Justice and Science
This type of legal system, used in common law countries, involves two opposing parties presenting their case to a neutral judge or jury.
What is an adversarial system?
This principle states that whenever two objects come into contact, there is a transfer of material between them.
What is Locard’s Principle of Exchange?
This is the lowest temperature at which a substance will ignite and continue to burn.
What is the fire point?
The cuticle and this part of the hair strand are used to help identify its origin.
What is the medulla?
This device is used to detect indentations left on paper by previous writings or impressions.
What is an electrostatic detection device (EDD)?
This type of reasoning starts with a general principle or law and applies it to a specific case to reach a logical conclusion.
What is deductive reasoning?
This trilogy of cases, including Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., set the precedent for the standard of admitting expert testimony and scientific evidence in U.S. courts.
What is the Daubert Trilogy?
These volatile compounds are commonly found at arson crime scenes and are used as accelerants.
What are gasoline and alcohol?
This chart helps estimate the thickness and birefringence of minerals using interference colors under polarized light.
What is the Michel-Levy Chart?
This type of writing is created when a suspect writes text as it is read aloud to them, used for comparison in document analysis.
What is dictated writing?
This type of pretrial hearing determines whether scientific evidence or expert testimony can be presented in court, often using the Frye or Daubert standards as guidelines.
What is an admissibility hearing?
This forensic practice ensures that analysts are not biased by case details during their work.
What is a blind sample?
This technique is often used in arson investigations to analyze hydrocarbons at fire scenes.
What is gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS)?
In forensic science, this material is classified as isotropic if it has the same physical properties in all directions.
What is an isotropic material?
In digital forensics, this process protects data by converting it into an unreadable format.
What is encryption?
This type of case involves disputes between individuals or organizations typically over compensation, while this type of case involves actions considered harmful to society and may result in penalties like imprisonment or fines.
What are civil and criminal cases?
This chain must be maintained from the crime scene to the courtroom to ensure the integrity of evidence.
What is the chain of custody?
These are the two main components of double-base gunpowder.
What are nitrocellulose and nitroglycerin?
This type of microscope uses a focused beam of electrons to create highly detailed images of a sample's surface and is commonly used in forensic science to analyze evidence like gunshot residue and trace materials.
What is a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM)?
This type of malicious software is designed to infiltrate, damage, or disrupt computer systems and can take forms such as viruses, ransomware, or spyware, often used in cybercrime.
What is malware?
A plea bargain typically leads to this type of legal outcome.
What is a guilty plea in exchange for a lesser charge or reduced sentence?
This legal standard requires judges to evaluate factors like testability, peer review, error rate, and general acceptance to determine the admissibility of scientific evidence in court.
What is the Daubert Standard?
Semiautomatic weapons typically leave these unique marks on the cartridge casing.
What are extractor and ejector marks?
In forensic hair analysis, this type of cuticle pattern, characterized by overlapping scales that resemble shingles on a roof, is unique to human hair and distinguishes it from animal hair.
What is an imbricate cuticle?
This forensic technique uses signals from multiple cell towers to estimate a mobile phone's location at the time of a crime by measuring the distance between the phone and each tower.
What is cell phone triangulation?