Forensics For Dummies
Overview
Understand the real-life science behind crime scene investigation
Forensics For Dummies takes you inside the world of crime scene investigation to give you the low down on this exciting field. Written by a doctor and former Law & Order consultant, this guide will have you solving crimes along with your favorite TV shows in no time. From fingerprints and fibers to blood and ballistics, you'll walk through the processes that yield significant information from the smallest clues. You'll learn how Hollywood gets it wrong, and how real-world forensics experts work every day in fields as diverse as biology, psychology, anthropology, medicine, information technology, and more. If you're interested in a forensics career, you'll find out how to break inand the education you'll need to do the type of forensics work that interests you the most. Written for the true forensics fan, this book doesn't shy away from the details; you'll learn what goes on at the morgue as you determine cause of death, and you'll climb into the mind of a killer as you learn how forensic psychologists narrow down the suspect list.
Crime shows are entertaining, but the reality is that most forensics cases aren't wrapped up in an hour. This book shows you how it's really done, and the amazing technology and brilliant people that do it every day.
- Learn who does what, when they do it, and how it's done
- Discover the many fields involved in crime scene investigation
- Understand what really happens inside a forensics lab
- Examine famous forensics cases more intriguing than any TV show
Forensic scientists work in a variety of environments and in many different capacities. If you think television makes it look interesting, just wait until you learn what it's really like! Forensics For Dummies takes you on a tour of the real-world science behind solving the case.
P.S. If you think this book seems familiar, youre probably right. The Dummies team updated the cover and design to give the book a fresh feel, but the content is the same as the previous release of Forensics For Dummies (9781119181651). The book you see here shouldnt be considered a new or updated product. But if youre in the mood to learn something new, check out some of our other books. Were always writing about new topics!Read More
About The Author
D.P. Lyle, MD, is the award-winning author of many nonfiction books and works of fiction. He is the co-host of Crime and Science Radio, and has worked as a forensics consultant with the writers of popular television shows such as> Law & Order, CSI: Miami, Monk, Judging Amy, House, and Pretty Little Liars. Find him online at www.dplylemd.com.
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CHEAT SHEET
Ever wonder just how prevalent various crimes are? Or about what you should do if you witness a crime? This Cheat Sheet covers that and more, such as how investigators approach a crime scene and the tools they bring to bear in their search for clues, as well as how the medical examiner or coroner determines the cause, mechanism, and manner of death.
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If you like science and law enforcement, you can probably find a career niche in the field of forensics. One caveat: By definition, forensics deals with law enforcement, meaning that if you have a criminal record, you may as well look for another line of work.
Criminalist
Criminalist is a modern term that encompasses workers in many fields of forensic science, but it most often refers to crime scene and crime lab workers.
Forensics
For those interested in digging deeper into the science and techniques of forensic science and criminal investigation, here are some excellent resources for further study.
The Writers' Forensics Blog
This is DP Lyle, MD's blog. Though originally geared toward writers of crime fiction, this blog is followed by forensics industry professionals and those who have an interest in crime and forensic science.
Because forensics is such a hot topic these days, millions of viewers are becoming armchair experts on that subject. But is Hollywood reliable? Sometimes yes, sometimes no.
The quick death
A gun is shot or a knife is thrown and down goes one of the bad guys, perhaps clutching his chest or taking one last dramatic breath, but either way, he's instantly a goner.
Criminalist is a relatively new term and one that's not easy to define. It covers a wide range of abilities, responsibilities, and training. Some, such as serologists and chemists, are scientists, while others, such as fingerprint and firearms examiners, are likely to be ex-police officers who have no true scientific training.
Forensics
The coroner's technician is an extension of the coroner/ME and is indeed the ME's representative at the crime scene and works with the ME at the morgue. These technicians are often the ones who actually deal with the body at any crime scene where a death has occurred.
As an extension of the ME, the technician has legal authority over the body.
In general, all forms of evidence have class or individual characteristics. Class characteristics are not unique to a particular object but place the particular bit of evidence into a group of objects. Individual characteristics narrow down the evidence to a single, individual source.
The type of handgun with which a victim is shot is a class characteristic.
Evidence can be either direct or circumstantial. Direct evidence establishes a fact. Examples of direct evidence are eyewitness statements and confessions. Circumstantial evidence, on the other hand, requires that a judge and/or jury make an indirect judgment, or inference, about what happened.
For example, if a fingerprint or hair found at the crime scene matches that of a suspect, jurors may infer that the print or hair is indeed that of the defendant, and because it was found at the crime scene, links the defendant to the scene.
Many criminals attempt to damage, alter, or remove their fingerprints to avoid identification or connection to prints found at a crime scene. From John Dillinger to more "common" criminals, these efforts are usually unsuccessful. Still, if, after leaving prints at a scene, the perpetrator successfully alters or damages his prints, the fingerprint examiner may not be able to make a reliable match.
