Evidence Stuff
Which professionals go to a crime scene and collect evidence?
Crime Scene Investigators (CSIs)
Laws relating to harmful acts which endanger the safety of others and/or property.
Criminal Laws
Application of the scientific method to matters of the law.
Forensic Science
Terminology related to a specific profession or group
What is jargon?
This division of federal crime labs test things like hair, fibers and unknown substances found at a crime scene.
Before an item collected at a crime scene is called evidence, it must be considered to be these two things:
Probative and Material
Laws that refer to private matters between citizens
Civil Laws
Basic principles that govern the way an individual behaves and makes decisions. Right vs. Wrong
Ethics
Evidence must be probative. What does this mean?
Evidence must PROVE something
Ballistics Unit
Ruling which set a new precedent and decided that a judge should determine whether evidence shall be admitted into a trial. This is the current standard.
The Daubert Ruling
(Daubert v Dow - 1993)
Laws specifically made for government agencies to follow.
Administrative law
A laboratory analyzed sample that is a statistical match is what type of data?
Quantitative Data
This field of forensic science is involved in recreating crime scenes and accidents
Forensic Engineering
Refers to the branch of science which involves the study of insects as they relate to or are involved in court cases.
Forensic Entomology
Case which determined that evidence shall be admitted into a case only after a jury decides whether the evidence is generally accepted by the scientific community.
The Frye Standard
(Frye v United States - 1923)
Laws that are written and passed by a legislative body
Statutory Law
An idea or system of ideas that is backed by scientific analysis and is intended to explain something.
Theory
Evidence must be material. What does this mean?
Evidence must be RELEVANT to the case
This process started in the 1860s and is consistently used multiple times throughout the entire process from crime committed to sentencing.
Photography
Based on the Daubert Ruling, evidence is admissible in court if it meets these 5 criteria.
(Name at least 3 for points)
1. theory is testable
2. science offered peer review
3. rate of error is acceptable
4. widespread acceptance
5. follows standards
Law that is based on customary practices.
Common Law
What is one of three ways criminologists apply the "experimentation" step of the scientific method to forensic science?
Investigation
Evidence Collection
Interviews
This refers to a case that determines a standard for future decisions.
What is precedent?
What is the difference between a criminalist and a criminologist?
Criminalist - involves the application of scientific method only (search for how)
Criminologist - application of scientific method with an added psychological angle (search for why, not just how)