Chapter 1 Test Flashcards
What is the first task of forensic scientists?
Find, examine, and evaluate evidence from a crime scene.
What is the most important tool of a forensic investigator?
To observe, interpret, and report observations clearly and accurately without bias.
Criminal investigations depend on the observation skills of who?
Police, investigators, the forensic scientists, and the witnesses
Who created the Innocence Project?
Barry C. Scheck and Peter J. Neufeld in 1992
What is the purpose of the Innocence Project?
To reexamine post-conviction cases using DNA evidence to provide conclusive proof of guilt or innocence
The Latin word “forensic” is derived from…
“Forensis” which means “of the forum”
Ballistics- what do ballistics experts typically deal with?
Bullets and firearms
Know who Paul Ekman is
He is a psychologist who has spent 50 years studying faces and is an expert on facial analysis and deception. He was able to find microexpressions- rapid changes in expression that are biological- that reveal a person’s true feelings and took all 10 thousand configurations of the human face to make the Facial Action Coding System.
When talking about the verbal testimony of a forensic scientist, what else is needed for him to come to court to enter into evidence other than his verbal testimony?
They need to be reliable and like official and have some kind of written testimony or physical-like stuff to go with it.
What must a forensic examiner be able to do?
Identify record interpret evidence
They must be able to find, examine, and evaluate evidence from a crime scene and interpret it accurately and without bias
To ensure all evidence is found a crime scene is often laid out in?
Grid, linear, quadrant, or spiral
An interesting aspect of our perception is that we…
Believe what we see and hear, even though our ability to be accurate is flawed.
Eyewitness accounts vary from person to person depending on…
Level of interest, stress, concentration, the amount of distraction present, and emotional state Our beliefs, motives, biases, and the time between the report can cause accounts to change.
Analytical skills-
The ability to identify a concept or problem, to isolate its component parts, to organize information for decision-making, to establish criteria for evaluation, and to draw appropriate conclusions.
Deductive reasoning-
Deriving a conclusion from the facts using a series of logical steps.
