Description
Book SynopsisUnderstand the real-life science behind crime scene investigation
Forensics For Dummiestakes you inside the world of crime scene investigation to give you the low down on this exciting field. Written by a doctor and former Law & Order consultant, this guide will have you solving crimes along with your favorite TV shows in no time. From fingerprints and fibers to blood and ballistics, you''ll walk through the processes that yield significant information from the smallest clues. You''ll learn how Hollywood gets it wrong, and how real-world forensics experts work every day in fields as diverse as biology, psychology, anthropology, medicine, information technology, and more. If you''re interested in a forensics career, you''ll find out how to break in?and the education you''ll need to do the type of forensics work that interests you the most. Written for the true forensics fan, this book doesn''t shy away from the details; you''ll learn what goes on at the morgue as
Table of Contents
Introduction 1
About This Book 1
Foolish Assumptions 2
Icons Used in This Book 2
Beyond the Book 3
Where to Go from Here 3
Part 1: Cracking Open the Case 5
Chapter 1: Understanding the World of Forensic Science 7
Defining Forensics: The Science of Catching Criminals 8
Integrating science into the practice of law 8
Drawing from other sciences 9
Getting the Big Picture: Forensic Science in Action 9
Starting out small: Basic forensic services 10
Looking at physical forensic science 11
Delving into biological forensic science 11
Investigating the Crime Lab 12
Creating the first crime lab 12
Identifying common procedures 13
Peeking Inside the Criminalist’s Toolbox 15
The Cornerstone of Forensic Science: Locard’s Exchange Principle 15
Looking at Locard’s principle in action 16
Reading the trace evidence 17
Determining who did what where 17
Chapter 2: Getting to Know the Forensics Team 19
Gathering the Evidence: The Criminalist at Work 20
From Analyzing Blood to Identifying Bugs: Forensic Science Specialists 22
Forensic Investigation’s Head Honcho: The Medical Examiner 24
Looking at two forensic systems 24
Checking out the duties of a coroner or medical examiner 25
Following the medical examiner in action 26
Dealing with the Dead: The Coroner’s Technician 27
Testifying as an Expert 28
Understanding the court system 28
Getting to the heart of the “truth” 30
Understanding the role of expert testimony 30
Chapter 3: Collecting and Protecting the Evidence 33
Assessing the Scene of the Crime 33
Distinguishing between primary and secondary crime scenes 34
Arriving at a crime scene 34
Preserving and processing the scene 35
Documenting the procedure 36
Reconstructing the crime scene 37
Recognizing a staged crime scene 39
Classifying the Evidence 39
Determining whether evidence is direct or circumstantial 40
Discerning physical from biological evidence 40
Understanding reconstructive evidence 41
Identifying associative evidence 41
Differentiating class and individual evidence 41
Analyzing the evidence 43
Locating the Evidence 43
Obtaining a search warrant 44
Searching without a warrant 45
Collecting and Preserving the Evidence 46
Searching the area 46
Gathering the evidence 47
Packaging the evidence 48
Collecting control samples 48
Protecting the chain of custody 49
Locating a Missing Corpse 50
Chapter 4: Delving into the Criminal Mind 53
Defining the Role of the Forensic Psychiatric Professional 53
Differentiating forensic from clinical psychiatry 54
How the mind matters in forensics 55
Assessing the Brain 55
Getting started with a medical history and physical exam 56
Digging into the psyche 57
Asking the right questions 58
Employing dubious techniques 58
Dealing with Deception 59
Recognizing lying perps 59
Debunking the eyewitness 60
Dealing with false confessions 61
Assessing Competence and Sanity 62
Determining a defendant’s competence 63
Defining insanity, loosely 63
Tracking Serial Offenders 64
Classifying the multiple murderer 65
Making the monsters 65
Profiling the Perpetrator 68
Assessing the perpetrator’s psyche 70
Taking trophies and souvenirs 72
Distinguishing MO from signature 72
Profiling the victim: Victimology 74
Drawing boundaries: The killer’s domain 75
Linking Criminals and Crime Scenes 76
Part 2: Analyzing the Evidence 77
Chapter 5: Fingerprints: Your Personal Signature 79
Getting a Grip on Fingerprints 79
Measuring bodies: A precursor to fingerprinting 80
Using ridge patterns 83
Making Matching Easier: Classifying Prints 84
Grouping by arches, loops, and whorls 84
Developing the Henry System 86
Speeding up identification: AFIS 86
Locating Those Sneaky Prints 88
