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Forensic science and scientific method
Forensic science vocab
Forensic science vocab
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I. Attention Getter: Did you know that fingerprints are one of the first things to form before we are born?
II. Relevancy Statement: We all have them but probably have never really studied them.
A. No two prints are alike.
B. Once they form they don’t ever change unless the skin is damaged enough to cause a permanent scar.
C. Scars can alter the ridge patterns of the fingerprint but once the scar has formed it will stay the same.
III. Credibility Statement: In my research I learned that this persistence makes fingerprinting a very reliable technique to identify criminals and victims.
IV. Thesis Statement: In this speech I am going to explain how forensic teams use fingerprints to identify individuals.
V. Preview of main points: Now I am going to take you through the process of identifying, collecting and analyzing fingerprints.
[Transition]: Before we can find a fingerprint, we have to know what to look for.
Body
I. Types of Forensic Prints (Crime Library)
A. There are 4 types of prints. The first kind is called an exemplar print.
i. These are prints purposefully taken from a certain individual ii. They are not found at crime scenes but used as comparisons to those prints found at crime scenes.
B. The second kind of print is called a latent print
i. These prints are not easily visible and will sometimes be invisible. ii. They are composed of oils from the skin. iii. They can also be found on anything you touch.
C. The third kind is called a patent print.
i. These prints are visible to the naked eye. ii. They are composed of some type of smudge-able substance like ink, blood or dust.
D. The fourth kind is called a plastic or impressed print.
i. These prints form a visible impression ii. They are composed in a substance capable ...
... middle of paper ...
...o complicated and small was formed before we were born and remains completely unchanged as we grow older.
References
Claridge, Jack. "Latent Prints." Latent Prints. Explore Forensics, 5 Sept. 2012. Web. 27 Feb. 2014.
"Fingerprint Techniques Manual." New Mexico Department of Health Improvement. Caregivers Criminal History Screening Program, n.d. Web. 27 Feb. 2014.
"Fingerprints." Crime Library. Crime Museum, n.d. Web. 26 Feb. 2014.
Holder, Eric H., Jr., Laurie O. Robinson, and John H. Laub. The Fingerprint Sourcebook. D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs & National Institute of Justice, 2011. International Association for Identification. Web.
James, Stuart H., and Jon J. Nordby. "Fingerprints." Forensic Science: An Introduction to Scientific and Investigative Techniques. Boca Raton, FL: CRC, 2005. 341-60. Google Books. Web. 27 Feb. 2014.
Works Cited What Is a Blood Spatter Analyst? Criminal Justice Online -. N.p., n.d. Web. The Web. The Web. 09
US Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation. Uniform Crime Reporting Statistics. n.d. 13 February 2012 .
Nowadays, DNA is a crucial component of a crime scene investigation, used to both to identify perpetrators from crime scenes and to determine a suspect’s guilt or innocence (Butler, 2005). The method of constructing a distinctive “fingerprint” from an individual’s DNA was first described by Alec Jeffreys in 1985. He discovered regions of repetitions of nucleotides inherent in DNA strands that differed from person to person (now known as variable number of tandem repeats, or VNTRs), and developed a technique to adjust the length variation into a definitive identity marker (Butler, 2005). Since then, DNA fingerprinting has been refined to be an indispensible source of evidence, expanded into multiple methods befitting different types of DNA samples. One of the more controversial practices of DNA forensics is familial DNA searching, which takes partial, rather than exact, matches between crime scene DNA and DNA stored in a public database as possible leads for further examination and information about the suspect. Using familial DNA searching for investigative purposes is a reliable and advantageous method to convict criminals.
Crime is a common public issue for people living in the inner city, but is not limited to only urban or highly populated cities as it can undoubtedly happen in small community and rural areas as well. In The Real CSI, the documentary exemplified many way in which experts used forensic science as evidence in trial cases to argue and to prove whether a person is innocent or guilty. In this paper, I explained the difference in fingerprinting technology depicted between television shows and in reality, how DNA technology change the way forensics evidence is used in the court proceedings, and how forensic evidence can be misused in the United States adversarial legal system.
