Midterm Flashcards
What was the name of the first book to have written record of medical knowledge to solving a crime?
Hsi Duan Yu (chinese book from 1248)
In 1814 who published work on poisons and how they affected animals? Also known as the father of toxicology.
Mathieu Orfila
Who studied fingerprints and developed a methodology for their classification?
Francis Galton
Who figured out a way to determine the type of blood from a dried bloodstain and began applying the new test to criminal investigators?
Dr. Leone Lattes
Who found a way of using a comparison microscope to improve this technique to better match bullets?
Calvin Goddard
Who brought up the fact about cross-contamination?
Edmond Locard
When did the oldest forensic laboratory begin and where?
In 1923, Los Angeles
When did the Federal Bureau of Investigation begin its own national laboratory?
1932
A verbal statement given under oath.
Testimony
A science that deals with disease.
Pathology
A dissection and examination of the body, often to determine why the person died.
Autopsy
Studies sudden, unexplained, and violent deaths by using autopsies to determine the cause of death in an individual.
Forensic Pathology
Occurs within 24 hours after death and goes away after about 36 hours.
Rigor Mortis
Happens soon after death.
Liver Mortis
The gradual cooling of the body after death.
Algor Mortis
Specializes in the identification and examination of skeletal remains.
Forensic Anthropology
Focuses on the relationship between human behavior and criminal justice.
Forensic Psychiatry
Uses the study of insects to help criminal investigations.
Forensic Entomology
Provides insight into the identification of individuals through their teeth.
Forensic Odontology
Anything that can establish a crime has happened and anything that links the crime and the criminal.
Physical evidence
Show the crime scene in wide angles.
Overview photographs
Closer to the evidence, but they still show surrounding evidence.
Intermediate photographs
May focus on an injury, a weapon, or a piece of evidence.
Close-up photographs
Show the location of evidence and contain accurate accounts of the distances between them and the dimensions of the crime scene.
Rough sketches
A precise representation of the scene is produced.
Finished sketch
Additional sites where criminal activity might have happened, also are searched.
Secondary crime scenes
A list of all persons who had possession of the evidence during the crime investigation.
Chain of custody
A sample of physical evidence. (unknown sample)
Questioned sample
Comes from a particular person or place, to compare with the questioned sample.
Known sample
Should be placed in paper bags, or envelopes.
Firearms
Evidence that is small and often hard to find.
Trace evidence
This generally happens through personal delivery of mail shipment if needed.
Submitting evidence
Protects individuals from unreasonable searches and seizures.
The Fourth Amendment
Includes tangible objects, including weapons, trace evidence like hair, blood, or fibers, and fingerprints.
Physical evidence
Any type of written or recorded evidence, such as a recording of a telephone conversation or a video recording of a crime.
Documentary evidence
Evidence that is used to help recreate or illustrate a crime.
Demonstrative evidence
The process of determining the chemical or physical characteristics of a piece of evidence with as much certainty as possible.
Identification
The process of testing a suspect sample with a known sample to prove whether or not they share a common origin.
Comparison
The frequency of an event.
Probability
Properties associated with a common source to a high degree of certainty.
Individual characteristics
The ridge endings, enclosures, and other details that make up a fingerprint.
Ridge characteristics or minutiae
Those that can only be associated with a group and not a single source.
Class characteristics
Those that describe a substance or object without referring to any other substance.
Physical properties
Those that describe what happens when a substance reacts with another substance.
Chemical properties
Those that extend outward from the point of impact.
Radial fractures
Those fractures that form a circle around the point of impact.
Concentric fractures
Hairs form and structure
Morphology
A set of cells that runs through the hair.
Medulla
Found in the nucleus of a cell and is inherited from both biological parents.
Nuclear DNA
Found in small structures outside the nucleus of a cell and is inherited from the biological mother.
Mitochondrial DNA
This system categorizes the properties of blood into three different blood types.
A-B-O System
Mixes a sample of the dried substance with the chemical phenolphthalein and hydrogen peroxide. If the substance is blood, the bloods hemoglobin will turn a deep pink.
Kastle Meyer color test
A very sensitive test and can show blood even when it has been diluted up to 300,000 times.
Luminol
Used to distinguish between animal and human blood.
Precipitin test
Who studied bloodstains extensively and has offered a number of important observations about bloodstains?
Herbert L. MacDonell
How many separate ridge characteristics are in each fingerprint?
150
Characterized by ridge lines that enter on one side, loop around, and exit on the same side. About 60-65% of the population has them.
Loop fingerprints
Ridge patterns that are circular in shape with two deltas. About 30-35% of the population has them.
Whorl fingerprints
Ridge lines which start on one side and exit on the other side of the print. About 5% of the population has them.
Arch fingerprints
Made by the oil and perspiration that is deposited on the surface.
Latent fingerprints
Created when a surface is touched after the finger has been in contact with another substance, such as blood, ink, or paint.
Visible fingerprints
Prints created when the finger touches a soft material like soap or putty.
Plastic prints
Aims UV light at areas where fingerprints may be.
Reflected Ultraviolet Imaging System
