Forensic textbook study comes to life with hands on analysis of the everyday world. Criminalistics class is forensic science. A criminalist is a forensic scientist. Our class covers the past and present of crime scene investigations, evidence collection and analysis, and reporting. This is an elective course in Criminal Justice that studies Forensic Science as a significant element in efforts to control crime and at the same time maintaining a high quality of justice.
In this course the student explores the underlying principles to understand the laboratory procedures of forensic science. The student will recognize the potential value and limitations of evidence recovery and analysis as practiced in laboratory settings. The student will participate in simulations and mock crime scene investigation. The student articulates informed opinions about crime scene analysis and investigative response.
http://colbycriminaljustice.wikidot.com/faculty-page
Students' research and reports
here
Krizia Cornejo
Criminalistics
Fingerprints offer a reliable means of personal identification. The science of fingerprint identification stands out among all other forensic sciences for many reasons. It has served governments worldwide for over 100 years to provide accurate identification of criminals. No two fingerprints have ever been found alike in many billions of human and automated computer comparisons. The International Association for Identification (IAI) established the first professional certification program for forensic scientists and Certified Latent Print Examiner (CLPE) program in 1977. It continued to expand as the premier method for identifying persons, with hundreds of thousands of persons daily added to fingerprint repositories worldwide. It has remained the most commonly used forensic evidence worldwide. Fingerprints harvested from crime scenes which led to more suspects and generated more evidence than all other forensic laboratory techniques combined. Fingerprints and DNA are harvested from serious crimes such as murder, but often fingerprints are the primary evidence harvested from burglaries or vehicle break-ins. There are three types of finger print patterns. In a Loop pattern, the ridges will flow in one side, recurve, loop around, and touch or pass through an imaginary line drawn from the delta to the core, and exit the pattern on the same side as it entered. Next, whorl pattern consists of a series of almost concentric circles. A whorl pattern has two deltas; there are four types of whorl patterns:
1. Plain whorl,
2. Central Pocket Loop whorl,
3. Double Loop whorl,
4. Accidental whorl
And finally, an arch pattern, ridges flow in one side and flow out the opposite side. There are no deltas in an arch pattern. There are two types of arch patterns:
1. Plain arch,
2. Tented arch
Each fingerprint contains minutiae, or ridge characteristics. Fingerprints are identified to individuals by examining and comparing the ridge characteristics of two different fingerprint impressions to determine if these characteristics occupy the same relative area and position, and if their unit relationship to each other is in agreement.
Sources
[http://www.crimescene-forensics.com/Fingerprints.html]
[http://http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/07/12/the-mark-of-a-masterpiece]
Allen Goff
I am going to be talking about state trooper awareness an how that if you are not paying attention that you can either kill someone or injure them in 3 seconds. There have been tones of cases in causes of another accident by someone just not moving over to the left lane when a State Trooper has someone pulled over. I have a video to show you what can happen when you do not pull over right away cause like I said 3 seconds and that the fate of the State Trooper.
https://youtu.be/QBDd-hptWdE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_0DvE5_QhY
Andrew Voss
DNA Advancements
DNA was first used to aid a criminal investigation by Professor Jeffreys in 1986. This investigation used DNA finger printing techniques to link semen stain samples, collected from two rapes/murders that had occurred three years apart in 1983 and 1986, in a small village in Leicestershire, UK. This result not only linked the two crimes and secured the conviction of the perpetrator Colin Pitchfork, but also exonerated an innocent man implicated in the murders and led to the first mass screening project undertaken for DNA profiling in the world. This is the very first step into using DNA to solve a crime. DNA testing only became more advanced from this point on.
This original method of analysis required the use of a large amount of high quality DNA, which is not always recovered during forensic investigations. Two big breakthroughs occurred during the late 1980s and early 1990s that would form the basis of DNA profiling techniques as they are recognized today. DNA is generally used to solve crimes in one of two ways. In cases where a suspect is identified, a sample of that person’s DNA can be compared to evidence from the crime scene. The results of this comparison may help establish whether the suspect committed the crime. DNA evidence is generally linked to DNA offender profiles through DNA databases. In the late 1980s, the federal government laid the groundwork for a system of national, state, and local DNA databases for the storage and exchange of DNA profiles. This system, called the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), maintains DNA profiles obtained under the federal, state, and local systems in a set of databases that are available to law enforcement agencies across the country for law enforcement purposes. This means that if you have not committed a crime or been in a situation where your DNA was needed, you won’t come up in the CODIS.
DNA does more than just solve a crime. DNA can determine parentage, for purposes of paternity, immigration, and other cases, and identify human remains, when visual or dental determinations are not possible or conclusive. DNA can be affecting in ways that will break it up and make it unclear to whose DNA it is. All in all, DNA is one of the most accurate ways to identify a person. Identifying someone by their DNA is not that old but we have made huge advancements in this process. It will only continue to improve as time goes on.
Websites
https://www.nij.gov/topics/law-enforcement/investigations/crime-scene/guides/death-investigation/pages/welcome.aspxhttp://
https://www.justice.gov/archives/ag/advancing-justice-through-dna-technology-using-dna-solve-crimeshttp://
Identify roles and responsibilities in the investigation of various criminal events.
Students' research and reports
here
Students recognize the potential value and limitations of evidence recovery and analysis as practiced in laboratory settings.
Students' research and reports
here
Students' research and reports
here
Content of student mock scenarios, critical incident management, and practice drills. Case Studies, videos, links post here.
Post student name(s).
Use files to upload and insert photos.
Paste embed code from video using tool for html
Student Reflection Activity for Service Learning Projects