Another discrepancy between actual forensics and how it is portrayed in the media is the availability of information in databases. There is only a small percentage of the entire population’s fingerprints or DNA samples stored within databases such as the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS). This makes finding a match between a DNA sample or fingerprint difficult, as a match would only be found if the person’s information was already stored within the database. If there is no match previously stored in a database, the fingerprint or DNA sample could be potentially rendered useless within a trial. Typically, in order to perform an analysis, investigators must already have a suspect in mind and request a DNA or fingerprint sample from him or her. If the suspect does not want to provide one however, the sample collected as evidence may not count as valid. The CSI effect creates an idealized image that all crimes can be solved with a hair or drop of blood, but this is not always the case in real life.
Gest, Ted. " DNA "Fingerprinting " is Facing a Major Legal Challenge from Defense Attorneys and Civil Libertarians."
U.S. Department of Justice. "A Resource Guide on Racial Profiling Data Collection Systems." December 2000. U.S. Department of Justice. Web. 18 June 2015.
On Wednesday, November 16, 2011, Katherine Stang, Aresh Kabirnavaei, and Andrew Roller, all students in the Master’s of Forensic Science program gave thesis presentations to the Forensic Seminar Class. The following paragraphs will summarize each topic.
Trace evidence was first discovered by Edmond Locard. Edmond Locard was born in 1877, and founded the Institute of Lyon’s Institute of Criminalistics. He is also known for advancing the science of fingerprints. In 1910 he was authorized to start a small forensic laboratory in the Palais de Justice which he directed until 1951.While there he worked on criminal identification methods including poroscopy- the microscopic examination of fingerprints; analyses of body fluids, hair and skin; and graphometry or handwriting analysis. He is the man responsible for coming up with the theory that when two objects come in contact with each other they leave some kind of material matter behind. This theory was later called Locard’s Exchange Principle. The idea is that the evidence can be used to associate objects, individuals or locations with one another." A person typically loses about 100 hairs a day. These hairs may be of evidentiary value to show contact between two people. With an adequate hair standard, a trace chemist will be able to microscopically compare a...
Forensic genetics has other applications . The " fingerprint " DNA represents a valuable tool for forensic science . As is the case with an ordinary fingerprint genetic fingerprint is unique to each individual (except identical twins ) . The determination involves the observation of specific DNA sequences which can be obtained from extremely small tissue samples , hair, blood or eventually left at the scene . As Fifty microliters of blood, semen or five microliters of ten roots of hairs are enough , and nozzles secretions and cells from the fetus . In addition to its use in the capture of criminals , especially rapists , the genetic fingerprints can be used to establish family relationships . People involved in the conservation of species use them to be sure that captive breeding is among individuals who do not belong to the same family .
The three different main types of fingerprints are Loops, Arches, and Whorls (Jackson 1). Henry Faulds is known as the Father of Fingerprints and developing fingerprints (Jackson 1). His discovery of fingerprints has made a huge impact not only in his time but, in Modern Crime Scene Investigation (Jackson 1). Without fingerprinting, it would be very difficult to convict criminals of crimes and very hard to try to process information. Crime Scene Investigators make a huge impact in Forensic Science. We need CSI workers, without them people could only imagine what crime would be like not only in our community, but in our
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.
By definition, “biometrics” (Woodward, Orlans, and Higgins, 2003) is the science of using biological properties to identify individuals; for example, fingerprints, retina scans, and voice recognition. We’ve all seen in the movies, how the heroes and the villains have used other’s fingerprints and voice patterns to get into the super, secret vault. While these ideas were fantasy many years ago, today biometrics are being used and you may not even know it.
Technical Working Group on Crime Scene Investigation (2000, January). Crime Scene Invesitgation: A Guide for Law Enforcement. Retrieved May 26, 2011, from http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/178280.pdf
Federal Bureau of Investigaiton. (2010, December 22). Preliminary Semiannual Uniform Crime Report, January –June, 2010. Retrieved from http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjs/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s./2010/preliminary-crime-in-the-us-2009