Footwear impressions have been used as a tool for law enforcement for over 200 years. In 1786, William Richardson committed a murder and when trying to flee the scene stepped in the marsh which made footprints on a path. The Stewart-Deputy took an impression and noted that it was a rounded toed shoe and that the shoe would have nails on the sole. Every male at the funeral had to have their shoes measured and inspected. This procedure led them to Richardson, who tried to deny any involvement, but with witness statements, footwear evidence and other trace evidence was convicted of murder; he confessed to the crime before he was executed (Chambers, 1832) . This paper will focus on locating, collecting and analyzing footwear impressions.
The most important thing at a crime scene is the evidence. Evidence comes in all sizes and shapes; it may be visible or latent, meaning not visible with the naked eye. It is the job of all personnel at the crime scene to find the person responsible for the crime but it is the job of the crime scene investigator (CSI) to locate, recover and examine all the evidence left behind. Criminals leave behind some type of evidence at a crime scene either fingerprints, impressions, DNA, or trace evidence. “Whenever two objects come into contact, there will be a mutual exchange of matter between them” (James & Nordby, 2009). This means that a person will leave evidence and take evidence with them, without ever meaning to.
Location
The first responder’s job is to render aid to the victim and secure the area. When cordoning off an area one should keep in mind that there is useful evidence outside of the area where the crime actually happened. For instance, if someone was stabbed in a house and the point ...
... middle of paper ...
... able to enhance footprints we are able to track a suspects moves at a crime scene.
Works Cited
Bodziak, W. J. (2000). Footwear impression evidence: Detection, recovery and examination. Boca Raton: CRC Press.
Chambers, W. (1832, March 10). Chambers' Edinburgh Journal. Retrieved from Maxwell ancestry: http://www.maxwellancestry.com/ancestry/images/cej/0041.jpg
Hilderbrand, D. (2013). Footwear, the Missed Evidence. Retrieved from Crime-Scene Investigator: http://www.crime-scene-investigator.net/footwear.html
James, S. H., & Nordby, J. J. (2009). Forensic science: An introduction to scientific investigative techniques. Boca Raton: CRC Press.
Phillips, P. (2012). Footwear evidence and theft detection: Leaving a lasting impression. Retrieved from The graveyard shift: http://www.leelofland.com/wordpress/footwear-evidence-theft-detection-leaving-a-lasting-impression/
Fulero, S. M., & Wrightsman, L. S. (2009). Forensic psychology. (3rd ed.). Belmont: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
On 03/25/2016 at about 1929 HRS, I received a phone call from Deputy David Melcher advising he was currently at the scene of a Burglary, located on the NW corner of Juco Rd and Frey Street extension (NE 30 Rd and NE 10 Av). Deputy Melcher advised that upon his inspection of the scene he had observed some very good Shoe Impressions and some possible fingerprints and palm prints as well.
Gardner, T. J., & Anderson, T. M. (2013). Criminal evidence: Principles and cases (8th ed.).
Gardner, T. J., & Anderson, T. M. (2013). Criminal evidence: Principles and Cases (8th ed.).
Lyman, D. Michael; Criminal Investigation, The Art and Science; 3rd edition, 2002 Prentice Hall. Pgs. 188-200.
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 particles, insulation, textile fibers, soot, soils and mineral grains, and explosive residues. Although these are the most common found elements, they are not the only ones. The Trace Evidence Unit is known to examine the largest variety of evidence types and used the biggest range of analytical methods of any unit. materials are compared with standards or knowns samples to determine whether or not they share any common characteristics. In this paper I will discuss the different kinds of trace evidence and how crime scene investigaros use it to solve cases and convict criminal.
In today’s time, modern Crime Scene Investigation has increased rapidly. From throughout the late 1900’s and in the early 2000’s (Taylor 1). For all of the evidence that they find, a solid foundation has formed over the thousands of years of Crime Scene
Forensic Science, recognized as Forensics, is the solicitation of science to law to understand evidences for crime investigation. Forensic scientists are investigators that collect evidences at the crime scene and analyse it uses technology to reveal scientific evidence in a range of fields. Physical evidence are included things that can be seen, whether with the naked eye or through the use of magnification or other analytical tools. Some of this evidence is categorized as impression evidence2.In this report I’ll determine the areas of forensic science that are relevant to particular investigation and setting out in what method the forensic science procedures I have recognized that would be useful for the particular crime scene.
Roesch, R., & Rogers, B. (2011). The cambridge handbook of forensic psychology. Canadian Psychology, 52(3), 242-242-243.
Forensic analysis of dyed textile fibers. Anal Bioanal Chem. 2009Aug; 394(8):2009-18. Epub 2009 Jun 20.
Forensic science has now been recognized as an important part of the law enforcement team to help solve crimes and cold cases. The advances in technology are being used each day and we must continue to strive to develop better advances in this field. The recent discovery of using DNA in criminal cases has helped not only positively identify the suspect, but it has helped exonerate hundreds of innocent individuals. “With new advances in police technology and computer science, crime scene investigation and forensic science will only become more precise as we head into the future.” (Roufa, 2017) Forensic science and evidence helps law enforcement officials solve crimes through the collection, preservation and analysis of evidence. By having a mobile crime laboratory, the scene gets processed quicker and more efficiently. Forensic science will only grow in the future to be a benefit for the criminal justice
Crime Scene Investigation For my assignment, I will be looking into the case of James Bulger, aged 2 years old, who was kidnapped and murdered by John Venables and Robert Thompson on February 12th 1993. Through evidence found at the crime scene and testimonial statements, the police saw that the two boys, ages 11, abducted James from Bootle Strand Shopping Center, Liverpool. They took him on a long, aimless walk where they brutally attacked him and left him for dead. In my assignment I will show how work done by the police, forensic scientists and Investigators helped to convict Jon and Robert.
Information about any item, related to the criminal, found at the crime scene (weapons, proofs, if any)
Gaensslen, R. E., Harris, H A., & Lee, H. (2008). Introduction to Forensic Science and Criminalistics. New York, NY: The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. .
Footwear is often overlooked during a crime scene. They are said to be overlooked for two reasons: 1) the lack of training and education in the proper searching, collection and preservation of the evidence and 2) the evidence is undervalued or not understood. Footwear impressions sometimes are not properly collected for the lack of success in finding the evidence for not believing that the impressions can be found at the scene after people have walked over the scene, incomplete searches of the crime scene, weather conditions, and the impressions had been intentionally destroyed. When footwear impressions can be obtained but the crime scene must be secured. There are numerous of ways to secure the footwear evidence in or around the crime scene.