Determining the cause, mechanism, and manner of death takes an intimate knowledge of human anatomy, physiology, and pathology. Pathologists, doctors of medicine who specialize in studying the diseases that affect the human body, are the persons responsible for performing autopsies. CSI: Miami and NCIS fans know these people as the characters, Dr. Alex Woods and Dr. Donald "Ducky" Mallard, respectively.
Pathology, the study of disease, is a postdoctoral medical specialty that dates back to the 19th century. By the latter half of the 20th century, pathologists began branching out into individual subspecialties. It was not until 1959 that forensic pathology became a board-certified specialty.
The forensic pathologist is concerned with the study of medicine as it applies to criminal law. Moreover, the forensic pathologist is more likely to deal with injuries. More than 50 percent of the cases he deals with involve death caused by the onset of disease. He is qualified to perform autopsies that yield evidence that he must attest to in open court as his professional opinion.
In order for someone to become a full-fledged forensic pathologist, one must undergo years of training in college. It takes approximately 13 years of training before he can work as a member of a CSI team. He must complete four years of undergraduate work. Another four years of medical school. Another four years of pathology residency. And finally, one year of fellowship in forensic pathology. He must be board-certified by taking an examination administered by the American Board of Pathology.
The forensic pathologist is at the top of the pyramid of the forensic system of investigation. However, the work of this profession is not all clean and tidy like working a desk job and pushing pencils all day. This profession requires you to be exposed to a deceased person's bodily fluids, smell, and disease. It can also be rewarding, fascinating, and intellectually stimulating.
Once a person becomes a forensic pathologist, he is eligible to work as a medical examiner or coroner. His duties will include examining dead bodies to ascertain the cause, mechanism, and manner of death; perform autopsies; supervise the pathology lab; and perhaps run the entire crime lab. He must be called to the scene of the crime at any hour of the day since criminals rarely keep a 9-to-5 schedule. His job description also entails assisting law enforcement officials with body search-and-recover procedures and providing expert testimony in criminal court. He must be a fully licensed doctor of medicine in the state in which he practices as a forensic pathologist and have extensive knowledge of human anatomy, physiology, pathology, anthropology, dentistry, microscopy, x-ray and lab testing, evidence rules and court procedures, crime scene evaluation, and local, state, and federal laws.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Very First Crime Lab
You have heard of crime labs where scientific testing takes place on the TV show CSI. How is a forensics lab different from a clinical lab? How did a forensics laboratory come about? Where did it come from? What kinds of testing go on in a forensics lab?
Both forensics and clinical laboratories use the same scientific equipment and follow the same research protocols. However, in a clinical lab, testing with the purpose of diagnosing and treating the sick is carried out from a live patient. A forensics lab performs testing with the aim of establishing links between a suspect and a crime.
The Very First Crime Lab
In 1923, August Volmer (1876-1955) of the Los Angeles Police Department established the nation's first forensic laboratory. About six years later, the first privately owned forensic lab was established in Chicago following the investigation of Chicago's notorious St. Valentine's Day Massacre. Calvin Goddard (1891-1955), America's leading firearms identification expert at the time, was able to deduce a connection of the killings to Al Capone. Because of his expertise in firearms identification, two businessmen saw a potential in Calvin Goddard and funded further development of his crime lab at Northwestern University where he became a professor of police science. This new lab enveloped the other disciplines of blood analysis, fingerprinting, and trace evidence analysis under the same roof.
Then in 1932, Goddard helped establish a national forensics laboratory for the FBI. It is in this lab that nearly all forensic services known to law enforcement are performed. Today many states have used the FBI forensics lab as a model for their own state or local labs.
Common Procedures Done in a Crime Lab
Technical scientific analyses offered by modern-day crime labs and medical examiners' offices are diverse and complex. The number of services supplied by a particular lab is inherently dependant upon its size and available funding. State and regional labs may provide a wide range of services, and local labs may provide only fundamental testing procedures. In general, small crime labs usually outsource more complex testing to larger regional labs. Moreover, the FBI's National Crime Lab offers services to all law enforcement agencies all over the country. An FBI crime lab can perform just about every type of scientific test. It also has access to databases covering everything such as tire-track impressions, fingerprints, shoe prints, and postage stamps.
Larger laboratories may offer separate departments for each discipline, while smaller labs tend to encompass various services. Sometimes, there is an individual technician who is hired to do all the work. This is what the grunge character, Abby Sciuto, the forensics expert on the TV show NCIS, does. If this is the case, it would be smart for her to outsource the work to larger reference labs.
What are the common procedures done in a crime lab?
