Intro to Forensics

Question 1

How does the brain take observations and process them?

Answer 1

Since memory fades with time, we will only remember a very small number of details. The way we remember things, however, can also change.

Question 2

4 lobes of the brain

Answer 2

-Frontal lobe
-Parietal lobe
-Occipital lobe
-Temporal lobe

Question 3

Frontal Lobe

Answer 3

Associated with reasoning, planning, parts of speech, emotions, and problem solving

Question 4

Parietal Lobe

Answer 4

Associated with movement, orientation, recognition, perception of stimuli

Question 5

Occipital Lobe

Answer 5

Associated with visual processing

Question 6

Temporal Lobe

Answer 6

(auditory section) associated with perception, memory and speech

Question 7

Deductive Reasoning

Answer 7

Deriving the consequences from facts using a series of logical steps

Question 8

Eye Witness Testimony

Answer 8

Three main stages in memory where error could occur
-encode(occurance of event)
-Storage( event is stored for a specific duration)
-recall(retrieval of event)

Question 9

Eye witness testimony 2

Answer 9

most states have accepted eyewitness accounts as “flawed” Science and do not allow a person(s) to be convicted based solely on eyewitness accounts.

They are however still used as “leads” to HELP convict as suspect

Question 10

The Innocence Project (6 common causes of wrongful convictions)

Answer 10

-eyewitness misinterpretation
-incorrect forensics
-false confessions
-official misconduct
-Use of informants
-Inadequate defense

Question 11

Dr. Edmond Locard

Answer 11

-known as father of forensics
-Established the first forensics laboratory in Lyon France in 1910
-Lovard’s exchange principle

Question 12

Locard’s Exchange principle

Answer 12

When a person comes in contact with an object(or another person) A cross transfer of physical evidence can occur.

cross transfers create evidence
Evidence solves crimes

The exchanged materials indicate that the two entities were in contact

Question 13

Direct Evidence

Answer 13

Eyewitness Accounts
Police Dashboard
Video Surveillance
Voice Recordings
Signed Ransom Notes
Reports (toxicology, lab, etc)

Includes first hand observations

Question 14

Circumstantial evidence(indirect evidence)

Answer 14

Prints (fingerprints, bite marks, tire prints)
DNA
Ballistic evidence
Fibers
Hair

can be used to imply a fact but not directly prove it

Question 15

Circumstantial evidence (Physical)

Answer 15

-All prints
-Bullets
-Weapons
-Synthetic fibers

Not naturally created

Question 16

Circumstantial evidence(biological)

Answer 16

-DNA
-Hair
-Natural fibers

Question 17

Class

Answer 17

Narrows to a group of people/items
-Shoe prints
-Blood type
-Hair (w/o the follicle)

Question 18

Individual

Answer 18

Narrows to one individual
-DNA
-Hair (with the follicle)
-Fingerprints

Question 19

Evidence

Answer 19

can be used to convict, exonerate or prove a defendant to be not guilty of an accused crime

Question 20

Evidence 2

Answer 20

If the investigator cannot recognize evidence or cannot properly preserve it for laboratory examination, it is of no use.
(Mishandled crime scenes and evidence can be detrimental to a case.)

Question 21

Who is at the crime scene

Answer 21

Police and possibly a district attorney. (DA may be present to issue warrants)
Crime scene investigators. (document scene in detail and collect evidence)
Medical examiners. (aka: coroners determine COD)Detectives. (look for leads/interview witnesses/talk to CSI)
Specialists. (entomologists, psychologists, anthropologists, etc)

Question 22

7 S’s

Answer 22

Securing the Scene
Separating Witnesses
Scanning the Scene
Seeing the Scene
Sketching the Scene
Searching the Scene
Securing and Collecting Evidence

Question 23

Spiral search method

Answer 23

Search starts at an outer point and gradually moves toward the center

Spiral like

Question 24

Grid Method

Answer 24

Crime scene divided into a grid and each grid segment is searched

Question 25

Strip or line search

Answer 25

Crime scene divided into strips and each strip is searched
Very common when looking for a missing person.
Team “stops” when
evidence is found

Question 26

Quadrant or zone search

Answer 26

Crime scene divided into quadrants and each quadrant is searched

Question 27

Fiber

Answer 27

the smallest indivisible unit of a textile
-Can be collected by vacuuming, adhesive removal and forceps

Look at slides for more info

Question 28

Textile

Answer 28

a flexible, flat material made by interlacing yarns (threads)

Question 29

Direct Transfer

Answer 29

fibers are transferred directly from victim to suspect or suspect to victim

Question 30

Secondary transfer

Answer 30

fibers are transferred from a source, to the suspect and then to a victim (or from a source, to a victim and then to the suspect)

Question 31

Natural fibers

Answer 31

Animals, plants, minerals

Question 32

Synthetic fibers

Answer 32

Man-made, produced by joining many monomers together to form polymers

Question 33

Fingerprints

Answer 33

Natural secretions of the sweat glands that leave behind traces that make a unique pattern of your dermal ridges when touching an object

Question 34

Fingerprints 2

Answer 34

Arches (5%)
Loops(65%)
Whorls(30%)

Look at slide 6 for more info

Question 35

Ridge count

Answer 35

Counting from core to the edge of the delta

Question 36

Structure of hair

Answer 36

2 parts
-follicle
-shaft
3 layers
-cuticle(outer layer)
-Cortex(middle layer)
-Medulla(inner core of shaft)

Question 37

Medullary index

Answer 37

ratio of the diameter of the medulla to the diameter of the entire hair(0.5 or greater is most likely animal hair)().33 or less is most likely human hair).

MI= Width of Medulla/Diameter of Hair