Crime Scene Forensics - Direct vs Circumstantial Evidence

Evidence can be direct or circumstantial. What is the difference? Direct evidence refers to evidence that establishes a fact. A good example of direct evidence is statements or confessions made by the witnesses. Circumstantial evidence, on the flipside, requires that a judge and/or jury make indirect judgments, or inferences, about what transpired at the scene of a crime. For instance, if fingerprints or hairs found at the scene are consistent with that of a perpetrator, jurors may infer that the print or hair definitely belongs to the defendant. Since fingerprints or hairs were found at the crime scene, those pieces of evidence links the defendant to he scene.

Circumstantial evidence is not definitive proof. It only provides a general idea of what occurred at the crime scene. Many times, evidence identified forensically is circumstantial. However, direct evidence, such as eyewitness accounts, victims' statements, or offenders' confessions, may influence the interpretation of test results made by the medical examiner (ME). Direct evidence may also influence the ME's reconstruction of the crime scene.

In general, direct evidence is not considered to be as reliable as circumstantial evidence. Historically, eyewitnesses are poor at identifying perpetrators or remembering certain events. Therefore, their eyewitness accounts are not always credible. People have a tendency to make up events as opposed simply restating actual events like a tape recorder.

Crime Scene Forensics - Direct vs Circumstantial Evidence

Furthermore, circumstantial evidence is more objective while direct evidence is subjective. Circumstantial evidence provides a more credible answer. An eyewitness account of what happened can be wrong approximately half the time whereas saliva and blood evidence can accurately set apart one person from the rest of the general population.

Crime Scene Forensics - Direct vs Circumstantial Evidence
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Crime Scene Forensics - Analyzing Broken Glass Found at a Crime Scene

Suppose a victim called police and notified that somebody committed a drive-by shooting on his house. Crime scene investigators (CSI's) then show up to investigate the crime. One of the things they look at is the broken glass through which the bullet or bullets pass. Such evidence can tell a story to the technician with a keen eye for the details found in broken glass.

The manner in which glass breaks many times presents clues with regard to how it was broken. For instance, glass that was broken by a speeding baseball will have a different pattern of fracture than glass that was broken by a speeding bullet.

Particular break characteristics allow a forensic scientist to ascertain the direction from which the impact came. They include a special kind of stress-fracture lines called conchoidal lines. Conchoidal lines are lines that emanate from the site of impact. When viewing glass through its thickness, these lines curve out and away from the point of impact in a curve resembling a seashell curve.

Crime Scene Forensics - Analyzing Broken Glass Found at a Crime Scene

If the investigator takes a closer look at the conchoidal lines, he can see tiny lines that radiate almost 90 degrees from the conchoidal lines. These fracture lines are known as hackle marks.

Cracks in windows and other flat plates of glass such as windshields tend to radiate and concentrate. When viewing the glass perpendicularly from the surface, one can see radial cracks that radiate outward from the impact point. Picture this like the spokes that radiate from the center of a wheel.

Again, when viewing the glass perpendicularly from the surface, one would also find cracks that concentrate around the impact point and are called concentric cracks. Concentric cracks are cracks that form progressively larger circles around the impact point. Picture this as a circle within a circle within a circle....all surrounding the impact point.

If a speeding bullet strikes a window and penetrates it but does not completely break it, the destruction may leave behind a hole accompanied or not accompanied by the aforementioned fracture lines.

On one side of the impact (the entrance side), the hole will be small and clean. On the other side of impact (the exit side), a small conical piece of glass would have been removed. CSI's would normally view the glass from both sides to determine a bullet's trajectory; i.e. whether the bullet was fired from the outside of the house in as in the case of a drive-by shooting or vice versa.

The next time you watch your favorite CSI or Forensic Files TV show, you will have a better understanding of how broken glass is studied in a crime lab in order to bring a perpetrator to justice.

Crime Scene Forensics - Analyzing Broken Glass Found at a Crime Scene
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Crime Scene Forensics - Death by Hanging

Whenever a crime such as a hanging occurs, crime scene investigators (CSI's) are called to the scene to collect any evidence related to the homicide.

How does hanging cause death in an individual? What does the forensic medical examiner (ME) look for in the event of such a crime to determine if the hanging was a suicide or a murder?

In this article, I will attempt to explain how death results from a hanging and what forensic investigators look for to determine whether or not the hanging is a suicide or a homicide.