Seeking latent prints 89
Powdering the print 89
Using chemistry to expose prints 90
Cleaning up the print: Digital techniques 91
Chapter 6: Painting A Gruesome Picture: Bloodstain Analysis 93
Understanding Blood’s Character 94
Thicker than water 94
Looking into blood clotting 95
Oozing, gushing, and dripping 95
Analyzing Bloodstain Patterns 96
Finding clues in passive bloodstains 96
Analyzing projected blood spatters 98
Classifying projected spatters 100
Latching on to transfer patterns 103
Reconstructing the crime scene from bloodstains 105
Putting It All Together: A Hypothetical Case 106
Chapter 7: Leaving Impressive Impressions: Shoes, Tires, and Tools 109
Stepping Out: Shoeprints as Evidence 110
Characterizing and using shoeprints 111
Matching sole to soul — so to speak 111
Collecting shoe impressions 113
Making the match 115
Tracking Down Tires 116
Analyzing tire-track evidence 117
Obtaining tire impressions 119
Prying Clues from Tool Marks 120
Characterizing and using tool marks 120
Capturing tool impressions 121
Finding Facts in Fabrics 123
Chapter 8: Burning Down the House: Is It Arson? 125
Striking the Match: Looking into Fire-Starters 126
Determining Where and How the Fire Started 127
Using other people’s eyes and ears 128
Locating the point of origin 128
Figuring out how it happened 129
Igniting the blaze 130
Heating Things Up: Accelerants 131
Collecting samples at the scene 131
Taking it to the lab 132
Digging deeper into iffy samples 133
Drawing conclusions from testing 135
Investigating Homicidal Fires 135
Location, location, location 135
Poisoned by air 136
Evaluating Explosive Situations 137
Defining explosives 137
Investigating a bombing scene 138
Part 3: Examining the Body 139
Chapter 9: Determining the Cause and Manner of Death: Forensic Autopsies 141
Defining Death and Declaring It as Such 141
Searching for a definitive method 142
Determining the causes and mechanisms of death 143
Uncovering the four manners of death 144
Shadowing the Forensic Pathologist 145
Discovering what makes an autopsy forensic 146
Deciding who gets autopsied 146
Performing an Autopsy 148
Identifying the body 148
Conducting an external examination 148
Dissecting the body 152
Sniffing out clues in chemicals: Toxicology 155
Filing the Official Autopsy Report 155
Chapter 10: Identifying Unknown Victims 157
Identifying the Body 158
Sifting through the artifacts 159
Examining scars, birthmarks, and tattoos 160
Finding evidence of wounds or disease 160
Fingerprinting the dead 162
Checking out the choppers 162
Using DNA To Make the ID 164
Dem Bones, Dem Bones: Working with Skeletons 164
Determining whether bones are human 165
Determining age 165
Estimating stature 166
Determining sex 167
Determining race 168
Seeking individual characteristics 169
Estimating time since death 170
Handling burned bones 171
Determining cause and manner of death 171
Reconstructing Faces 173
Comparing Photographs 174
Chapter 11: Estimating the Time of Death 177
Defining Time of Death 178
Examining the Body to Estimate Time of Death 178
Measuring body temperature 178
Stiffening up: Rigor mortis 179
Getting the blues: Lividity 181
Determining the rate of decay 182
Dealing with other possibilities 186
Breaking the surface: When sinkers become floaters 186
Gazing into the eyes 187
Gathering Other Clues 187
Discovering what was on the menu 187
Getting buggy 188
Checking other scene markers 189
Chapter 12: Ouch! That Hurts: Traumatic Injuries and Deaths 191
Unleashing the Power of Guns and Gun Evidence 192
Tracking those tricky bullets 192
Studying entry and exit wounds 192
Analyzing shotgun patterns 194
Slicing, Dicing, and Stabbing 195
Taking the Hit: Blunt-Force Trauma 197
Scraping and abrading 197
Bruising and battering 198
Breaking bones 200
Getting toothy: Bite marks 202
Moaning and groaning: My aching head 204
A Shocking Situation: Electrocution 207
Wreaking havoc: Electricity’s path through your body 207
Assessing the damage 208
The R Word: Dealing with Rape 209
Conducting a rape exam 210
Dealing with fatal assaults 212
Chapter 13: Gasping for Air: Asphyxia 213
Understanding Asphyxia 213
Gasping for Oxygen: Suffocation 214
Suffocating environments 214
Smothering 215
Choking sensations 215
Applying pressure: Mechanical asphyxia 216
Suffocating gases 216
Grasping Strangulation 217
Finding common threads in strangulations 218
Hands on: Manual strangulation 218
Applying a ligature 220
Hangings 221
Inhaling Deadly Air: Toxic Gases 223
That sneaky carbon monoxide 223
Deadly cyanide 224
Getting down with sewer gas 226
Drowning: Water, Water Everywhere 226
Finding the manner of death 226
