Crime Scene 101: Locating and Documenting Evidence

http://www.forensicmag.com/article/crime-scene-101-locating-and-documenting-evidence?page=0,1

          This article is a summary of how you should locate and document evidence at a crime scene. How do you find the evidence and how do you properly document it once you find it? If you locate every piece of evidence but fail to document each item carefully, the evidence may end up being worthless in court. One of the keys to locating evidence at a crime scene is proper lighting. While lighting is especially important at night, you may also need additional lighting during the day. A flashlight is needed, but just using a flashlight isn’t enough. CSOs have many options for lighting. Most important, you want the scene as bright as day. If you have an outdoor scene at night, you’ll need large lights. Waiting until daytime may compromise your evidence. If the weather changes, for example, you could lose evidence or have trouble finding it. Also, if you wait to process the scene, an officer has to stay at the scene to secure it. When you photograph the scene, first, take enough photographs. It’s not unusual to take 200-400 photos of a major crime scene, and with digital cameras there’s no reason not to take as many photos as you need. Once you’ve photographed the evidence, collect the evidence and prepare the Evidence Custody Sheet, a report which documents all of your evidence.

 

          This article does not really affect my life in particular. Its more of a how-to guide for a crime scene. I suppose, however, a victim of a crime would want his crime scene officials to locate and document evidence as efficiently as possible to have a chance in catching the perpetrator.

 

          This was a well written article. It was very straightforward. It spoke to the reader using the word "you". It described just how important each step in crime scene evidence really is.

Research Will Help ID Bodies Left Behind by Chilean Earthquake, Pinochet Regime

          Recently, new research from North Carolina State University determined that medical examiners and others will help to identify human remains of those killed during the recent earthquake in Chile. Dr. Ann Ross stated: “We have developed population-specific identification criteria for the Chilean population, which will help us determine the stature and biological sex of skeletal remains…” For the past ten years, forensic scientists have developed a population – specific identification criteria that account for different height, built and many other characteristics. This is important because populations can differ from different areas of the country and world. The researchers evaluated remains from a 20th century Chilean cemetery in order to accurately characterize Chilean skeletal features. They were then able to develop stature criteria that can help researchers arrive at an accurate height for an individual based on an analysis of his or her long bones, including the femur and tibia.

          This research affects humanity because now with this new sort of technology, identification of victims in other types of tragedies can be found earlier in the process and can even result in an earlier day for an autopsy.

          I thought that this article was an interesting article because the research according to the chart of different heights and other characteristics can help determine the identification of the victims in the Chilean earthquake.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/09/100914095936.htm

Study Examines Why Innocent Suspects May Confess to a Crime

          Since 1989 there have been 25% of 266 people convicted due to false confession. Iowa State University (ISU) did a study to see why innocent suspects may confess to a crime. They found that people will confess to illegal activities in order to relieve proximal (short term) consequence while not considering the distal (long term) consequence. ISU performed two experiments on ISU psychology undergraduates and both found that the students would admit to doing some unethical or criminal behavior just in order to get out of short term consequences. In the first experiment, the proximal consequence was the students would be asked to answer a long set of repetitive questions while the distal consequence was having to meet with a police officer a few weeks later to discuss the answers in detail. After this experiment, they found most students shifted their admissions to avoid the repetitive questions. In the second experiment, the proximal consequence was to meet with a police officer immediately after the interview and the distal consequence was to return to the lab in a few weeks to be asked a long set of repetitive questions. Once again, the students tried to veer away from the proximal consequence (meeting with the police officer). These two experiments validate why some people may confess to a crime they didn’t do, just to avoid being interrogated by the police.

          This article relates to human behavior. Forensic science is more than just uncovering what happened at a crime scene, it’s also to understand why it occurred. This is a similar idea, understanding why people may falsely confess is important because we can then find an alternate way of questioning people in a way so they don’t need to lie. Understanding this and hopefully changing the approach to questioning will allow innocent suspects to be free and help determine who the real suspect is.

         This article was very interesting; however I wish the article provided statistics of how many people avoided the proximal consequences in the two experiments. I think it would have validated the article’s point more.

http://www.forensicmag.com/news/study-examines-why-innocent-suspects-may-confess-crime