There is a lot of controversy whether latent prints uncovered on firearm evidence can be deemed reliable. In order to fully understand this controversy, studies must be conducted so that there is supporting evidence. Two examples of studies that were conducted are the Study on Developing Latent Fingerprints on Firearm Evidence by Betzaida Maldonado, and Fingerprint & Cartridge Cases: How Often are Fingerprints Found on Handled Cartridge Cases and Can These Fingerprints Be Successfully Typed for DNA?, by Terry Spear, Jeanne Clark, Mike Giusto, Neda Khoshebari, Michael Murphy, and John Rush.
In Maldonado’s study she focuses on both the frequency and percentage of print recovery on firearm evidence at the Denver Police Department over a two year period. A total of 1,316 case reports ranging from involvement in handguns, magazines, live ammunition, and spent cartridge casings were examined to interpret the process and outcome of each type of examination. Since the most common way the Denver Police Department analyzes prints in relation to firearms is cyanoacrylate ester fuming and fingerprint powders, in Maldonado’s study approximately 480 items were processed with orange magnetic powder the rest of the items were processed either cyanoacrylate ester fuming (super fuming) or RUVIS. The benefit of using RUVIS or super fuming is that they allow one to
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Fingerprint powders work best on nonporous surfaces that don’t absorb moisture like metal and steel. Both processes reflect the actual processes
The Kansas City Gun Experiment was a study that took place between 1992 and 1993. The goal of the study was to examine if increased police patrol in a “hot spot” of the city would help to reduce the amount of gun-related crime. The data collected by the research team was solely quantitative as it mainly consisted of statistics and other data numerical in nature of the increase/decrease of gun violence in these beats. After the twenty-nine week period of the study, the experiment’s findings showed that an increase in police patrol, as well as seizure of illegally carried guns, did help to eliminate gun-related crimes.
"A Loaded Gun," is a piece by Patrick Radden Keefe, which published on February 11 and 18, 2013 on The New Yorker weekly magazine. This piece revolves around Amy Bishop, a neuroscientist working at the University of Alabama, Huntsville city. On the day of February 12, 2012, at the conference room of the Shelby Center for Science and Technology, Bishop used a 9-mm rifle killed three colleagues and wounded three others. The question is how does a person with a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph. D) from prestigious university of Harvard, with a cozy family-a husband and four children, with no criminal record turn into such a cold-blooded killer? Does Bishop's tenure ended is the main reason that leads to the crime, or because of her "gun accidents" that
Other evidence located within the grave consisted of a generic watch, two cigarette butts, a button, a washer and a shell casing. All of these could be analysed for finger prints and DNA. The cigarette butts would also show a serial number indicating the brand (shown in Figure 3), which can be useful if it is found a victim or offender smokes a particular type of cigarette.
From the early days, with little literary reference material, to the current day, with substantially more, but still insufficient formation, the science of fingerprint identification has managed to maintain its credibility and usefulness. Although, academic institutions have yet to recognize the field as an applied science and include it in the curricula, which would provide directed research and literary reference, in libraries. Without this academic recognition, progress in the field of fingerprint is destined to be sluggish. Description of fingerprint identification as a forensic science’ or an ~app1ied science’ in no way implies that is not a reliable science. Fingerprint identification, correctly understood and applied, is just as scientifically valid and reliable as any other science and, indeed, more accurate than many. The fingerprint expert applies knowledge gained through training and experience to reach a conclusion. The many uses of fingerprint identification range from criminal investigation to non-criminal matters such as deceased, missing persons and disaster victim identification. Fingerprint identification has been used in the court systems for many years. Yet there are those who that still try to challenge fingerprint science and the experts in the court of law by a Daubert Hearing. In this paper, Daubert Hearing is define and detail outing background of the cases, the Government preparation, the Testimony from both sides, the judge’s verdict and finally, Mitchell’s second trial on this case.
