paternity cases
• Cyber crimes
• Corporate Crimes (Enron)
• Voice Analysis

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Applications of Forensic Science

• Application of DNA as evidence
• Prevention vs. Reaction
• Catastrophes Wars
• ID remains of victims (either civilian or
  soldiers)
• ex. Holocaust or Katrina
• Military International Forensics
• Terrorism
• The search for WMDs
• stockpiled or stored weapons from past wars

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Munitions

• When the Army unearthed more than a 1,000 mortar
  rounds from a WW2 training site, they enlisted a
  Forensic Science Lab to determine which were live
  munitions which were dummies.

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The Trial of the Century

• O.J. Simpson was a NFL football legend.
• He is now famous for having been tried for the
  murder of ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson her
  friend Ronald Goldman in 1994.
• He was acquitted in criminal court after a
  lengthy, highly publicized trial.

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What went wrong?

• 1st on the scene, police found evidence of blood
  entered the Simpson home without a search
  warrant, an action permissible b/c the situation
  was an emergency.
• HOWEVER, the police collected a pair of
  blood-stained gloves during their search.
• Collection of evidence without proper warrants
  became the key argument used by Simpsons legal
  team ultimately led to his acquittal.

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What was learned?

• If forensic evidence is to be admissible in
  court, the highest professional standards must be
  used at the crime scene!
• He was found liable for their deaths in civil
  court, but has yet to pay the 33.5 million
  judgment.

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The Wonderful Weirdness of Forensic ScienceThe
Body Farm

• Primary Goal To understand the processes
  timetable of postmortem decay, primarily to
  improve determining the "time since death" in
  murder cases.
• The Body Farm is a simulation of various crime
  scenes using real human bodies.
• Started in 1970s by Dr Bill Bass to study
  Forensic Anthropology (the study of human
  decomposition after death).

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The Body Farm

• Used by Law Enforcement, Medical Examiners,
  Entomologists, Cadaver Dogs, Anthropologists
  FBI for Crime Scene Training.
• The BF uses unclaimed cadavers volunteers (who
  donate their body to science after death)
• Only 2 Facilities in the U.S.
• Univ. of Tennessee (original)
• Western Carolina University

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A Virtual Tour of the Body Farm
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• Doorway to death, the main gate of the
  Anthropology Research Facilitythe Body
  Farmconsists of a wooden privacy fence inside a
  chain-link fence topped with razor wire.

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• Security is a high priority. Fences, padlocks,
  video surveillance cameras, police patrols
  safeguard the worlds only human-decomposition
  research facility.

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• One research study examined the effects of the
  elevated temperaturesand limited insect
  accessto which a body in a car would be
  subjected.

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• Corpse 1-81 was an elderly white male he became
  part of a pioneering study of insect activity in
  human corpses.

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• Close-up of a recent research subject. After only
  a few weeks in the Tennessee summer, the skull is
  completely bare many vertebrae are exposed. The
  rib cage pelvis are covered with dried,
  leathery skin, but the soft tissues beneath are
  gone, consumed by insects bacteria.

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• Close-up of a human femur hip bone, containing
  an artificial hip implant. Such orthopedic
  devices can help identify an unknown crime
  victim.

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• An aerial view of the Body Farm. Large wooden
  tripods are used for hoisting weighing bodies
  as part of a research study of weight loss during
  decomposition.

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• A jaw from a research subject held by the founder
  of the Body Farm, Dr Bill Bass.

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Key Question Time Since Death?

• How does the decomposition rate compare in
• sunshine vs shade?
• In cool weather vs hot weather?
• In a shallow grave vs on the ground?
• In water?
• Inside a car?
• What effect do other variables havehumidity,
  insect activity, clothing, body weight, so on?

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Why is TSD so important?

• 1st question at most murder scenes "How long has
  this person been dead?
• TSD Time Since Death
• It's crucial to know when the crime was
  committed.
• it can help narrow the search for a suspect or
• it can help rule out potential suspects who had
  alibis at the time the victim was killed.