Chapter 3: Processing the Crime Scene

Question 1

The proper management of a crime scene has three distinct aspects:

Answer 1

Administrative: awareness of the departments administrative requirements (policies)

Operational:

Legal: the legal constraints of crime scene activity (ie- when a warrant is required ect..)

Question 2

Initial inquiry by officers to establish facts and circumstances of a suspected crime and to preserve evidence related to that crime

Answer 2

PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATION

Question 3

Preliminary Investigation

(5 Elements)

Answer 3

• Securing the scene
• Possible arrest of a suspect
• Locating and questioning witnesses and victims
• Documenting the Scene
• Identifying and collecting evidence

Question 4

The ____ is the location where evidence of a crime may be found. It is not neccessarily where the crime was committed.

Answer 4

Crime Scene

Question 5

____ occurs most commonly when evidence is not properly secured, is wrongfully mixed with other types of evidence, or is altered significantly from its original condition at the crime scene.

Results in the evidence being inadmissable or ruled to be “incompetent” by the court.

Answer 5

Evidence Contamination

Question 6

_____ is any type of material left or taken from a crime scene or the result of contact between two surfaces.

Answer 6

“Trace Evidence”

Examples include shoes on a floor covering or soil fibers from where someone sat on an upolstered chair.

Question 7

Any type of evidence having shape, size, or dimension

Answer 7

“Physical Evidence”

Question 8

The perpetrator of a crime will bring something into the crime scene and leave with something from it, and that both can be used as forensic evidence

Answer 8

“Locard Exchange Principle/Theory”

Question 9

Utility of Physical Evidence

(6 Points)

Answer 9

Physical Evidence:

1) Can prove the elements of a crime or reveal that a crime has been committed
2) May be used to place the suspect at the scene
3) Can eliminate innocent persons
4) When confronted with it, suspects may confess
5) Can support witness testimony
6) Can have a powerful effect on juries

Question 10

Types of Evidence

(6)

Answer 10

1) Physical Evidence: evidence that “speaks for itself;” gun, fingerprints, blood, drugs
2) Direct/Prima Facia Evidence: evidence established by law that, at face value, proves a fact in dispute
3) Indirect/Circumstatial Evidence: tends to incriminate a person without offering conclusive proof
4) Testimonial Evidence: verbal statement offered by a witness while under oath; offered in an oral manner and is used most commonly to explain some form of physical evidence
5) Trace Evidence: hair, clothing, fibers; extremely small items of evidence
6) Demonstrative Evidence: used to demonstrate or clairify an issue rather than prove something (anatomical dolls)

Question 11

Two CLASSIFICATIONS of Evidence

Answer 11

Corpus Delicti: evidence that establishes that a crime was committed (pry marks, door jams)

Associative: evidence that links a suspect with a crime (fingerprints, footprints, bloodstains, fibers)