If there was no weapon found at the scene and there are other evidence clues that lead to a suspect, and if the suspect had a firearm the forensics team would get a warrant to retrieve the weapon so it could be tested. When the weapon is being tested, it will allow the the bullet have individual marks that will be compared to the ones found at the scene. All of these comparisons are done under a microscope since technology has improved and it is easier to make matches. According to Young & Ortmeier (2011) “class characteristics include weight of the projectile, direction of twist of the riffling, degree of twist of riffling, number of lands and groves, and width of lands and groves.” Even though guns from the same manufacture will never have the same riffling, lands or grove. When evaluating two cartridge casings the examiner will be looking for manufacture, the size of the firing pin as well as the location. The FBI has made a integrated ballistic identification system (IBIS) it's a database that helps crime labs with comparisons where it proves one gun being used in many crimes. In addition, gunshot residue is helpful solving crimes because gunshot residue can be chemically tested. If an individual has gunshot residue it doesn't prove he or she shot the victims, it just means that they were along the premises while the gun was fired. Another
Crime is a common public issue for people living in the inner city, but is not limited to only urban or highly populated cities as it can undoubtedly happen in small community and rural areas as well. In The Real CSI, the documentary exemplified many way in which experts used forensic science as evidence in trial cases to argue and to prove whether a person is innocent or guilty. In this paper, I explained the difference in fingerprinting technology depicted between television shows and in reality, how DNA technology change the way forensics evidence is used in the court proceedings, and how forensic evidence can be misused in the United States adversarial legal system.
Crime scenes are known to have many clues left behind. The obvious would be a the body or bodies, clothing, and sometimes even the murder weapon. While these are great way to solve a case there's another kind of evidence; trace evidence. Trace evidence are small pieces of evidence that are laying around a crime scene. There are many types of trace evidence some of them include metal filings, plastic fragments, gunshot residue, glass fragments, feathers, food stains, building materials, lubricants, fingernail scrapings, pollens and spores, cosmetics, chemicals, paper fibers and sawdust, human and animal hairs, plant and vegetable fibers, blood and other body fluids, asphalt or tar, vegetable fats and oils, dusts and other airborne particles, insulation, textile fibers, soot, soils and mineral grains, and explosive residues. Although these are the most common found elements, they are not the only ones. The Trace Evidence Unit is known to examine the largest variety of evidence types and used the biggest range of analytical methods of any unit. materials are compared with standards or knowns samples to determine whether or not they share any common characteristics. In this paper I will discuss the different kinds of trace evidence and how crime scene investigaros use it to solve cases and convict criminal.
The criminal justice system has changed a lot since the good old days of the Wild West when pretty much anything was legal. Criminals were dealt with in any fashion the law enforcement saw fit. The science of catching criminals has evolved since these days. We are better at catching criminals than ever and we owe this advancement to forensic science. The development of forensic science has given us the important techniques of fingerprinting and DNA analysis. We can use these techniques to catch criminals, prove people's innocence, and keep track of inmates after they have been paroled. There are many different ways of solving crimes using forensic evidence. One of these ways is using blood spatter analysis; this is where the distribution and pattern of bloodstains is studied to find the nature of the event that caused the blood spatter. Many things go into the determination of the cause including: the effects of various types of physical forces on blood, the interaction between blood and the surfaces on which it falls, the location of the person shedding the blood, the location and actions of the assailant, and the movement of them both during the incident. Another common type of forensic evidence is trace evidence. This is commonly recovered from any number of items at a crime scene. These items can include carpet fibers, clothing fibers, or hair found in or around the crime scene. Hairs recovered from crime scenes can be used as an important source of DNA. Examination of material recovered from a victim's or suspect's clothing can allow association to be made between the victim and other people, places, or things involved in the investigation. DNA analysis is the most important part of forensic science. DNA evidence can come in many forms at the crime scene. Some of these forms include hair; bodily fluids recovered at the crime scene or on the victim's body, skin under the victim's fingernails, blood, and many others. This DNA can be the basis of someone's guilt or innocence; it has decided many cases in the twentieth century. As the times continue to change and the criminals get smarter we will always need to find new ways to catch them. Forensic science is the most advanced method yet, but is only the beginning. As the field of science grows so will the abilities of the
In Firearms: A Global History to 1700, Kenneth Chase investigates why Europe perfected firearms when the Chinese invented them. Kenneth Chase is an attorney at law who received his PhD in East Asian Languages and Civilizations from Harvard University. He uses primary sources in the form of texts and paintings as well as secondary sources in this monograph to trace the origin and spread of firearms. He also uses these sources to characterize militaries and determine why they used or did not use firearms. Chase dismisses the notion that the discrepancy between Eastern and Western firearms development was the result of cultural aversion. If anything, he argues that Europeans were more averse to firearms due to its association to Satan and a general
Evidence shows that investigations of crime scene went on as far back as prehistoric times (Taylor 1). From evidence it shows that early men would take their fingerprints by pressing their fingers into clay or into rock (Taylor 1). Ancient Babylonians used this way for business and to try to save them for a mean of identification. Also, the prints were used for other official needs.