Crime Scene Forensics - Death by Hanging

In a hanging, a ligature such as a rope or noose pulled tight by the body's weight causes compression of the airways and the carotid arteries. The narrowing of the passageways prevents the cells from getting their required oxygen to sustain cellular function. Asphyxia is the result when the body's cells can not get oxygen. The victim must be under complete or partial suspension for asphyxia to occur. Many times, hangings are suicidal. Most accidental hangings occur in children. There was a case in December, 2006 in Houston, Texas when a child, imitating Saddam Hussein's death on television, put a rope, tied to his bunk bed, around his own neck and jumped off the bed resulting in his own death. The child eventually got tangled in the rope when relatives discovered his lifeless body partially hanging at the bottom of the bed.

Even though hanging blocks the airways and compromises breathing, the actual cause of death in many hangings is compression of the carotid arteries, which normally carry oxygenated blood to the brain. Fractures of the bones of the neck (called cervical vertebra) are a rare occurrence in hanging deaths because these fractures require that the body drop a particular distance in order to cause the bones to break. In Saddam Hussein's execution, for instance, he was taken to the second floor balcony where the trap door was released allowing his own body to fall close to the first floor. At the time of his death, he was in complete suspension (meaning his body was freely hanging with support provided by nothing more than the rope around his neck) with accompanying fractures of the neck due to the distance his body dropped between the two floors.

In cases of death by hanging, the ME looks for the following as evidence:

Neck markings: The markings on the victim's neck after a hanging are due to the kind of noose used to carry out the hanging. Soft nooses made from bed sheets may leave minimal markings. A hard noose such as a rope, on the other hand, may leave behind a very deep, distinct groove in the victim's neck. The longer the body is suspended, the deeper the groove. Groove pattern: In hanging deaths, the groove reveals an inverted V pattern. The groove most likely runs diagonally across the neck with its superior end at the knot. Facial color changes: If the victim is found several hours following a hanging, his face may be pale, his tongue may be dark purple and protract from the mouth. On the autopsy table, a forensic medical examiner will not usually find petechial hemorrhaging, or bleeding under the surface of the skin due to the explosion of capillary blood vessels, that normally show up in manual and ligature strangulations. Toxicological study: The ME should perform a toxicological study on all hanging victims because the offender may have used drugs or alcohol to subdue the victim prior to the hanging. In the event of a suicidal hanging, the victim may have willfully ingested drugs or alcohol to develop the courage to go through with the hanging. In this case, the ME may be able to determine if the level of drugs or alcohol found in the toxicological study were enough to render the victim unconscious or just enough to compromise his judgment. In many cases, making either of these choices is not easy.

The next time you watch your favorite CSI or Forensic Files TV show, you will have a better understanding of how a homicide such as hanging is investigated by the crime scene investigators.

Crime Scene Forensics - Death by Hanging
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Crime Scene Forensics - Categorizing the Evidence Found at a Crime Scene

Evidence refers to anything that can be used to find out whether a crime has been perpetrated. Evidence may tie a perpetrator to a scene, support or deny an alibi or statement, identify the offender or victim, exonerate an innocent individual, induce a confession, or warrant further investigation.

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All evidence is not the same. Depending on its characteristics and reliability, evidence can be subdivided into numerous categories. For instance, a person's account of a crime falls into a different category than a piece of hair or fiber left behind at the scene.

Evidence can be categorized as follows:

Crime Scene Forensics - Categorizing the Evidence Found at a Crime Scene

Direct-Direct evidence establishes a fact. Circumstantial-Circumstantial evidence requires that a judge or jury make an indirect judgment about what occurred. Physical-Physical evidence refers to any nonliving, inanimate objects such as fingerprints, tool marks, or paint smudges. Biological-Biological evidence involves organic, living items such as blood, urine, or saliva. Reconstructive-Reconstructive evidence is evidence that allows criminal investigators to gain better knowledge of what transpired at the crime scene. For instance, a broken lock can indicate a break-in. Associative-Associative evidence links a suspect to the crime scene. This can include fingerprints, hair, or fibers. Class characteristics-Characteristics of evidence that is unique to a large group of objects. Individual characteristics-Characteristics of evidence that is unique to one person or a small group of individuals.

Once evidence is categorized, the next step in forensics is to analyze the evidence. The reason they analyze the evidence is make identifications and comparisons. Identification involves what specifically a certain item or substance is. Is the white powder heroin or cocaine? Is the brown stain spaghetti sauce or blood? A comparison is made to ascertain whether a known and a suspect item or substance have something in common. For instance, did the hair or blood come from the offender? Do the shards of plastic embedded in the victim's clothing match the plastic turn signal housing of the suspect's car? A forensic scientist can conclude if the two substances are a positive or a negative match.

Once crime scene investigators analyze a piece of evidence, they will derive a linkage, or tie between a perpetrator and a person, place, or object. For instance, the offender's fingerprint or saliva at the scene of a burglary or rape strongly ties the offender to the scene of the crime.

Crime Scene Forensics - Categorizing the Evidence Found at a Crime Scene

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