Forensic Science and the Legal Process
1 The Crime Scene
a. What is forensic science? g. Who does what?
b. Question to ask h. Different types of evidence
c. Locard’s Exchange Principle that may be discovered at the
d. Preserving and recording the crime scene
crime scene i. DNA profiling
e. The Police Investigation j. DNA profile match
f. The Forensic Science Service
2 DNA and the DNA Database
a. PACE 1984
b. Intimate and Non-intimate samples
c. Storing DNA profiles
d. S and Marper v Chief Constable of South Yorkshire
e. POFA 2012
f. National DNA Database
g. Challenging POFA – R v A Chief Constable 2013
3 Faces, Custody photos and Facial Recognition
a. Police National Database
b. Legality of police storing photos
c. Facial Recognition
4 Expert Evidence
a. Provocation and Duress j. R v Atkins
b. Credibility k. Lip reading
c. Rape Cases l. Ear Print Identification
d. Confessions m. Fingerprints
e. Facial Mapping n. DNA in the courtroom
f. Identification Evidence o. Problems with DNA evidence
g. Reliability p. Low copy number DNA
h. The Robb Test analysis
i. Daubert Guidelines
5 Miscarriages of Justice
a. R v Maguire
b. R v Ward
c. Battered and Shaken Babies
d. Reform of Forensic Science within the legal process
, The Crime Scene
What is forensic science?
2 meanings:
1. The application of scientific methods and techniques to the investigation of crime
2. Science as it relates to courts of law – medical evidence, psychiatrist,
psychologist
Relates to murder, rape, sometime burglary
Questions to ask:
Who done it?
Who saw it happen?
When did it happen?
Where did it happen?
What with? Any objects used?
Why? What was the motive?
What was the sequence of events?
All forensic science starts at the crime scene – every single bit of relevant evidence needs to
be extracted
Locard’s Exchange Principle: Forensic Science Maxim
Every Contact leaves a trace
Wherever I go I will leave traces of myself behind.
Wherever I go I will take with me traces of where I have been.
Someone responsible of the crime will have left traces of himself at the crime
scene and they would have taken traces away with him.
Preserving the Crime Scene:
Crime scene to be cordoned off
Only trained personnel to enter
In order for the crime scene to give us answer we will have to preserve the crime scene
– so there is no contamination.
Recording the Crime Scene:
Crime scene to be photographed and videoed to provide a record and so that it can be
viewed remotely without disturbing it.
Movements and actions of those entering crime scene to be recorded.
- So they know who did what – was it the perpetrator or a police officer.
1 The Crime Scene
a. What is forensic science? g. Who does what?
b. Question to ask h. Different types of evidence
c. Locard’s Exchange Principle that may be discovered at the
d. Preserving and recording the crime scene
crime scene i. DNA profiling
e. The Police Investigation j. DNA profile match
f. The Forensic Science Service
2 DNA and the DNA Database
a. PACE 1984
b. Intimate and Non-intimate samples
c. Storing DNA profiles
d. S and Marper v Chief Constable of South Yorkshire
e. POFA 2012
f. National DNA Database
g. Challenging POFA – R v A Chief Constable 2013
3 Faces, Custody photos and Facial Recognition
a. Police National Database
b. Legality of police storing photos
c. Facial Recognition
4 Expert Evidence
a. Provocation and Duress j. R v Atkins
b. Credibility k. Lip reading
c. Rape Cases l. Ear Print Identification
d. Confessions m. Fingerprints
e. Facial Mapping n. DNA in the courtroom
f. Identification Evidence o. Problems with DNA evidence
g. Reliability p. Low copy number DNA
h. The Robb Test analysis
i. Daubert Guidelines
5 Miscarriages of Justice
a. R v Maguire
b. R v Ward
c. Battered and Shaken Babies
d. Reform of Forensic Science within the legal process
, The Crime Scene
What is forensic science?
2 meanings:
1. The application of scientific methods and techniques to the investigation of crime
2. Science as it relates to courts of law – medical evidence, psychiatrist,
psychologist
Relates to murder, rape, sometime burglary
Questions to ask:
Who done it?
Who saw it happen?
When did it happen?
Where did it happen?
What with? Any objects used?
Why? What was the motive?
What was the sequence of events?
All forensic science starts at the crime scene – every single bit of relevant evidence needs to
be extracted
Locard’s Exchange Principle: Forensic Science Maxim
Every Contact leaves a trace
Wherever I go I will leave traces of myself behind.
Wherever I go I will take with me traces of where I have been.
Someone responsible of the crime will have left traces of himself at the crime
scene and they would have taken traces away with him.
Preserving the Crime Scene:
Crime scene to be cordoned off
Only trained personnel to enter
In order for the crime scene to give us answer we will have to preserve the crime scene
– so there is no contamination.
Recording the Crime Scene:
Crime scene to be photographed and videoed to provide a record and so that it can be
viewed remotely without disturbing it.
Movements and actions of those entering crime scene to be recorded.
- So they know who did what – was it the perpetrator or a police officer.
