Crime Scene and Death Investigation-HOSA #2

• A coroner is a physician who determines the time, cause, and manner of death.
• primary crime scene

  site of the original criminal activity
• secondary crime scene

  subsequent crime scenes
• macroscopic crime scene


  the broad crime scene
• microscopic crime scene


  the smaller crime scenes in the broad crime scene
• types of information that can be obtained from forensics testing and examination of physical evidence


  linkage of persons, scenes, or objects; investigative leads; information on the corpus delicti; information on the modus operandi; proving or disproving witness statements; identification of the suspect(s); identification of unknown substances; reconstruction of a crime
• corpus delicti


  a crime must be proved to have occurred before a person can be convicted
• modus operandi


  someone's habits of working; mode of operation
• crime scene management

  1. information management

  2. manpower management

  3. technology management

  4. logistics management
• first responding officers


  the only people to view the crime scene in its most original and pristine condition (ex. police officers, fire department, emergency personnel)
• crime scene security measures

  when first responders protect the crime scene
• walk-through

  preliminary scene survey
• crime scene map

  use of imaging technology and mapping technology to create a virtual layout
• the W's


  who, what, when, where, and why
• videography


  video recording of the crime scene
• crime scene sketch

  documenting the crime scene in sketches
• geometric patterns


  1. link

  2 line or strip

  3. grid

  4. zone

  5. wheel or ray

  6. spiral methods
• types of sketches

  rough and finished sketch
• techniques used to obtain measurements for the crime scene sketch

  triangulation; baseline; and polar coordinates
• crime scene reconstruction

  process of determining or eliminating the events that could have occurred at the crime scene
• process in reconstructing a crime scene

  1. data collection

  2. conjecture

  3. hypothesis formulation

  4. testing

  5. theory formulation
• major tasks of documentation

  1. note taking

  2. videography

  3. photography

  4. sketching
• coroner


  government agent charged with responsibility for death investigations
• medical examiners


  a medically qualified public officer whose duty is to investigate deaths occurring under unusual or suspicious circumstances, to perform postmortems, and to initiate inquests
• forensic pathologist


  physicians specializing in the diagnose of disease
• cause of death

  disease or injury that initiated the lethal chain of events that led to death
• mechanism of death


  biochemical or physiological abnormality produced by the cause of death that is incompatible with life
• manner of death


  defined as the fashion in which the cause of death came to be
• NASH


  four manners of death; natural, accidental, homicidal, suicidal
• rigor mortis


  stiffening in muscles following death
• livor mortis

  discoloration of the body that occurs from the settling of of red blood cells
• algor mortis


  calling of the body that occurs after death, assuming the ambient body temperature is lower than body temperature
• sudden death


  death that occurs within a few hours of the onset of symptoms or death without any symptoms
• incised wounds


  caused by a clean, sharp-edged object such as a knife, razor, or glass splinter
• autopsy


  to look at oneself
• necropsy


  looking at the dead
• inframammary incision


  made in the fold where the lower part of the breast meets the chest wall
• types of mechanical trauma

  sharp force and blunt force trauma
• sharp force


  caused by sharp implements
• blunt force


  caused by firearms