Chapter 1 OARWET

Overview: Completed

Ask:

1) Who is best known for developing the idea of forensic science?
2) What is an expert witness
3) What are some basic services provide by a crime lab?
4) What did Alphonse Bertillon do for forensic science?
5) What is forensic entomology?

Read: Completed

Write:
1) Many people believe that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was the first person to understand and apply science for solving crimes. He used his fictional character Sherlock Holmes to test out his ideas.

2) An expert witness is someone that the court has determined to have the knowledge that is need for trial. Not anyone off the street could be an expert witness. You need to have a skill or a lot of background knowledge on what is being asked.

3) There are five basic services that a crime lab can offer us. Physical science, Biology, Firearms, Document Examination, and photography. Some labs may have more or less of these services. A lot of it depends on how much money they have.

4) Bertillon was the first to find a scientific way to identify a person. He developed anthropometry, which is measuring a person at so they can tell others apart from each other.

5) Forensic entomology is the study of insects and what their role would be in the crime. They say by knowing the life cycle of insects they can determent how long a body has been out side by counting the insects that are there.

Evaluate: Before I started reading the book, I was already interested in learning about the history of forensic science. One person that surprised me was Alphonse Bertillon. I have never thought of doing so many different types of measurements to make a profile for an individual. I just wonder how long it took to do all the measurements. One thing about the full-service crime labs that confused me was the latent fingerprint unit was part of the optional services not the basic services. Francis Galton published a booking in 1892 showing how fingerprints can be used. A hundred years later you would think it would become basic services that any crime lab can do, but it’s not. That just seems odd to me. When I asked my wife to explain to better to me, she told me that the basic services are task that almost anyone with a degree in science with a forensic concentration can. In order to do some of the optional services you need more specialized training. She used an example of computers for me. Told me that anyone with a computer degree has the knowledge to fix a simple computer hardware problem, but if there is something wrong with the operating system or a program you made keeps crashing when the user pushes the wrong key, you need the knowledge to understand it and fix it. Just like when you look at a fingerprint. You need to understand how to read and interpret the print you have. You do not want a random lab person looking at it making his best judgment on it; he could put the wrong person away. Forensic computer and digital analysis has always looked interesting to me. It is one of those certifications I would like to have some day. Some of my computer classes have taught us how to think like a hacker so we can understand them and be able to fight back if and when they do get in to our system.

Test:
1) Forensic Science
2) Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
3) Alphonse Bertillon
4) Francis Galton
5) Leone Lattes
6) Calvin Goddard
20) Biology Unit
26) Expert Witness 9) Edmond Locard
10) Edmond Locard