Forensics Unit 1
vocabulary for unit test 1
Terms
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- Protect
- This means to exclude all unauthorized personnel and isolate the crime scene.
- Albert Osborn
- Developed the fundamental principles of document examination.
- Comparison
- The process of ascertaining whether two or more objects have a common origin.
- inductive reasoning
- Inference in which one draws a general conclusion from particular instances.
- Qualified Evidence Collector
- An investigator thoroughly familiar with the recognition, collection, and analysis of physical evidence who can make innovative, on-the-spot decisions at the crime scene.
- Forensic Psychiatry
- A specialized area that examines the relationship between human behavior and legal proceedings.
- Cause of death
- Classified into five categories: natural, homicide, suicide, accident, or undetermined, based on the circumstances surrounding the incident.
- Coroner
- An elected public officer whose principal duty is to conduct an inquest into the cause of any death which there is reason to suppose is not due to natural causes.
- Toxicology Unit
- Examines body fluids and organs for the presence of drugs and poisons.
- IAFIS
- An automated national fingerprint and criminal history system maintained by the FBI and launched in 1999.
- Reconstruction
- The method used to support a likely sequence of events at a crime scene by observing and evaluating physical evidence and statements made by those involved.
- pathology
- The study of the nature of disease and especially the structural and functional change that causes them.
- Hans Gross
- Wrote the first treatise describing the application of scientific principles to the field of criminal investigation in 1893.
- Latent Fingerprint
- A fingermark that is not easily visible to the naked eye.
- Forensic Anthropology
- Primarily concerned with the identification and examination of human skeletal remains, which can be used to reveal the sex, approximate age, race, and the presence of skeletal injury of a subject.
- Substrate control
- Uncontaminated surface material close to an area where physical evidence has been depositied; used to ensure that the surface itself does not interfere with laboratory tests.
- Additive Rule
- States that the probability of an event occurring that can do so in more than one way is the sum of their individual probabilities.
- Finished sketch
- A precise, often computer-aided draft, rendering of the crime scene, usually drawn to scale.
- Firearms Unit
- Investigates discharged bullets, cartridge cases, shotgun shells, and ammunition.
- Photography
- The art or process of producing images by the action of radiant energy and especially light on a sensitive surface.
- Gary Ridgway
- The green river killer who confessed to the murder of 48 women after forensic DNA typing confirmed the presence of his semen in three of the women.
- Document Unit
- Provides the skills needed for handwriting analysis and other questioned-document issues.
- Calvin Goddard
- The first to use a comparison microscope to determine if a particular gun fired a bullet.
- Corpse
- A dead body, especially of a human being.
- jurisprudence
- The science or philosophy of law.
- Biology Unit
- Applies the knowledge of biological sciences in order to investigate blood samples, body fluids, hair, and fiber samples.
- Note taking
- A constant activity occurring throughout the processing of the crime scene that provides a detailed written description of the scene with the location of items of physical evidence recovered.
- Voiceprint analysis
- Used to identify the speaker in a recorded message.
- Quantitative
- Involving the measurement of an amount.
- Algor mortis
- A process that occurs after death in which the body temperature continually cools until it reaches the ambient temperature.
- Impressions
- Any and all forms of tracks, glove and other fabric imprints, as well as bite marks in skin and foodstuffs.
- physical evidence
- Any object that can establish that a crime has been committed or can link a crime and its victim or its perpetrator.
- Locard's Exchange Principle
- States that when a criminal comes in contact with an object or person, a cross-transfer of evidence occurs.
- Class characteristics
- Properties of evidence that can be associated only with a group and never with a single source.
- Physical Science Unit
- Incorporates the principles of chemistry, physics, and geology to identify and compare physical evidence.
- scientific method
- A process that uses strict guidelines to ensure careful and systematic collection, organization, and analysis of information.
- Sir Alec Jeffreys
- Developed the first DNA profiling test in 1984.
- deductive reasoning
- Inference in which one draws a conclusion about particulars from a general premise.
- Cross-contamination
- The unintentional transfer of a substance from one object to another through direct, indirect or casual contact.
- Curare
- A dried aqueous extract of a vine used as a poison that paralyzes muscles and causes death by suffocation.
- Karl Landsteiner
- Discovered that blood can be grouped into different types, A, B, AB and O.
- Ted Bundy
- A serial killer believed to be responsible for 40 murders between 1964 and 1978 who was ultimately convicted based on forensic odontology.
- crime
- An act or the commission of an act that is forbidden by public law and that makes the offender liable to punishment by law.
- expert witness
- An individual whom the court determines to possess a particular skill or knowledge in a trade or profession that is not expected of the average person.
