CJE 3650 Intro to Forensics Dr. Houck Final Exam

What are the four major classes of illicit drugs? Give an example of each.

1.) Stimulant (Cocaine)

2.) Depressant (Barbiturates)

3.) Narcotic (Heroin)

4.) Hallucinogen (LSD)

What is a semisynthetic drug? Give an example of one.

Substances that are derived chemically from a naturally occurring substance. LSD is an example

What are the two major criteria for deciding if a drug shall be put in a Federal Schedule?

Potential for Abuse and Medical Use

When will a drug be put in Schedule 1?

If it has a high penalty for possession, manufacture, and sale

What schedule would drugs that require a doctor's prescription and which are not listed in another schedule, be put in?

Schedule 2

What is "speed?" What family of substances does it belong to? Where is it scheduled?

Methamphetamine and Schedule 2

What was the first act passed by Congress to control drugs? What were its main provisions?

Pure Food and Drugs Act prohibited the interstate commerce in mislabeled or adulterated food or drugs.

What was the Harrison Act? What was its purpose? What drugs was it aimed at principally?

It gave the Federal Government broad control over cocaine and narcotics traffic in the United States.

What is the significance of a "useable quantity" in drug control?

Amount of a drug that is likely to have a demonstrable psychoactive effect on an average person.

What is an excipient?

Substances that may mimic the activity of the main illicit drug present in order to make it more difficult for the user to know just how much of the drug there really is in the exhibit.

What is a diluent?

Chemicals that are used to dilute an illicit drug and to give it more bulk.

What is meant by the term "aggregate weight" as it applies to drug control?

This is the weight of the drug and any cutting agents present.

Give an example of a spot or field test and the drug or class of drugs it is used on.

Ehrlich's test is used for LSD and will turn LSD light purple.

What type of test is used to determine the percentage or quantity of a drug in a mixture?

What tests are used for the confirmation of drugs?

The analysis of marihuana is considered an exception to the general scheme of analysis of drugs, especially those in powdered mixtures. Why is this so? What are the differences?

Explain how mass spectrometry is used for confirmation of illicit drugs?

LSD is considered unique in the family of illicit drugs. Why? How does its occurrence differ from other drugs?

When a clandestine laboratory is raided and no final product is found, what charge is usually levied against the perpetrators? What must be proven in such cases?

Under what conditions may it not be possible to perform a confirmatory test upon a drug exhibit? How might one's conclusion about the exhibit be altered in such cases?

What is a fiber?

What is a yarn? How is it different from a thread?

How are woven and knitted fabrics different

Fabrics composed of two sets of yarns, called warp and weft and formed by interlacing of these sets of yarns.

Knitted- constructed of interlocking series of loops of one or more yarns and fall into two major categories warp knitting and weft knitting

What is the difference between a manufactured fiber and a synthetic fiber?

What is the Becke line used for?

What is a spinneret?

a small thimble like nozzle made of platinum or stainless steel

What is the fiber-forming substance called before it is spun into fibers?

What is denier?

What is a microfiber?

What is refractive index?

Why are fibers birefringent

interference colors seen after crossing the polarizing filters material nature, orientation, and crystallinity

What is a metameric pair?

Why is the cross-sectional shape of a fiber important?

What is a delustrant? How is it used in fibers?

How many cross-section shapes are used in making manufactured fibers?

How many commercial dyes are available?

How many colors can be produced in textiles?

What is a microspectrophotometer? What is it used for?

What is the difference between a paint and a coating?

What is a binder?

What are the categories of coatings?

What is a varnish?

What is a primer?

What is a clearcoat?

How should paint be collected if it is fragile or fragmentary?

What does a microtome do?

What is a problem with solubility testing of paints?

What types of instrumentation are routinely used to analyze paints?

What is a color system? Name any two.

What is a metameric pair?

What factors strengthen an association between two indistinguishable paints?

What is PDQ?

What does a solvent do in regard to paint application?

Are physical matches possible with paint chips?

What is batch lot

A unit of production and sampling that contains a set of analytically indistinguishable products.

What is the fire triangle? How is it important in explaining the elements neces - sary to have a fire?

What is an oxidation reaction? Give an example.

What is a combustion reaction? Give an example.

How do fire extinguishers work in general?

What does "exothermic" mean? Give an example of an exothermic reaction.

What is a flashpoint?

What is an accelerant? Give an example.

One of the possible types of fire is accidental. What are the others?

In order to determine that a fire is arson, what must a fire scene investigator be able to do?

Why is finding the point of origin of a fire so important in determining the cause of the fire?

What is the crucial difference between a fire and an explosion?

How is a detonation defined? Why do some explosives detonate while others do not?

What is an initiating explosive? A noninitiating explosive?

What is an explosive train? When are they used?

What is the difference between a high-explosive and a high-order explosion?

What characteristics of fuel and oxygen give rise to a high explosive?

What is smokeless powder? What type of explosive is this and where is it used?

How are explosive residues collected? Where is the most important place to look?

Why is it so important to be able to recover intact residues of unexploded material?

What is Griess reagent? What type of explosives is it used to help analyze?

Why is it that it is more difficult to distinguish handwriting among a group of third graders than among adults?

Explain the precautions that should be taken when obtaining requested handwriting samples to check against a questioned document.

Why would it be easier over time, to individualize a sample of typewriting to a particular typewriter than it would be to do so with a computer printer page to a printer?

What are some of the major characteristics of forged handwriting?

Give an example of a handwritten questioned document that is not written on paper (or similar materials). What special procedures might have to be used in such a case?

What characteristics of ink are most useful for comparing known samples with unknowns?

How can chemical erasures be detected on a document?

How can mechanical erasures be detected on a document?

Suppose someone tries to alter a check written for $100 by adding a "0" so that it reads $1000. What are some of the ways this can be detected?

How should requested writings be taken if the entire questioned document is a check with an allegedly forged signature?

What is the definition of a questioned document in the broadest sense?

What is "ink dating?" What is its purpose?

How many points of identification are necessary for a questioned document examiner to be able to declare that a questioned document was written by a particular person?

What is the difference between requested writings and nonrequested writings?

What is ESDA? What is it used for?

What is the best way of deciphering indented writings? Why isn't rubbing the indented writing with the side of a pencil a good idea?

What are some ways that one could determine some pen handwriting that has been obliterated with another pen?

What is a charred document? How can the writing on a charred document be deciphered?

How does one become a questioned document examiner? Why is this considered to be an apprenticeship field?

What type of certification is there for questioned document examiners?

What's the difference between a revolver and a pistol?

List four differences between rifles and shotguns.

Why is a pistol not a rifle

rifles are shoulder weapons and the cartridge must be expended manually

What is wadding?

What is gauge?