There are 8 types of Forensic Evidence roughly.
- Forensic Anthropology and Forensic Dentistry
- Controlled Substances
- Digital Evidence and Forensics
- Forensics DNA
- Impression and Pattern Evidence
- Forensic Pathology
- Forensics Toxicology
- Trade Evidence
- Forensic Anthropology and Forensic Dentistry
Forensic anthropologists examine "skeletonized" or otherwise compromised human remains to assess age, gender, height and ancestry; identify injuries; and estimate the time since death. Examination of these remains may give information that can assist investigators in identifying a victim.
Forensic dentists, or odontologists, examine the development, anatomy and any restorative dental corrections of the teeth, such as fillings, to make a comparative identification of a person.
Bones and teeth are the most durable parts of the human body and may be the only recognizable remains in cases of decomposition, fire scenes or mass fatalities, and can be used to identify an individual in such cases. For example, when law enforcement officials find unidentified human remains such as teeth, this critical piece of evidence may be the only resource investigators can use to compare to dental records of known missing persons to determine the person's identity.
- Controlled Substances
Controlled substances are chemicals that have a legally recognized potential for abuse. They include “street drugs” such as heroin or ecstasy and prescription drugs such as oxycodone. Detecting and identifying controlled substances is a critical step in law enforcement's fight against drug-related crime and violence. Controlled substances present law enforcement and criminal justice professionals with the following problems:
- Large quantities of drug evidence are collected and submitted to crime laboratories, resulting in backlogs.
- New designer drugs emerge regularly, requiring crime laboratories to develop new analytical techniques and spend more time on analysis.
- Many drugs are similar in appearance and properties, creating a high degree of difficulty in distinguishing their exact identity.
- Digital Evidence and Forensics
Computers are used for committing crime, and, thanks to the burgeoning science of digital evidence forensics, law enforcement now uses computers to fight crime. Digital evidence is information stored or transmitted in binary form that may be relied on in court. It can be found on a computer hard drive, a mobile phone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a CD, and a flash card in a digital camera, among other places.
Digital evidence is commonly associated with electronic crime, or e-crime, such as child pornography or credit card fraud. However, digital evidence is now used to prosecute all types of crimes, not just e-crime. For example, suspects' e-mail or mobile phone files might contain critical evidence regarding their intent, their whereabouts at the time of a crime and their relationship with other suspects. In 2005, for example, a floppy disk led investigators to the BTK serial killer who had eluded police capture since 1974 and claimed the lives of at least 10 victims.
In an effort to fight e-crime and to collect relevant digital evidence for all crimes, law enforcement agencies are incorporating the collection and analysis of digital evidence, also known as computer forensics, into their infrastructure. Law enforcement agencies are challenged by the need to train officers to collect digital evidence and keep up with rapidly evolving technologies such as computer operating systems.
- Forensics DNA
DNA collection and analysis gives the criminal justice field a powerful tool for convicting the guilty and exonerating the innocent. About Forensic DNA provides general information on a wide range of topics. Only one-tenth of a single percent of DNA (about 3 million bases) differs from one person to the next. Scientists can use these variable regions to generate a DNA profile of an individual, using samples from blood, bone, hair, and other body tissues and products.
In criminal cases, this generally involves obtaining samples from crime-scene evidence and a suspect, extracting the DNA, and analyzing it for the presence of a set of specific DNA regions (markers). If the sample profiles don't match, the person did not contribute the DNA at the crime scene. If the patterns match, the suspect may have contributed the evidence sample.
DNA from crime scenes also can be compared to profiles stored in a database. Experience has shown that cold case programs can solve a substantial number of violent crime cold cases, including homicides and sexual assaults. Advances in DNA technologies have substantially increased the successful DNA analysis of aged, degraded, limited, or otherwise compromised biological evidence. As a result, crime scene samples once thought to be unsuitable for testing may now yield DNA profiles. Additionally, samples that previously generated inconclusive DNA results may now be successfully analyzed.
- Impression and Pattern Evidences
One of the most common forms of evidence investigators may detect and collect at a crime scene is impression and pattern evidence.