Crime is a common occurrence in the United States. The FBI maintains a database of all reported crimes throughout the country. It's called the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program. During 2013, nearly 10 million criminal acts were reported. These crimes consisted of the categories and numbers shown in the following table.
Sometimes, the key to determining authenticity of a document lies in the ink that the writer used. Inks that appear the same, physically, may be much different, chemically. This distinction helps the examiner determine whether the same ink was used for each page or word of a document and may even help reveal whether a particular ink existed at the time the document supposedly was prepared.
Sometimes, forensic document examiners must determine whether pages have been added to a document or whether the document actually was created at a particular time. In either case, the examiner may resort to analyzing the paper.
Most paper is made of wood and cotton and often has chemical additives that affect its opacity, color, brightness, strength, and durability:
Coatings improve the appearance and surface properties of the paper and make the paper better for copiers, printers, or for writing.
Forensics
Coroners and medical examiners are charged with determining the cause and manner of death, overseeing the analysis of evidence, and presenting their findings in court. They often work with the police to help guide ongoing investigations by supplying them with the results of any forensic tests that have been performed.
Forensic analysis of most physical and biological evidence is conducted for two purposes: identification and comparison. Identification determines what exactly a particular item or substance is. Is that white powder cocaine? Is that brown stain dried blood? After testing, a forensic examiner may state that the substance in question is present, not present, or that testing was inclusive and the presence of the substance can't be ruled in or ruled out.
The Russian Revolution of 1917 was a bloody affair that included the execution of the royal family. On July 17, 1918, by order of the Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin, Czar Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra, their five children, and four others were executed in the basement of a house in Yekaterinburg, Siberia.
This act ended three centuries of Romanov rule.
On February 18, 1981, staff journalist Gerd Heidemann presented his boss, Manfred Fischer, director of the German publishing giant Gruner and Jahr, with the literary find of the century — Adolph Hitler's diaries. The documents were handwritten in almost illegible German script. Heidemann said he had received them from a wealthy collector whose brother was an East German general.
Forensics
At 3:40 a.m. on February 17, 1970, U.S. Army Captain Dr. Jeffrey MacDonald summoned military police (MPs) to his home at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. When the MPs arrived, they found Dr. MacDonald lying on his bedroom floor next to his wife, Colette. He wore only blue pajama bottoms. A matching pajama top lay across the chest of his wife, who had been brutally and repeatedly stabbed to death.
Forensics
In 1971, Georgi Markov defected from Communist Bulgaria to London. An outspoken critic of the regime in his homeland, he continued his assaults in antigovernment broadcasts on the BBC. The Bulgarian government was less than pleased with his diatribes.
While walking on the Waterloo Bridge on September 7, 1979, Markov felt a sharp pain in his right thigh.
In 1971, John List lived in a large home in Westfield, New Jersey, with his wife, three teenage children, and his mother. Neighbors noticed that they hadn't seen the List family for some time and that the home seemed deserted, except for the fact that lights throughout the house blazed brightly every night.
On December 7, police dropped by to investigate and found four bodies neatly placed on sleeping bags on the floor of a room near the back of the house.
Forensics
During the afternoon of April 15, 1920, security guards Alessandro Berardelli and Frederick Parmenter were transferring payroll funds for a shoe factory in South Braintree, Massachusetts. Two men opened fire on the guards, killing them both and fleeing with more than $15,000, a tidy sum in those days. Witnesses told police the two gunmen were "Italian looking" and that one of them sported a dark handlebar mustache.
Forensics
Sue Snow suddenly collapsed on June 11, 1986, in the bathroom of her home in the Seattle, Washington, suburb of Auburn. Paramedics found her unconscious and gasping for breath. They transported her to the hospital, where she soon died. One possible explanation for the young woman's death was a drug overdose, but she was not a known user and had taken only a couple of Extra-Strength Excedrin, a safe medication.
Between 1969 and 1975, a series of brutal sexual homicides swept through the Pacific Northwest, Utah, and Colorado. The victims were strikingly similar in that each had dark hair that was parted down the middle.
The suspected killer, a male, often wore a fake cast and feigned an injury, thus seeking his victims' help with some task.
Forensics
David Hendricks was a successful Bloomington, Illinois, businessman who traveled frequently to meet with customers. One such trip was planned for Friday, November 4, 1983. Hendricks planned to leave late November 4 and drive all night to be ready for meetings the next day in Wisconsin.
According to Hendricks, while his wife attended a baby shower, he and their three children arrived at a local pizza parlor at 6:30 p.
