Forensic entomology is the study of insects in relation to a deceased person, and has proven useful in the field of forensic science, due to the versatility in how these insects are analyzed. The defined life cycle of certain insects allows for the various stages of development to be used in determining time of death, whether the body has been moved, and many other elements of a crime (James, Nordby, 2005). Insects can be analyzed by their stage in the lifecycle, what region they come from, what they have ingested when feeding, etcetera. As useful as insects have proven in investigations, they also have the ability to contaminate crime scenes and cause problems for forensic investigators.
The most common insect used for identifying time of death in the field of forensic entomology is the blow fly, because they are most often the first insect to colonize the body (James, Nordby 2005). Blow flies arrive at a body within ten minutes of catching its scent and lay their eggs soon after (Shipman 2011). The average lifecycle of a blow fly is “16 to 35 days, depending on temperature and environmental conditions” and begins with the larval stage (Texas A&M). The larval stage itself is divided into first, second, and third instar stages (James, Nordby 2005). A first instar larvae are weak and lack the mouthparts necessary to break skin, so the female blow fly will deposit her eggs near an open wound or the natural orifices of the body, where the larvae can feed on the liquids present (James, Nordby 2005). Second instar larvae are stronger, larger, and have special proteolytic enzymes they use to enter the body (James, Nordby 2005). Proteolytic enzymes are “any of a group of enzymes that break the long chainlike molecules of proteins into sh...
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...., & Nordby, J. J. (2005). Forensic science: An introduction to scientific and investigative techniques. (2nd ed., pp. 138-143, 143-144). Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.
North Carolina State University. (2013). Blow flies. Retrieved from http://ipm.ncsu.edu/ag369/notes/blow_flies.html Shipman, M. (2011, 11 01). Digging up clues: Research on buried blow flies will help crime scene investigators. Retrieved from http://news.ncsu.edu/releases/wmswatsonblowfly/
Shipman, M. (Photographer) (2011). Digging up clues: Research on buried blow flies will help crime scene investigators [Print]. Available from http://news.ncsu.edu/releases/wmswatsonblowfly/ Sparks, D., Oeltgen, P., Kryscio, R., & Hunsaker, J. (1989). Comparison of chemical methods for determining postmortem interval. Journal of Forensic Sciences, 34(1), 197-206.
Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2918279
Forensic Science Introduction: Someone in a restaurant has suddenly fallen ill and a mystery powder has been discovered with the victim. As the chief investigator, your duty is to identify the mystery substance through a lab. In this lab, it will consist of five known compounds and one unknown compound. Your job is to distinguish which one out of the five substances is the mystery powder. To figure out the mystery matter you will have to compare their physical and chemical properties and match them with the appropriate compound.
The crime scene was located in a deer hunting area in a meadow. There were several different types of trees and foliage surrounding the area where the skeletal remains were discovered. The...
Forensic entomology is most commonly used in suspicious criminal cases. P.C. White (2010) suggests that insects are responsive to certain stimuli and from this we are able to capture an insight into an insects contribution to crime solving. We can determine many different aspects of a case by the presence of different insects colonising a dead body, blowflies for example, are the first to approach the body when its fresh. This is due to their preference of food sources. Ultimately, I will explicitly focus on the relevance of a blowfly at a crime scene.
The book gives a general overview of the field of forensic science. The sections of the book include “The Scene of the Crime; Working the Scene--The Evidence; Working the Scene of the Body Human; Working the Scene--Different Stages; and Working the Scene--Different Skills (Genge vii-viii). Included are instructions on what professionals should do upon arriving at a crime scene, what items to bring with them, how to protect the crime scene, and how to protect the evidence from contamination. In addition to writing about the subject of forensic science, the author also included several appendixes and suggested readings to help the reader learn even more information about the subject. In addition, the author included a list of colleges that offer programs in the field of forensic science.
Forensic science has changed dramatically over the years in a number of different ways, both positive and negative; new discoveries have altered the ways in which scientific experiments are carried out; how evidence is collected from a crime scene and overall how a criminal is caught as a result of the findings and conclusions made by forensic scientists. Crime has existed for millions of years; however the way in which a crime is detected hasn’t been around for the same length of time. Forensic science has gone through many changes for the better and has become a lot more accurate and reliable since it was first established. The arrival of modern forensic science made apprehending the criminal a lot faster and a lot simpler. The police records are full of anonymous corpses that have been so badly mutilated that they are unable to be recognised by the human eye. This gives forensic scientists a very difficult job; it requires precise medical expertise in order to identify that person and figure out what happened. The
Some research has reported finding insects fossilized in amber, containing species such as a termite (30 million years ago), and a weevil from approximately 130 million years ago. These are extraordinary findings, but of course disputed. ...
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.
To conduct the experiment, the beetles were massed, then attached to a petri dish with a 30 centimeter piece of dental floss. The beetle’s mass was the independent variable. Afterwards, the floss was tied to the beetle’s midsection with a slip knot. Then, the beetle was placed on a piece of fabric with the petri dish attached to it. As soon as the beetle was able to move with one paperclip inside the petri dish, more were added, one by one, until it could not move any further. After the beetle could not pull any more, the paperclips were massed and the results were recorded. The dependent variable was the mass that the beetles could pull. No control group was included in this experiment.
Forensic toxicology is one of the oldest disciplines in forensic science history and dates back hundreds of years. However, the actual understanding and examination of forensic toxicology only dates back for about 200 years. Due to the development of technology, this discipline has been able to progress and flourish.
The main reason for studying forensic entomology is to establish the time since death. Recognizing each species and their life stages as well as having knowledge about how long an insect is in a particular life stage is the basis for establishing a PMI. The use of forensic entomology is a growing area of research, which will become more prevalent as more research on the subject is completed. This is important in criminal cases in providing a time range for when the crime occurred so that it is possible to narrow the possibility of each suspect or to acquit the defendant.
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.
Geddes, L. (2008). Soil organics pin crime scene to particular flowerbed. New Scientist, 199 (2666), 11. Retrieved July 3, 2011from EBSCOhost.
Forensic entomology is a priceless addition to the investigation of a suspicious death. It has assisted in the conviction of many criminals since its inception. Many things can be determined through the presence and absence of insects on human remains. Forensic entomologists can conclude the weather, time of year, and geographical location from examining the insects present on the body. Types of wounds, toxicology, and whether the corpse has been moved can also be figured out from the study of the insects and the colonization of the insects. A forensic entomologist must remember everything that can make a difference in the investigation before concluding on their findings.
results of the forensic anthropology. For instance, if a crime is committed at a certain scene,
...he case of forensics. You can go beyond the normal reality of blood spatter (?.. how does or where did blood spatter come into play here). The species of a set of bones can be determined through forensics anthropology. The sex of a skeleton. The age of a person and by studying the bones you can find a person’s age. Forensics Anthropology, (2014)