• Fingerprint analysis
• Tool mark and impression analysis
• Blood analysis
• Ballistic reports
• Trace evidence reports
• Toxicological testing
• DNA analysis
No doubt, a crime lab technician has his work cut out.
With advancing technology, there will be newer services offered for crime labs all over the country. This will make it harder for perpetrators to get away with murder, bank robbery, or sexual assault.
Both forensics and clinical laboratories use the same scientific equipment and follow the same research protocols. However, in a clinical lab, testing with the purpose of diagnosing and treating the sick is carried out from a live patient. A forensics lab performs testing with the aim of establishing links between a suspect and a crime.
The Very First Crime Lab
In 1923, August Volmer (1876-1955) of the Los Angeles Police Department established the nation's first forensic laboratory. About six years later, the first privately owned forensic lab was established in Chicago following the investigation of Chicago's notorious St. Valentine's Day Massacre. Calvin Goddard (1891-1955), America's leading firearms identification expert at the time, was able to deduce a connection of the killings to Al Capone. Because of his expertise in firearms identification, two businessmen saw a potential in Calvin Goddard and funded further development of his crime lab at Northwestern University where he became a professor of police science. This new lab enveloped the other disciplines of blood analysis, fingerprinting, and trace evidence analysis under the same roof.
Then in 1932, Goddard helped establish a national forensics laboratory for the FBI. It is in this lab that nearly all forensic services known to law enforcement are performed. Today many states have used the FBI forensics lab as a model for their own state or local labs.
Common Procedures Done in a Crime Lab
Technical scientific analyses offered by modern-day crime labs and medical examiners' offices are diverse and complex. The number of services supplied by a particular lab is inherently dependant upon its size and available funding. State and regional labs may provide a wide range of services, and local labs may provide only fundamental testing procedures. In general, small crime labs usually outsource more complex testing to larger regional labs. Moreover, the FBI's National Crime Lab offers services to all law enforcement agencies all over the country. An FBI crime lab can perform just about every type of scientific test. It also has access to databases covering everything such as tire-track impressions, fingerprints, shoe prints, and postage stamps.
Larger laboratories may offer separate departments for each discipline, while smaller labs tend to encompass various services. Sometimes, there is an individual technician who is hired to do all the work. This is what the grunge character, Abby Sciuto, the forensics expert on the TV show NCIS, does. If this is the case, it would be smart for her to outsource the work to larger reference labs.
What are the common procedures done in a crime lab?
• Fingerprint analysis
• Tool mark and impression analysis
• Blood analysis
• Ballistic reports
• Trace evidence reports
• Toxicological testing
• DNA analysis
No doubt, a crime lab technician has his work cut out.
With advancing technology, there will be newer services offered for crime labs all over the country. This will make it harder for perpetrators to get away with murder, bank robbery, or sexual assault.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Federal Rules Computer Forensic Services
Computer forensics is becoming more mainstream in litigation and with the amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure on 12-1-2006, more cases will utilize these rules. With the expected increase in demand for qualified and trained law enforcement professionals, the first computer forensics institute has been announced and will be located in Hoover, Alabama. Construction of the facility is expected to begin by mid-April of 2007, with construction completed by January of 2008. Training is expected to begin in July 2007.
"With the ever-increasing prevalence of cyber crimes such as identity theft, computer hacking and online child pornography, it is absolutely essential that we equip our law enforcement personnel with the best training and equipment available," said Governor Riley. "This center will make Alabama the nation's leader in training our local, state and federal law enforcement to combat high-tech crimes. It will become America's institution of excellence in the fight against cyber crimes."
The Center is being funded though a cooperative effort by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Secret Service, and state, county, and local governments. The State of Alabama is contributing approximately $3 million dollars to the Center, to be used for build-up expenses. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is providing an additional $9 million dollars, and the U.S. Secret Service is providing 18 full-time agents to help staff the Center.
U.S. Secret Service agents will teach computer forensics and digital evidence to national, state and local law enforcement at the Center. These agents are in the field and understand the curriculum from a law enforcement perspective. It will include high-tech classrooms, a computer forensic lab, and public education exhibit space.
The Center is expected to train more than 900 law enforcement professionals each year.
"With the ever-increasing prevalence of cyber crimes such as identity theft, computer hacking and online child pornography, it is absolutely essential that we equip our law enforcement personnel with the best training and equipment available," said Governor Riley. "This center will make Alabama the nation's leader in training our local, state and federal law enforcement to combat high-tech crimes. It will become America's institution of excellence in the fight against cyber crimes."
The Center is being funded though a cooperative effort by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Secret Service, and state, county, and local governments. The State of Alabama is contributing approximately $3 million dollars to the Center, to be used for build-up expenses. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is providing an additional $9 million dollars, and the U.S. Secret Service is providing 18 full-time agents to help staff the Center.