- Buccal swab
- A sample of the inner portion of the cheek, performed to collect cells for use in determining the DNA profile of an individual.
- Chain of custody
- Establishing continuity of possession, through a complete list of all people who came into possession of an item of evidence, essential whenever evidence is to be presented in court.
- Forensic Computer Science
- Involves identifying, collecting, preserving and examining information derived from digital devices.
- Corroboration
- To support with evidence and authority.
- Probability
- The frequency of occurrence of an event.
- Reference sample
- Physical evidence whose origin is known, that can be compared to crime scene evidence.
- Tissue
- An aggregate of cells together with their intercellular substance that form one of the structural materials of a plant or animal.
- Photographic Unit
- Applies specialized photographic techniques for recording and examining physical evidence.
- forensic odontology
- The study of teeth and bite marks to identify a body or tie a suspect to a crime.
- John Wayne Gacy
- The worst American serial killer, who brutally raped and murdered 28 young men and buried them in the crawl space under his house.
- Forensic pathology
- Involves the study of medicine as it relates to the application of the law, particularly in the investigation of sudden, unnatural, unexplained, or violent death.
- Physical Anthropology
- The science concerned with the comparative study of human evolution, variation and classification through measurement and observation.
- Record the Scene
- Investigators have only a limited amount of time to work the site of a crime in its untouched state, so this time must not be lost.
- Secure
- This means to make the crime scene safe and is usually accomplished by the first officer arriving on the scene.
- Alphonse Bertillion
- Devised the first scientific system of personal identification in 1879.
- NIBIN
- A national ballistics information network which allows firearms analysts to acquire, digitize, and compare markings made by a firearm on bullets and cartridge casings recovered from crime scenes.
- rigor mortis
- A medical condition that occurs after death and results in the stiffening of muscle mass.
- Rough sketch
- A graphic drawing made at the crime scene that contains an accurate depiction of the dimensions of the scene and shows the location of all objects having a bearing on the case.
- Individual characteristics
- Properties of evidence that can be attributed to a common source with an extremely high degree of certainty.
- Product Rule
- States that the probability of two independent events occurring simultaneously is the product of their individual probabilities.
- Qualitative
- An analysis that determines the presence or absence of an item or substance but does not determine the amount.
- Francis Galton
- Conducted the first definitive study of fingerprints and their classification.
- DNA typing
- A technique used especially for identification by extracting and identifying the base-pair pattern in an individual's DNA.
- forensic science
- The application of science to the criminal and civil laws that are enforced by police agencies in a criminal justice system.
- Criminalistics
- The application of scientific techniques in collecting and analyzing physical evidence in legal cases involving a crime.
- Medical examiner
- A physician, functioning as a public officer, who conducts autopsies on bodies to find the cause of death.
- CAD
- A computerized sketching program that has become the standard method for reconstructing crime scenes from rough sketches.
- Integrity of Evidence
- Special procedures used for finding, collecting, and transporting physical evidence that preserves its evidentiary value.
- Preliminary examination
- An overview of the crime scene as it was left by the perpetrator, prior to the thorough and systematic collection of evidence.
- Identification
- The process of determining a substance's physical or chemical makeup.
- Edmond Locard
- In 1910 he incorporated Gross' principles within a workable crime laboratory.
- Legend
- A symbol library used to add intricate details to a crime scene sketch.
- Walter McCrone
- First utilized microscopy and other analytical methodologies to examine evidence.
- evidence
- Something legally submitted to a tribunal to ascertain the truth of a matter.
- CODIS
- A combined DNA indexing system that enables federal, state, and local crime laboratories to electronically exchange and compare DNA profiles, linking crimes to each other and to convicted offenders.
- Engineering Science
- The application of science and mathematics by which the properties of matter and sources of energy in nature are made useful to people.
- Organ
- An aggregate of tissues working together to form a structural, functional unit.
- Trace Evidence
- A minute and often barely detectable amount or indication of a chemical constituent not always quantitatively determinable.
- Livor mortis
- A medical condition that occurs after death and results in the settling of blood in areas of the body closest to the ground.
- autopsy
- The medical dissection and examination of a body in order to determine the cause of death.
- Leone Lattes
- Developed a procedure to determine blood type from dried bloodstains.
- Serology
- A medical science dealing with blood fluids and especially their immunological reactions and properties.
- Vitreous humor
- Ocular fluid, used for measuring potassium levels, that can be helpful in estimating the time of death
- Mathieu Orfila
- The father of forensic toxicology.
- Sound Spectrograph
- An instrument used to transform speech into a visual graphic display called a voiceprint.