Forensics
Colonel Charles A. Lindbergh was an American hero. On May 20, 1927, the Lone Eagle, as he was known, became the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic in his single-engine airplane, the Spirit of St. Louis. Less than five years later, on the night of March 1, 1932, his son, Charles, Jr., was abducted from the second-floor nursery of his Hopewell, New Jersey, home.
On October 15, 1985, in Salt Lake City, Utah, two pipe bombs exploded. One killed businessman and Mormon bishop Steve Christensen, and the other killed a grandmother, Kathy Sheets. The package that killed Sheets was addressed to her husband, Gary, who also was a bishop in the Mormon Church. The next day, a third bomb exploded in the car of Mark Hofmann.
Ever wonder just how prevalent various crimes are? Or about what you should do if you witness a crime? This Cheat Sheet covers that and more, such as how investigators approach a crime scene and the tools they bring to bear in their search for clues, as well as how the medical examiner or coroner determines the cause, mechanism, and manner of death.
Forensics
If you need to find out how a victim died or identify a piece of a plant found at a crime scene, you call on a forensic scientist trained in pathology or botany, respectively. Professionals who work in the various forensic biological sciences are among the most highly trained and skilled members of the forensics team.
Forgery typically is defined as writing or altering a document with the intent to defraud. Document examiners may be able to determine whether a document was altered or written by someone other than the stated author, but determining whether the writer's intent was to defraud is left up to a judge or jury.
Even the most careful and gifted forgers leave behind evidence of their efforts.
No body means no crime, right? Maybe so, but more often it means a body was well hidden. When a body (and the critical evidence it provides) can't be found, investigators rely on a few time-tested techniques for unearthing it. This branch of forensics is a particularly interesting one, and it's growing all the time.
Forensics
Not only do pen and paper leave behind clues about the origin of a document but various mechanical devices do also. Typewriters, printers, and copy machines often leave distinguishing marks on the typed or copied page. These marks may reveal that a document has been altered or help investigators find out exactly which machine produced the document in question.
Forensics
Forgers often attempt to remove, add, or change portions of written documents for widely varied reasons that range from financial gain to creating an alibi. Alterations can be as simple as changing a date or as complex as attempting to erase and rewrite signatures or portions of documents. These changes are called erasures, obliterations, and alterations.
Forensics
You've seen it in movies, and it happens in real life. The criminal scrawls a ransom note, then tears away the note and doesn't give a second thought to the page underneath. Later, police collect the pad of paper and submit it to the document examiner, who exposes the writing, thus proving that that particular pad was the source of the ransom note.
Forensics
Every person who handles evidence must be accounted for and recorded as a link in an unbroken chain of custody, from crime scene to courtroom. Without a continuous record showing that evidence has been kept safe and secure from the crime scene to the lab and ultimately the courtroom, evidence may be rendered inadmissible in court.
The first step in gathering evidence is finding it, and that means taking an orderly approach to searching the crime scene. Many items, such as corpses and weapons, may be readily visible, but others, particularly smaller materials or bits of trace evidence, require diligence on the part of investigators.
In homicides, investigators target points of entry and exit and the area near the body; in robberies, open safes, cabinets, or drawers are good starting points.
Locating evidence can be straightforward: Someone calls the police to report a burglary, and when the police arrive the victim invites them in and shows them the location of the pried-open window, the family safe, and the perpetrator's escape route. But, in other cases, the probable location of the evidence is not always associated with a crime scene, and police are not invited into the area where the evidence may be located.
When beginning the comparisons between two handwritten documents, an examiner looks for points of similarity and points of difference between the known standards and the questioned document. The examiner typically assesses the following features:
Overall form: The size, shape, slant, proportion, and beginning and ending strokes of the letters are part of the writer's overall form.
Forensics
An important aspect of collecting evidence is properly obtaining control samples, which are samples taken from a known source against which the examiner can compare samples taken from the crime scene.
Control samples may come from the victim, from the suspect, or from items found at the scene. A fiber found at the scene is most valuable when control fibers are available from the floor mats of the suspect's vehicle.
Forensics
There may be more to a crime scene than first meets the eye. In fact, more than one crime scene may exist, depending upon how the crime was committed, not to mention where. Crime scenes, therefore, are considered either primary or secondary. The primary crime scene is where a crime actually occurred. A secondary crime scene is in some way related to the crime but is not where the actual crime took place.
On April 5, 1994, the body of Kurt Cobain, singer/songwriter for the grunge rock group Nirvana, was found in an over-the-garage apartment at his home. His wife, Courtney Love, was in another state at the time of his death, so he was home alone. Or at least it appeared that way.
He was found lying on his back, with a shotgun resting on his chest, and an obvious shotgun blast beneath his chin was the cause of death.
