Forensic Science Vocabulary Review

Vocabulary flashcards covering forensic science disciplines, foundational concepts, key historical pioneers, and database advances based on the provided lecture notes.

Anthropologist

Studies bones and skeletons to identify people and figure out how they died.

Serologist

Studies body fluids like blood, saliva, and semen.

Entomologist

Studies insects to estimate time of death.

Document analyst/ Questioned Document

Looks at handwriting, ink, paper, and signatures to see if a document is real or fake.

Toxicologist

Test for drugs, alcohol, and poisons in the body.

Odontologist

uses teeth and bite marks to identify people.

Engineer

Studies how things fail to explain accidents or crimes.

Psychiatrist

A medical doctor who evaluates a person's mental state.

Pathologist

A doctor who does autopsies to find the cause of death.

Psychologist

Studies behavior and the minds.

Forensic Science

Using science to help solve crimes and answer questions in court.

Professionalism/ mindset/ integrity

Acting honestly, carefully, and ethically so your work can be trusted in court.

Qualitative data

information described with words.

Quantitative data

Information measured with numbers.

Eyewitness Testimony

What a person says they saw happen.

Questioning and interviewing witnesses

Asking witnesses questions the right way so their memory is as accurate as possible.

Perception

How we notice and interpret things. It can be changed by lighting, distance, stress, time, bias, and other factors.

Fact

Something that can be proven true with evidence.

Opinion

What someone thinks or believes; it is not a problem.

Forensic scientist

A person who uses science to examine evidence of crimes.

Bartolomeo da Varigano

Performed one of the first known legal autopsies.

Mathieu Orfila

Father of forensic toxicology; studied poisons in the body.

Alphonse Bertillion

Created an early ID system using body measurements.

Hans Gross

Wrote an early handbook that treated crime investigation as a science.

Francis Galton

Showed fingerprints are unique and can be used for identification.

Albert Osborn

Expert on documents and handwriting; helped make questioned-document examination a science.

Edward Henry

Developed a fingerprint classification system used by police,

Calvin Goddard

Pioneer of firearms identification.

Edmond Locard

Said every contract leaves a trace.

Exchange principle

When two things touch, they leave something on each other.

Alec Jefferies

Discovered DNA fingerprints, which can identify a person from DNA.

IAFIS

The FBI's old computerized fingerprint database.

CODIS

The FBI's DNA database that let's labs compare DNA from crime scenes and offenders.

NGI

The FBI's newer biometric system that replaced IAFIS.

First FBI crime lab

The first national forensic lab in the U.S., created so the FBI could scientifically examine evidence for investigations.