Crime Scene Processing and Investigation

A course of instruction designed for newly assigned investigators, crime scene technicians, and others involved in criminal and medical-legal investigations. The course is intended to develop a fundamental knowledge of crime scene processing technique. The course will illustrate to the student the six basic activities of crime scene processing and the sequence of those activities. The course concentrates on these core concepts: assessing, observing, documenting, searching and collecting, but also includes lectures on advanced techniques such as alternate light source utilization, bloodstain pattern recognition and trajectory analysis. It will introduce the student to the function and role of crime scene analysis.

Upon completion of the course the student should:
• Demonstrate knowledge of the six basic activities involved in crime scene processing and the general order of these activities.
• Recognize the general categories of physical evidence, what a crime laboratory can do with this evidence and accepted methods of recovery.
• Demonstrate knowledge of the critical aspects of assessing a crime scene, including scene containment, crime scene team composition considerations, choosing the most effective crime scene search technique and scene hazard identification and mitigation.
• Describe the different scene mapping methods.
• Describe the three basic photographs utilized for crime scene documentation.
• Describe and demonstrate the basic elements of crime scene narratives.
• Recognize basic bloodstain patterns.
• Discuss the function, theory and application of an alternative light source in crime scene processing.
• Recognize the affect of effective crime scene documentation on crime scene analysis.
• Describe basic methodologies of crime scene analysis.