CRJ 311: Forensic Science

Lecture 1 - Introduction
1. Definition of Forensic Science
a. What is Forensic Science?

2. Forensic Science and Criminalistics

a. What is the difference between the two terms?

3. Interdisciplinary Chart
a. Forensic science involves what areas of science:

b. “Forensic science is not a branch of science.” What does this mean?

4. History of Forensic Science

a. Forensic owes its origins to individuals such as:

b. Alphonse Bertillon (1853-1914):

c. Francis Galton (1822-1911):

d. Leone Lattes (1857-1954):

e. Calvin Goddard (1891-1955):

f. Albert Osborn:

g. Hans Gross:

h. Edmond Locard (1877-1966):

5. History of Forensic Science “Bertillon’s System”

a. What is the Bertillon System?
b. What are the weaknesses?
c. What was this system replaced with?

6. History of Forensic Science “Locard’s Exchange Principle”

a. What is this principle?
b. What is it significant?

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 7. History of Forensic Science “Hans Gross”
a. Who was he?
b. What books did he write?

8. The Crime Lab

a. The development of crime laboratories in the United States has been characterized by
rapid growth accompanied by a lack of national and regional planning and coordination.
b. How many public crime laboratories are there?
c. Do they share their databases? Which ones?
d. The ever increasing number of crime laboratories is partly the result of the following:

9. 5 Basic Crime Lab Services

a. Physical Science Unit:

b. Biology Unit:

c. Firearms Unit:

d. Document Unit:

e. Photographic Unit:

10. Optional Crime Lab Services

a. Toxicology Unit:

b. Latent Fingerprint Unit:

c. Polygraph Unit:

d. Voiceprint Analysis Unit:

e. Evidence-Collection Unit:

11. Skills of a Forensic Scientist

a. Analysis of Evidence:
b. Expert Testimony:
i. What is an expert witness?
ii. What do they evaluate?
iii. Will they express an opinion?

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 12. Frye vs. United States “The Frye Standard”
a. What is the Frye Standard?
i. Set guidelines for determining the admissibility of scientific evidence.
ii. Evidence in question must be “generally accepted” by the scientific community.
iii. NOT ABSOLUTE! Why?

13. The Daubert Criteria

a. The Supreme Court offered some guidelines as to how a judge can gauge scientific
evidence. What are they?

b. Judges and juries also struggle with the “CSI Effect”

14. Other Forensic Science Services

a. Services available outside the crime lab:
i. Forensic Pathology:

ii. Forensic Anthropology:

iii. Forensic Entomology:

iv. Forensic Psychiatry:

v. Forensic Odontology:

vi. Forensic Engineering:

vii. Forensic Computer and Digital Analysis:

15. Other Forensic Science Services “Forensic Pathology”

a. The investigation of unnatural, unexplained or violent deaths.
i. What is the role of the forensic pathologist?
b. After a human body expires there are several states of death.
i. Algor mortis:

ii. Livor mortis:

iii. Rigor mortis:

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16. Other Forensic Science Services “Forensic Anthropology”
a. Identification of victim from what?
b. Identification of victims using facial reconstruction
c. What is the Body Farm? Where is it located?

17. Other Forensic Science Services “Forensic Entomology”

a. Helps estimate time of death
b. What are blowflies useful?

18. Other Forensic Science Services “Forensic Odontology”

a. Tooth enamel is hardest substance in body and lasts the longest
b. Characteristics of teeth vary allowing for identification
c. What do we use for the Victim ID and Suspect ID?

19. Other Forensic Science Services “Forensic Engineering”

a. Forensic engineers are concerned with failure analysis, which includes?
b. Computer simulations assist investigations

20. Other Forensic Science Services “Forensic Computer Science”

a. Rapidly growing field that involves identification and collection of information from
computers and other digital resources.
b. What does investigation involve?