Intro Notes & Deductive Reasoning

forensic science

- applying science to law, engineering, car crashes, plane crashes
- criminology: study of crime- why people commit crimes

full service crime labs include

- physical science unit- weapons
- biology unit- dna/blood, plants, insects
- firearms unit- guns
- documentation examination- trust
- photography unit- photos

physical science

- chemistry: chemicals
- physics: firearms, trajectory, how bombs exploded
- geology: drugs, glass, paint, carpet- certain way they're made

biology

- dna/dried blood
- other bodily fluids (semen, stomach aids)
- hair
- fibers- wool, cotton
- plants/wood

specialists

- pathologist: studied cellular changes/various aspects of disease)
- serologist: studies blood group and other bodily fluids
- entomologist: studies insects and decomposition
- anthropologist: studies bones to determine identity
- odontologist: examines the patterns of bite marks, makes casts of bite marks

firearms

- guns
- discharged bullets
- cartridge cases- match to weapon
- shotgun shells
- ammunition
- gun shot residues
- distances to target
- ballistics expert (studies everything to do w firearms)

document examination

- handwriting validity
- typing validity
- analysis of paper/ink
- indented writing

photography

- photographs of evidence/scenes
- digital imagery
- infrared (heat)
- ultraviolet - x-rays
- prepares photograph exhibits for court

toxicology

- detection of poisons or drugs

latent fingerprints

- latent (invisible to naked eye)
- collecting, processing and examining fingerprints
- dactyloscopy (the study of fingerprints)

polygraph

- lie detector examination & interpretation

voiceprint analysis

- records and interprets sound which is transformed from speech to visual displays
- linguists: studies written & oral communication to identify the speaker

evidence collection

- collects and preserves physical evidence to be processed

other specialists

- crime scene photographer: a.k.a. identification officer or id technician
- forensics psychologist: develop psychological profile of the criminal
- forensic artist: draws the likeness of the person based solely on eyewitness description or aging a photograph
- forensic engineer: concerned with failure analysis, accident reconstruction & causes & origins of fires or explosives

deductive reasoning

- The process of reasoning in which a conclusion follows necessarily from the premise; reasoning from the general to the specific