Diving deeper to identify drownings 227
Part 4: Utilizing the Crime Lab 229
Chapter 14: Analyzing Blood and Other Bodily Fluids: Serology 231
Blood: Life’s Most Precious Fluid 231
Understanding blood 232
Blood typing: The ABO system 232
Identifying a Bloodstain’s Source 233
Answering the first question: Is it blood? 234
Knowing when blood’s really human 235
Narrowing the focus: Whose blood is it? 237
Testing for Paternity 239
Inheriting your blood type 239
Determining fatherhood 240
Looking at Other Bodily Fluids 241
Checking for semen 241
Checking for saliva 243
Detecting vaginal fluid 244
Chapter 15: Looking Deep Inside: DNA Analysis 245
Opening an Instruction Manual for Your Cells 245
Understanding the nuts and bolts of DNA 246
Mine, mine, all mine: Uniqueness and DNA 247
Fingering Criminals Using DNA Fingerprints 248
Tracking down and preserving DNA 249
Looking into the genome 249
Repeating yourself: How duplication identifies you 251
Understanding the DNA Fingerprinting Process 252
Getting even smaller with SNPs 253
Making the match 254
Shedding cells: Touch DNA 256
Keeping it in the family: Familial DNA 256
Using DNA to Determine Lineage 256
Who’s yer daddy? Paternity testing 257
Who’s yer granny and granddaddy? Mitochondrial and Y-STR DNA 258
Indexing DNA: The CODIS system 261
Chapter 16: Testing for Drugs and Poisons: The Toxicology Lab 263
Understanding Poisons 263
Defining Toxicology 264
Seeking Toxins 265
Collecting samples 266
Determining the cause and manner of death 268
Examining the Testing Procedures 269
Presuming the results 270
Confirming the results 271
Interpreting the results 272
Looking at Common Drugs 274
Understanding alcohol 275
Getting down with depressants 277
Hopping up: Stimulants 278
Taking a trip with hallucinogens 279
Dirty deeds: Date rape drugs 281
Sniffing and huffing 282
Bulking up 282
Checking Out Familiar Poisons 283
Chapter 17: Picking Apart Trace Evidence 287
Defining Trace Evidence 287
Understanding Analytical Instruments 288
Peering through the microscope 289
Testing the chemical makeup of trace materials 290
Splitting Hairs: Linking Crime to Coiffure 291
Dissecting hair’s anatomy 291
Matching criminal to curly lock 292
Fiddling with Fibers 296
Classifying fibers 296
Collecting fibers 297
Comparing fibers 297
Breaking down the fiber 298
Cracking the Mysteries of Glass 298
Looking into how glass becomes evidence 299
Analyzing and matching glass 299
Breaking glass 300
Puttering with Paints 302
Dissecting paint 303
Solving the puzzle 304
Getting Down and Dirty: Soils and Plants 304
Identifying soils 304
Looking at plants and seeds 305
Chapter 18: Bang! Bang!: Analyzing Firearms Evidence 307
Figuring Out Firearms 308
Extracting Info from Ammo 309
Handling bullets 310
Breaking down bullets 310
Determining caliber and gauge 311
Shuffling through shell casings 312
Getting Groovy: Comparing Rifling Patterns 312
Understanding rifling 313
Reading the ridges 314
Searching for answers in databases 315
The Proof’s in the Powder: Gunshot Residues 316
Tracing gasses and particles 316
Testing for GSR 317
Determining distance 318
Chapter 19: Questioning the Validity of Documents 321
Analyzing Handwriting 322
Obtaining standards 323
Comparing handwriting 324
Fingering forgers 326
Exposing Alterations 327
Wiping away writing 327
Eradicating the original 327
Adding words 328
Looking for Indentions 329
Examining Papers and Inks 329
Distinguishing papers 330
Identifying inks 330
Dissecting Typewriters and Photocopiers 332
Hunting and pecking for clues 332
Finding distinctive traits in copies 333
Part 5: The Part of Tens 335
Chapter 20: Ten Famous Forensic Cases 337
Using a Homemade Ladder: The Lindbergh Kidnapping 337
Sacco and Vanzetti and Sacco’s Gun 339
Ted Bundy’s Bite Marks 340
Stella Nickell’s Trail of Fingerprints 341
Finding Fibers on Jeffrey MacDonald 342
Georgi Markov and the Lethal Umbrella 344
The Hendricks Family’s Last Meal 345
Picturing John List 346
Being Anastasia Romanov 347
Faking Hitler’s Diaries 348
Chapter 21: Ten Ways Hollywood Gets It Wrong 351
The Quick Death 351
The Pretty Death 352
The Bleeding Corpse 352
The Exact Time of Death 353
The One-Punch Knockout 353
The Disappearing Black Eye 354
The Fast-Acting Poison 354
The Untraceable Poison 355
The Instant Athlete 355
The High-Tech Lab 356
Chapter 22: Ten Great Forensic Careers 357
Criminalist 358
Crime Scene Investigator 359
Forensic Investigator 359
Forensic Pathologist 360
Forensic Pathology Technician 360
Forensic Anthropologist 361
Forensic Toxicologist 361
Fingerprint Examiner 362
Forensic Document Examiner 362
Forensic DNA Analyst 363
Index 365