Forensics
Regardless of whether the first officer to arrive at a crime scene found out about the crime via a phone call to the station, a radio call from a dispatcher, or directly from a concerned person, the officer must make every effort to detain the person who initially reported the crime and not allow that individual access to the crime scene.
A handwriting examiner needs several standards, or writing samples, to get a feel for a person's writing style and determine whether that person wrote the questioned document. Complicating matters, standards may have been written with a different instrument and under different circumstances. So comparing a questioned document to a known writing sample on a wall may be impossible.
You're probably familiar with the TV series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and its many spin-off shows. How could you not be? Though they more often than not get the science right, they create an unrealistic picture of what a crime lab looks like, how well equipped it is, and what CSI and lab techs actually do.
The first officer to arrive at a crime scene must take certain steps to preserve life and evidence. Only after these duties are performed can analysis of the scene begin. These steps include:
Ensuring the officer’s personal safety and that of any fellow officers, victims, suspects, and witnesses.
Offering first aid to any injured persons and calling for medical help.
The most important function of the medical examiner in any death investigation is determining the cause, mechanism, and manner of death. Here are definitions of each of these terms:
Cause of death: The disease or trauma that directly caused the victim's death. Examples include a heart attack, a gunshot wound to the head, or a drug overdose.
Forensics
Known as the Locard Exchange Principle, after Dr. Edmond Locard, the French police officer who first noticed it, the exchange of materials is the basis of modern forensic investigation. Every contact you make with another person, place, or object results in an exchange of physical materials. If you own a pet, this material exchange is well known to you.
Forensics
While a crime scene is being processed, everything that transpires is documented in notes, sketches, and photographs, and perhaps even videoed. This documentation includes not only the scene and the evidence, but also the surrounding area, particularly the perpetrator's possible entry and exit points.
A designated note taker keeps an accurate account of all activities in and around the crime scene.
Forensics
After evidence has been found and gathered, it must be protected. Each piece of evidence gathered is packaged separately to avoid damage and cross-contamination. Most dry trace evidence is placed in druggist's folds, which are small, folded papers. Envelopes, canisters, plastic pill bottles, and paper or plastic bags may also be used.
Forensics
The size of a crime scene can vary greatly and the police must be prepared to quickly determine its boundaries. This task is not as easy as it seems. A crime scene may be a single room, an entire house, everything on a property, or even a whole neighborhood. And that's just the primary scene.
At a minimum, the crime scene includes
The exact spot where the offense took place
Areas from which the site can be entered and exited
Locations of key pieces of evidence, such as the body in a murder, a safe or cabinet in a burglary, or an entire structure in a suspicious fire
A crime scene can be cordoned off using crime-scene tape, barricades, automobiles, or even by police officers standing guard.
The medical examiner (ME), when dealing with death, is charged with determining the cause and manner of death. The cause is what actually led to the death; the manner is by whose hand and for what purpose the death occurred. These manners can be natural, accidental, suicidal, homicidal, or undetermined, the latter being designated when the ME can't assign the death to one of the other manners with any degree of certainty.
Judges typically allow a great deal of leeway with regard to how expert witnesses present information to the jury. Most witnesses are permitted only to answer questions. If they attempt to move too far afield of the question, the judge will rein them in.
Experts, on the other hand, are allowed to depart from the normal Q-and-A format because their often-technical testimony necessitates explanation.
Forensics
Crime scene investigators are called to all types of crime scenes and at all hours. Because they need certain tools and equipment to perform their duties, criminalists usually keep a well-stocked toolbox, which contains the items they most often need. The box may literally be a toolbox or tackle box, but can be anything that is easily carried to the scene.
Evidence is anything that can be used to determine whether a crime has been committed. Evidence may link a suspect to a scene, corroborate or refute an alibi or statement, identify a perpetrator or victim, exonerate the innocent, induce a confession, or direct further investigation.
All evidence is not created equal.
Staging is when someone who's committed a crime attempts to make the scene look like something that it isn't. The most common staging scenario occurs when someone tries to make a murder look like a suicide or an accident. The suspect may move the body or clean certain areas.
Say, for example, a husband strikes his wife in the head with a blunt object, killing her.
Do you know what to do if you witness a crime? In life, you just never know. You could be going to the store or a movie, maybe dropping the kids off at school, or perhaps sitting at your desk at work, and it happens — a crime occurs right before your eyes.
Here's what you should do:
Protect yourself. Run, call for help, or hide.
After doing an initial walk-through of the crime scene, the investigator begins mentally formulating a hypothesis of the crime, focusing on the likely sequence of events and the locations and positions of everyone present during the crime. Information like the following may be critical in determining the truthfulness of a suspect or the reliability of a witness:
Shoeprints may reveal a perpetrator's every step.
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