Samenvatting Forensisch Onderzoek Sporenleer - jaar 1
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Course
Forensische sporenleer I
Institution
Hogeschool Van Amsterdam (HvA)
Deze samenvatting bevat de benodigde stof voor het vak Sporenleer van de studie Forensisch Onderzoek. Deze samenvatting bestaat dan ook uit:
- De geschiedenis van het forensisch onderzoek;
- Forensische fotografie, dit is gebaseerd op het boek Crime Scene Photography geschreven door Robinson E.M;...
• HISTORY OF FORENSIC SCIENCE SAMENVATTING
Forensic science is the application of sciences pertaining to law. It requires the complementary
interaction of a wide range of scientific specialties and disciplines.
Brief history
1. God’s judgement:
- The oldest known reference to a specific forensic case-solving method dates back to the
Chinese Quin dynasty ( 721 – 707 BC ).
- Before such a legal and scientific basis was used to solve cases, evidence was assessed and
retained in immaterial, esoteric, magical or spiritual ways. Evidence was often drawn from
God’s judgement; through tests, a person suspected of a crime was found guilty or not, by
assuming that God had given his support to the winner of the test.
2. confession and testimony
- Despite its godly origin, this method of obtaining evidence turned out to be limited and
societies turned to confession and testimony in order to prove offenses. This type of evidence
requires that the culprit acknowledges his or her offense and is deemed so important that it is
implemented through complex, detailed and formal procedures.
- At the same time experts were increasingly consulted to enlighten certain aspects of a case,
for example to establish whether the decedent could have been poisoned or if the decedent’s
body bore suspicious traces.
3. analysis regarding forgery issues & technical and scientific expertise
- As early as the 16th century, a guild of handwriting experts was created in France to provide
courts with their analysis regarding forgery issues. Confession and testimony remained at the
hearts of criminal proceedings, but technical and scientific expertise was introduced in the trial
out of necessity.
- In the 18th century, the USA stared resorting to experts with a specific training and background
that jury members could not have. Thus, there was a progressive rise of the technical and
scientific field on the legal scene; however, this expertise was used to support evidence obtained
through confession, not to replace it.
4. Early years of forensic science
- During the second half of the 19th century a new set of ideas and common views about forensic
science and law were introduced, under the influence of a group of forensic pathologists and
scientists. Societies were not satisfied with confession anymore: science had to break into the
investigation process. Forensic science was spread thanks to a criminological approach and the
issue of crime repetition.
- During the early years of forensic science, new identification methods and fields came in and
out of the area of forensic sciences, thus upsetting barely established ones.
- After the explosion of ideas by great forerunners at the end of the 19th century and the
beginning of the 20th century, their heirs and students gathered, coordinated, completed and
developed their masters’ fields of research and initiatives in forensic science. Trough
systematization of scientific methods and though academic teaching, they made forensic
sciences a part of criminal proceedings for good.
5. Setback
- Some countries stopped allowing new research in forensic science to be used in judicial pro-
ceedings, believing the field to be mature. This shortcoming was highlighted by some criminal
cases where confession of the culprit was systematically sought. It led to dropping the scientific
movement. At the end of the 1980s, the realization of this setback enabled those countries to
back to an international scientific and legal standard, according to which physical evidence is
collected and processed before being used as evidence in a court of law.
, III
- Since the 1990s, confession is no longer the greatest kind of criminal evidence. Forensic
sciences have become the scientific benchmark that legal systems cannot do without.
6. Revolution
- At the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st centuries, information technologies joined
the area of forensic sciences. The field continued to expand as new forensic fields of identif-
ication, such as DNA technology, new tools that managed evidence, such as Automated
Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS), and new means of criminality, such as cybercrime,
became available.
- DNA profiling could be considered the modern-day technique revolutionizing personal
identification in forensic science.
7. DNA profiling
- STR analysis and PCR amplification enabled forensic laboratories to increase sensitivity of
the method and therefore obtain complete DNA profiles from low DNA templates. In 2003,
STR primers were redesigned to generate shorter amplicons, which significantly improved the
success rate for poor quality samples. Now, there are even more precise kits on the market.
- While it is admitted that DNA profiling is a powerful tool for human identity testing, it is also
very limited since a profile itself – in the absence of reference – provides no information to
investigators with regard to the identity of the suspect. This is the reason why national DNA
databases were created in the middle of the 1990s. These DNA databases were very useful for
linking serial crimes and unsolved cases with repeat offenders.
