Gomez_Vazquez_Laura_Criminology_6.

02A_Process_the_crime_scene

Scenario 1:
One morning, a teacher, Mr. Woodward, enters a classroom to find the body of a former science
teacher sprawled on the classroom floor. He immediately checks the body for a pulse. Hearing a
janitor in the hall, he calls him into the room. The janitor notices the blood around the body and,
wearing gloves, attempts to clean it up, hoping to avoid its spread to the rest of the room.
Meanwhile, Mr. Woodward runs next door and calls the principal, Mr. Glynn. The principal, having just
entered the office, hurries down to the crime scene. He moves around the area, carefully avoiding the
body. Making a quick decision, he calls the superintendent at home, who immediately calls the
police. The first officer to arrive at the scene puts up a barrier and posts guards at the entrance to
the room. The forensic technician soon arrives to process the crime scene.

Questions:
1. Describe how the crime scene was contaminated as well as how incorrect procedures were used.
When the teacher checks that the person he found is dead, he shouldn’t call the janitor to come in
and he also should have exited the place. He obviously mustn’t have asked for cleaning the room,
even though he is wearing gloves, as they are maybe erasing some evidence which hasn’t been
photographed. He neither should have called the principal, as they are spreading the news instead of
calling the police and the ambulance to come, something which should have been done since when
the teacher discovered the body. They lastly should have called the police directly instead of wasting
time calling the superintendent, who later called the police.

2. What was done correctly?

The teacher calls for help, even though he doesn’t call for the police. The principal calls for the
superintendent who later calls the police, so finally some professionals come to the crime scene.
The first officer makes everybody exit the place, which is very good as no one must disturb a crime
scene.

3. What type of evidence should be collected from the crime scene?

Thanks to the crime scene and to the scenario we can say that we should collect: blood, hair, a torn
and crumpled incriminating note, fiber evidence, DNA prints of the victim, the teacher, the janitor, the
principal and the superintendent.