Crime Scene Investigation

The evolution of man has been marred by both great deeds and bad consequences that are slowly becoming a part of the society. When we consider the path that has been taken by many youths today, many may be involved in crimes of want. Some of the crimes vary in ways such as the intent and the motivation for the crime. For all intentions and purposes, it is best to categorize crime as harm or consequent damage that is brought about by an individual to others around them in the community. When consideration is put forward where the crime has happened, it mainly becomes a crime scene that is barricaded off by the law enforcement. The reason for this is to avoid contamination from outside interference by the community. The paper below is a discussion on the need to follow an established part of the law that encompasses the law. That is the penal code. The paper also discusses on the protocols used when one is searching a crime scene.

Introduction.

The world today experiences a variety of crimes committed all over the world due to circumstances that are explained in court. “The need for law enforcement is because of these crimes and they are used to deter compromise and even stop crimes from happening” (U.S. Department of Justice, pp 4-5, 2013). Before the use of democracy and civilization, people would perform crimes indiscriminately. But with the introduction of governments and use of the resources gathered through them, crime has become a disdain in the communities and is frowned upon by most if not all people around the globe.

The paper is an explanation on crime scenes and the regulations or procedures that are used in the utilization of crime scenes. Below we discuss the sequences of events that follow a crime.

Types of crime scenes.

There are several described types of crime scenes that are distinguished by their elements. To categorize them we look at the outdoor and indoor scenes. The method of crime is also crucial at this stage. Nature’s elements such as rain and heat have been the main variants of contamination with human and animal activities following next.

The crime of conveyance can be denoted as the crime whereby the use of transportation is considered as part of the crime. An example is a robbery or a kidnapping. Each crime scene has its own procedures of investigation owing to the different natures of these crimes.

Sequence of events.

The first part begins with understanding the terminology used in the paper. The word crime scene is by definition any area or position that is associated with the crimes that have been committed. These areas are usually warded off by criminal enforcement units to avoid contamination by outside elements. The purpose of this because the crimes scenes contain some if not all the physical evidence that can be used in the prosecution of the criminal in a court of law. The evidence is usually collected by the criminal enforcement officers known as crime scene investigators. They are helped with the other law enforcement personnel.

 A crime scene can be the location where the criminal intent occurred or may be the place where the evidence has been collected. The crime scenes are not necessarily limited to the locations of the crimes or evidence collected. It may be on a person also or be an associate of an object that was used to commit the crime.

During the discovery of a crime scene, the investigative part of the law enforcement must follow procedures that are used to secure and maintain the integrity of the evidence collected. The first position is to secure the area. This is done by blocking non-essential individuals from accessing the area and keeping track of the people who do access the area. These precautions are put in place to ensure that the evidence collected in the crime scene is safe from contamination and so as to avoid the case being thrown out because of mismanagement of the scene. The court may consider this as polluted scenes and thus the reason the case may be dismissed.

The importance of the crime investigation is to understand how the criminal instigated the crime and what the motives were behind it. The consequences of crimes are devastating and as such certain precautions are taken to avoid crimes being committed. Thus the analysis of a crime scene has to be recorded from the start and documented. This begins with the responding officer who first arrives at the scene of the crime. It is the duty of the officer to makes sure that no one pollutes the scene before the investigators arrive at the scene. Thus the officer has to be complacent and ready to give a summarised documentation of the first hand examinations of the crime scene.

The documentation that is delivered by the officers should contain several factors. They include the observations made by the officer while at the scene and the actions taken to secure the area scene of the crime. “This is to say that the first respondent has the mandatory obligations of documenting the appearance and the conditions set by the scene upon arrival” ("Crime Scene - Crime | Laws.com", 2018). This may be done by gathering the statements made by the witnesses and the comments each one of them submits. Also the officer has to record the names and addresses of these witnesses. The other people who are listed to be interviewed are the victims and possible suspects who are at the vicinity of the crime.

Documentation.

There are other several documents that need to be placed with the documents from the crime scene. They are the affidavits that show the integrity of the crime scene has not been tampered with or corrected. Other documents include the list of people who came into contact with the crime scene evidence as well as the logins of the evidence that was collected during the search. 