- In 2005, the Pru ̈m treaty was signed up by seven European countries, to facilitate and
encourage automatic exchange of DNA profiles between Member states in order to fight better
against cross-border crime.
8. Digital evidence
- Beginning in the 1970s, when viruses were discovered, researches studied these programs’
functionalities. Although it was first easy to analyze digital information, this work quickly
became complicated with the expansion and availability of the Internet, personal computers,
multiple versions of operating systems and the explosion of data storage capacity. Fortunately,
at the same time, analysis tools were developing at the same rate. These programs retrieve
information and quickly analyze huge amounts of diverse information.
9. Crime laboratory accreditation
- The concept of crime laboratory accreditation has gained wide acceptance. Accreditation is a
process through which an organization becomes formally recognized to perform specific
services. The laboratory seeking accreditation has to establish a structure with aims/goals, a
management system, and technical facilities. These national institutions are independent. The
accreditation process is composed of three stages: the organization prepares for accreditation,
then obtains it, and finally maintains it. Although the exact process varies based on the
accrediting body, each organization seeking accreditation must undergo a thorough assessment
conducted by a team of experts. Crime laboratory accreditation presents several advantages and
drawbacks and is an important part of creating and maintaining a comprehensive quality system.
10. Interpretation of evidence
- Researches in forensic science have proved that the field is still growing and maturing.
Interpretation of evidence is now more questioned and appreciated by both scientist and
lawyers. As a consequence, a new perspective promoting discussion on the reliability of
scientific examination has developed. Far from questioning the sciences on which the
examinations are based, the Bayesian probabilistic approach must help both sides in a criminal
trial to better understand the value of the evidence presented by the opposing side.
, IV
Important people
1. Alphonse Bertillon
He introduced criminal anthropometry and criminal photography on crime scenes.
Criminal anthropometry = the idea that criminals have specific physical features (like tattoos).
- Alphonse Bertillon was hired in 1870 by the Paris police department as a bookkeeper.
He realized that the same people were frequently arrested by the police under different
names. Alphonse Bertillon noticed the wide range of body measurements among
individuals and then created a system of measurements and photographs in order to
identify second offenders. This system was officially set up in 1888 by the Paris police
department. Afterwards, criminal anthropometry was implemented all over the world.
- Criminal photography drastically changed the way crime scenes were dealt with. The
crime scene was no longer ephemeral, it was engraved on photographs.
- According to Alphonse Bertillon, one should only rely on physical clues.
2. Hans Gross
He was the one to introduce the word criminalistics.
- His training provided judges with an overall view of forensic science, from forensic
investigation to forensic analyses.
3. Cesare Lombroso & Alexandre Lacassagne and Edmond Locard
Cesare Lombroso led the way for a whole research movement.
Alexandre Lacassagne combined modern pathology to forensic sciences. Edmond Locard was
the greatest example of the necessary combination of forensic pathology and forensic science.
- Lombroso’s work was being questioned by Alexandre Lacassagne, a forensic
pathologist, and its student Edmond Locard. They denied any scientific value to
stereotyped interpretations (considering any person with a tattoo as a potential offender).
- Edmond Locard recognized for the inception of the Locard exchange principle: every
contact leaves a trace. It’s the basic tenet of forensic sciences.
4. Rodolphe Archibald Reiss
He took an international standing thanks to his ability to combine emerging forensic knowledge
and his research work that he implemented on crime scenes and in the laboratory.
- He was founder of the Forensic Science College 1909, directed the collage and thought
classes. Reiss also had a PhD in chemistry, resulting in him becoming one of the major
references in the forensic field. He paid tribute to Bertillon’s work.
5. August Vollmer
He developed the first United States Police crime laboratory. Subsequently, the FBI crime
laboratory was established in 1932
6. Paul Kirk
He defined Forensic Science as individualization sciences.
- “Physical evidence cannot be wrong, it cannot perjure itself, it cannot be wholly absent.
Only its interpretation can error. Only human failure to find it, study and understand it,
can diminish its value.”
7. Alex Jeffreys
He developed in the mid-1980s the techniques allowing the profile analysis of DNA.
- Jeffreys was subsequently called upon to apply his techniques to solve the first crime in
1986.
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