CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION
CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION
- It refers to the process of collecting facts in order to accomplish the three-fold aims
specifically:
a) to identify the guilty party
b) to locate the guilty party; and
c) to provide evidence of his (suspect) guilt
How is it done?
After a crime has been committed, it is the state’s duty, thru the law enforcers, to give
justice to the victim. In order to attain justice, all of the pillars that compose the Philippine
Criminal Justice System (Community, Law Enforcement, Court, and Corrections) must work
together in a way that the constitutional rights of all people involved will not be violated.
CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION PROCEDURE
1. Receipt of Report / Information (Incident Report
2. First Responders (FRs) proceed to the crime scene to validate the report /
information
3. Investigator-on-Case (IOC) arrives at the crime scene and takes control of the crime
scene
4. IOC requests for SOCO Assistance
5. SOCO Team process the crime scene
6. IOC conducts a final walk-through within the crime scene
7. Release of the Crime Scene
8. Prepare reports and file charges
9. Prepare Case Investigation Plan (if case is high profile / sensational / heinous)
10. Follow-up Case
11. Attend Court Duties
PRIMARY ROLES OF FIRST RESPONDERS:
1. To give first aid (either to the victim / perpetrator or to both)
2. To apprehend the suspected offender
3. To protect, and if necessary, collect and preserve evidence, and
4. To cordon off and protect the crime scene.
SCIENTIFIC CRIME SCENE PROCESSING PROCEDURE:
1. First Responder Notification
2. Securing the Crime Scene
3. Physical evidence Recognition (Survey)
4. Documentation
5. Proper Evidence Collection
6. Evidence Packaging
7. Evidence Preservation
8. Identification - involves analysis and comparison
9. Individualization - involves evaluation, interpretation & verification
10. Scene Reconstruction
11. Reporting & Presentation
“Every crime scene is unique, and with experience, the crime scene investigator will be able
to use logical and systematic approach to investigate even the most challenging crime scene
to arrive to a successful conclusion.” - Marilyn T. Miller
DEFINING THE CRIME SCENE:
No crime scene is alike. Thus, there are many ways in which crime scenes are classified
such as the following:
A. As to the Location of the Original Criminal Activity
1. Primary Crime Scene
2. Secondary Crime Scene
***This classification does not infer any priority or importance but simple a designation of
sequence of locations.
B. As to the Type of Crime Committed
1. Homicide
2. Robbery
3. Rape or Rape with Homicide
4. Shooting Incident, etc.
C. As to the Condition of the Crime Scene
1. Organized Crime Scene
2. Disorganized Crime Scene
D. As to the Physical Location of the Crime Scene
1. Indoor Crime Scene
2. Outdoor Crime Scene
3. Moving Crime Scene
The scene of the crime is the center of forensic science; it is where everything starts,
and the basis of all subsequent analyses. Without it, forensic laboratories would be of little
importance. Because of this, every crime scene should be processed properly because once it
is touched, altered, or moved, it may lose its evidentiary value and any examination done with
compromised evidence will be useless in court.
REMEMBER: You only have one chance to process a crime scene. There is no “undo” icon that
will aid in the corrections of mistakes. Therefore, always do it right the first time.
PIECES OF EVIDENCE THAT CAN BE FOUND AT THE CRIME SCENE
A) Biological Evidence - any bodily fluids or tissues or body parts left at the crime scene
e.g.
Blood
Semen
Hair
Saliva
Skin / Fingernail Scrapings
Bone Fragments
Tooth
B) Physical Evidence - most common type of evidence found at the crime scene which
includes actual physical objects found at the crime scene such as knife, wallet, cap, bullet, gun,
tools and tool marks, etc.
C) Trace Evidence - a subset of physical evidence consisting of evidence that are so small that
they may not be readily noticed but are still found in quantity enough to be measured
- examples are traces of biological evidence like a small drop of blood and small particles from a
physical evidence like wood splinters
NOTE:
Physical evidence differ from crime scene to crime scene so always treat a crime scene
as a new one even if you have encountered similar crime scene in the past. This is to
avoid missing any evidence from the crime scene.
Most evidence is generated during the commission of the crime. Thus, most of the
evidence can be found at the crime scene.
Evidence can also be found in the place where the suspect or the victim had been
before and after the crime.
CRIME SCENE RECONSTRUCTION
- It is the process of determining or eliminating the events that could have occurred at
the crime scene by the analysis of the crime scene appearance, the location and position of the
physical evidence, and the forensic laboratory examination of the physical evidence.
It involves the following:
Scientific crime scene investigation
Interpretation of the crime scene’s patterned evidence
Laboratory testing of the physical evidence
Systematic study of related case information
Logical formulation of a theory
PATTERNED EVIDENCE THAT COULD BE UTILIZED FOR CRIME SCENE
RECONSTRUCTION
Impression location / position - fingerprints, footwear marks, or tire tread marks
Glass fracture patterns - direction of force or order of fire
Fire burn patterns - points of origin determination
Would location
Clothing location or damage
Bloodstain patterns
Gunshot residue - determination of the range of fire in shooting incidents
SAFETY:
Anyone involved in crime scene processing must treat all human blood, body fluids,
or other potentially infectious materials as if they are infected with diseases such as
human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), Hepatitis B virus, etc.
Personal Protective Equipment
- composed of:
a) Hand Protection - includes disposable gloves
b) Eye protection - includes safety glasses, goggles, face shields, protective
eyewear
c) Foot Protection - include shoe covers and shoes that completely cover and
protect the foot
d) Other Protection (protective helmets, gas masks)