A crime scene may be preserved by using a blockade for the preservation of the crime scene. “This helps by controlling the movement of personnel in and out of the crime scene”. The use of a taping cord or a barricade tape in the crime scene is to ensure that the people in the area or rather the investigators working the area are in a controlled environment. The use of this is to prevent the contamination of the evidence as the people in the investigative arena are taught how to avoid contaminating the evidence. “It is a difficult position to avoid the contamination of the evidence”( Fisher et al 2012). Thus the investigative unit has to take all the necessary steps to maintain the evidence so as to leave it intact when presenting the evidence in court. This can be done by avoidance of eating, drinking, smoking or taking breaks near the crime scenes. This to avoid any of the left over meals and discards that are left by the officers being mistaken for any potential evidence which may lead to tampering with the success of the investigation.

The documentation of the crime scene may be done in different ways. Today, with the use of technology, it is easier to document the evidence as compared in the earlier years of criminal investigations. “Such equipments like cameras have helped preserve the first images of a crime scene and with data collection methods today we see that it is computerized with the elements collected in the investigation being used by the machines to create a data analysis” ("A Forensic Science Guide to Crime Scene Investigation", 2018). To add on this, even the computers are used as data banks for storing already solved cases.

 In light of the above statement we see that the officers in charge are required to familiarize themselves with the tools used in the collection of the evidence at hand. The photographs have to be collected before anything is either touched or moved in the crime scene. The use of evidence markers are used in tandem with the photographs taken to mark the area in which the evidence is found. This helps in illuminating the organisation of the crime scene. In some cases a sketcher is used to frame out the scene which in this case can be connotated as a piece of evidence documentation from a crime scene. While the photographs are taken at a landscape view position, the sketch is different as the point of view comes from above. This is the main difference between the photographs and the sketches made in a crime scene. The notes taken the investigative personnel is to ensure the memorized patterns of their thoughts and compilations of both can correspond with the pieces of evidence provided in the  crime scene.

Collection of evidence.

When one considers what evidence is, it may be described as any materials that are collected after a crime has been committed. Often the objects collected are in relation to the crime and may help in the arrest and detaining of the criminal elements of the society. Evidence can be collected from various points and tools such as the guns, knives and any blunt object that can be used to injure or maim a victim of crime. The collection of this evidence can come from the blood spatial found on the weaponry or simple items such as a receipt or a bank statement. The different forms of biological or tangible evidences collected may be from items such as fibres, residue left behind by fire arms, photographs and videos and fingerprints which are the most common sort after evidence in law enforcement.

Law enforcement agencies have forensic personnel who are mandated to analyse the evidence provided and offer an explanation on how and why the crime was committed. If the evidence is collected in an accurate and well timed pace then the officers are better able to understand the collected data thus completing the task at hand successfully.

Not all the law enforcement officers are capable or allowed to collect the evidence in a crime scene. There are specific knowledge based personnel that are equipped with the appropriate sill of collecting the evidence at hand. These personnel include the first responders who ensure the integrity of the scene is not contaminated by the outside forces. Then there is the crime scene investigators who are mandated with the duty of cross examining the area of criminal intent and gather all the necessary information from the witnesses and suspects involved. The third and final party is the analytical personnel that oversee the collection and analysis of the data and offer concluded information on the causation of the crime being investigated.

There are different types of evidences that are collected and this may require different methods to be applied and different containing holders to maintain the evidence’s purity. For example the containers may include envelopes, pocket bags or even boxes. To surmise on this, paper containers are the main use of collection device used in a crime scene. The use of these papers is because apart from allowing drying of evidence while inside the paper it also protects the same sample evidences from deteriorating which implicates the case’s authenticity. This means that the evidence is neither damaged nor contaminated.

References.

A Forensic Science Guide to Crime Scene Investigation. (2018). Retrieved from https://aizmanlaw.com/forensic-science-guide-crime-scene-investigation/

Crime Scene - Crime | Laws.com. (2018). Retrieved from https://crime.laws.com/crime-scene

"Evidence Packaging: A How-to Guide"(PDF)

Fisher, Barry A. J.; Fisher, David R. (2012). Techniques of Crime Scene Investigation. Boca Raton, Florida: CRC Press.

Layton J. "How Crime Scene Investigation Works". How Stuff Works, Science.

U.S. Department of Justice (2013). Crime Scene Investigation: A Guide for Law Enforcement. pp. 4, 5.