U.S. Secret Service agents will teach computer forensics and digital evidence to national, state and local law enforcement at the Center. These agents are in the field and understand the curriculum from a law enforcement perspective. It will include high-tech classrooms, a computer forensic lab, and public education exhibit space.
The Center is expected to train more than 900 law enforcement professionals each year.
Forensic Lab Services In Police Departments
Forensic science is not just what you see on television shows like CSI but rather the use of actual science to help determine the answer to varied legal questions. There are many different types of forensic disciplines that are used to help police and other officials answer these questions. These include criminalistics, forensic psychology, forensic pathology and others.
Criminalistics is the science used to help understand the evidence in crimes. Evidence used in criminalistics can include biological evidence, trace evidence, impression evidence, controlled substances and ballistics. Biological evidence is usually bodily fluids such as semen and blood. Trace evidence are items like hair and fibers. Impression evidence are items like foot prints, impressions of car tires and fingerprints. Criminalistics is usually investigated in a crime lab. Many cities with very large populations have crime labs within their police departments. These include Miami-Dade, Florida and the famous Las Vegas crime lab.
Forensic psychology is the study of the mind of a criminal. Forensic psychologists usually study the motivations that led an individual to commit a certain crime. Forensic psychology has recently come into the limelight as more and more television shows have started to feature it. These includes CSI, NCIS and Criminal Minds. Criminal Minds especially digs into why a person committed the crime so that they may locate the victim before it is too late. Forensic psychology has also been discredited by some as being interpreted in court as opinion and what might have been going through an individual's mind, not what actually went through the individual's mind.
Forensic pathology is the study of the cause of death. Literally, pathology is used to determine how someone died and the forensic findings are usually used to backup a court case. Forensic pathology has also recently become popular for television shows such as CSI and NCIS. Many of the cases involve a mystery over death.
There have also been many other forensic sciences such as forensic meteorology, and forensic geology, although these are used much less often than other branches of forensic science. Many of them just involve using analytical skills to determine the cause of the events.
As with any science there have been some disagreements over the scientific effectiveness of certain forensic sciences. One of these cases was an experiment by the FBI. Comparative bullet lead analysis was used by the FBI for over 40 years starting when John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. The theory was that each batch of bullets had a specific chemical composition, much like an element on the periodic table, and therefore could be traced back to its original batch or even down to the very box. However, internal studies showed this to be exactly the opposite and the test was finally pulled in 2005.
No matter what you may think, forensic science affects you each and every day. Forensic science allows scientific means to be applied to almost any situation so that there can be a root cause determined. Forensic science in any form is just the answering of a legal question using analytical means.
Criminalistics is the science used to help understand the evidence in crimes. Evidence used in criminalistics can include biological evidence, trace evidence, impression evidence, controlled substances and ballistics. Biological evidence is usually bodily fluids such as semen and blood. Trace evidence are items like hair and fibers. Impression evidence are items like foot prints, impressions of car tires and fingerprints. Criminalistics is usually investigated in a crime lab. Many cities with very large populations have crime labs within their police departments. These include Miami-Dade, Florida and the famous Las Vegas crime lab.
Forensic psychology is the study of the mind of a criminal. Forensic psychologists usually study the motivations that led an individual to commit a certain crime. Forensic psychology has recently come into the limelight as more and more television shows have started to feature it. These includes CSI, NCIS and Criminal Minds. Criminal Minds especially digs into why a person committed the crime so that they may locate the victim before it is too late. Forensic psychology has also been discredited by some as being interpreted in court as opinion and what might have been going through an individual's mind, not what actually went through the individual's mind.
Forensic pathology is the study of the cause of death. Literally, pathology is used to determine how someone died and the forensic findings are usually used to backup a court case. Forensic pathology has also recently become popular for television shows such as CSI and NCIS. Many of the cases involve a mystery over death.
There have also been many other forensic sciences such as forensic meteorology, and forensic geology, although these are used much less often than other branches of forensic science. Many of them just involve using analytical skills to determine the cause of the events.
As with any science there have been some disagreements over the scientific effectiveness of certain forensic sciences. One of these cases was an experiment by the FBI. Comparative bullet lead analysis was used by the FBI for over 40 years starting when John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. The theory was that each batch of bullets had a specific chemical composition, much like an element on the periodic table, and therefore could be traced back to its original batch or even down to the very box. However, internal studies showed this to be exactly the opposite and the test was finally pulled in 2005.
No matter what you may think, forensic science affects you each and every day. Forensic science allows scientific means to be applied to almost any situation so that there can be a root cause determined. Forensic science in any form is just the answering of a legal question using analytical means.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)