...A. Maria, Ruth M. Robin. (2009). Latent prints: a perspective on the state of the science. Forensic Science Communications. 11.4.
Forensic Science, recognized as Forensics, is the solicitation of science to law to understand evidences for crime investigation. Forensic scientists are investigators that collect evidences at the crime scene and analyse it uses technology to reveal scientific evidence in a range of fields. Physical evidence are included things that can be seen, whether with the naked eye or through the use of magnification or other analytical tools. Some of this evidence is categorized as impression evidence2.In this report I’ll determine the areas of forensic science that are relevant to particular investigation and setting out in what method the forensic science procedures I have recognized that would be useful for the particular crime scene.
During the 19th century the study of fingerprints had emerged. The past few centuries we have had numerous developments in fingerprinting. A lot of people give this credit to Francis Galton, who conducted the first study of fingerprint patterns. Galton’s research showed that no two fingerprints are identical; his theory on fingerprints changed the world and the criminal justice system as a whole. Galton studied numerous fingerprints and came to the conclusion that not even identical twins will have the same fingerprints. This finding helped build the justice system and forensic science as we all once knew it. According to Galton fingerprint impressions fall into three different categories, they are loop, arch, and whorl. Another fingerprint known as latent print is a fingerprint that is formed by sweat. This type of fingerprint is not visible to the naked eye; usually a gray or black powder is used to pick up latent prints. Now that we know the three basic categories of fingerprinting, we must take a better look at how fingerprints are identified. Once we understand how they’re identified to others, we will look at some of the landmark cases that helped DNA become what it is today.
Forensic science has now been recognized as an important part of the law enforcement team to help solve crimes and cold cases. The advances in technology are being used each day and we must continue to strive to develop better advances in this field. The recent discovery of using DNA in criminal cases has helped not only positively identify the suspect, but it has helped exonerate hundreds of innocent individuals. “With new advances in police technology and computer science, crime scene investigation and forensic science will only become more precise as we head into the future.” (Roufa, 2017) Forensic science and evidence helps law enforcement officials solve crimes through the collection, preservation and analysis of evidence. By having a mobile crime laboratory, the scene gets processed quicker and more efficiently. Forensic science will only grow in the future to be a benefit for the criminal justice
Much like in Toms case, most investigations start with a crime having been committed. Forensic ballistics and firearm investigation start when there are bullets, cartridges, a weapon, or any combination of the above found at a crime scene. With the evidence, a crime lab can search for clues on these items that could lead to a suspect or possibly prove that the items were used in the crime. By comparing the markings on bullets or cartridges found at the scene with those fired from a suspect’s weapon, a ballistics expert can often determine if the rounds came from the same weapon. Just the act of cycling a cartridge through a weapon without firing it can leave permanent scratches in the case that are unique to the weapon.