Impression evidence is created when two objects come in contact with enough force to cause an "impression." Typically impression evidence is either two-dimensional — such as a fingerprint — or three-dimensional — such as the marks on a bullet caused by the barrel of a firearm.
Pattern evidence may be additional identifiable information found within an impression. For example, an examiner will compare shoeprint evidence with several shoe-sole patterns to identify a particular brand, model or size. If a shoe is recovered from a suspect that matches this initial pattern, the forensic examiner can look for unique characteristics that are common between the shoe and the shoeprint, such as tread wear, cuts or nicks.
Impression and pattern evidence can help link a suspect or tool to a particular crime scene. New or improved techniques to identify, collect, analyze and preserve impression and pattern evidence would greatly aid the forensic community.
Latent fingerprints used in criminal investigations are often crucial pieces of evidence that can link a suspect to a crime. Latent prints are typically collected from a crime scene by specialists trained in forensic science techniques to reveal or extract fingerprints from surfaces and objects using chemical or physical methods. The fingerprint images can then be photographed, marked up for distinguishing features by latent fingerprint examiners, and used to search an automated fingerprint identification system (AFIS). An AFIS is a computer system that stores fingerprint images in an organized, searchable data structure that is widely used by criminal justice agencies to maintain databases of the fingerprints of individuals who are arrested or incarcerated.
Fingerprint databases typically contain rolled fingerprints from each finger ("tenprints") and fingerprints from the whole hand with all the fingers extended in parallel ("slaps"). If an individual whose fingerprints are in an AFIS encounters the criminal justice system again, a criminal investigator can search the AFIS to establish identity and link the individual with a particular criminal record. If a criminal investigator matches a latent print to a fingerprint in the AFIS, that individual may be linked to the crime under investigation.
An AFIS can also house repositories of latent fingerprints that remain unidentified, typically referred to as an unsolved latent file (ULF). As new fingerprints are added to the AFIS, criminal investigators can search them against the ULF collection in the hope of making a match. Matches happen regularly within one jurisdiction over time, but how are unsolved latent fingerprints collected in one jurisdiction matched against a tenprint record stored in the AFIS of another jurisdiction? Interoperability between two jurisdictions will determine whether Jurisdiction A can search the database in Jurisdiction B to find a match. Maximizing AFIS interoperability can help maximize the value of latent fingerprint evidence.
- Forensics Anthropology
Human remains are treated as a separate and unique type of forensic evidence. An autopsy of the remains is completed to determine the cause and manner of any death that is violent, unusual or untimely. A forensic pathologist will examine the human remains (post-mortem examination) and consider death scene findings. The medical history of the individual may also be reviewed to help determine if the death was natural, accidental or criminal. During the exam, the pathologist may recover critical evidence such as a bullet, which may help to determine the cause and manner of death. Furthermore, the pathologist may identify a wound pattern that can be matched to a weapon or can determine entry and exit wounds in deaths involving firearms and other projectiles.
To better equip forensic pathologists, more research is needed in the use of virtual autopsy as an alternative to traditional post-mortem exams. More research is also needed to develop better methods to estimate time since death and to determine the cause and manner of death, especially in children and the elderly.
- Forensics Toxicology
Forensic toxicology is the analysis of biological samples for the presence of toxins, including drugs. The toxicology report can provide key information as to the type of substances present in an individual and if the amount of those substances is consistent with a therapeutic dosage or is above a harmful level. These results can be used to make inferences when determining a substance's potential effect on an individual's death, illness, or mental or physical impairment. For example, the results of a blood analysis from a driver involved in a car accident can be used to determine if the individual was under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
Forensic toxicology is a continually advancing discipline. New drugs are always being developed, which creates a constant need to design novel approaches for their detection. To rise to this challenge, new instrumentation is being used and new detection methods are constantly in development.
- Trace Evidence
Fibers, hair, soil, wood, gunshot residue and pollen are only a few examples of trace evidence that may be transferred between people, objects or the environment during a crime. Investigators can potentially link a suspect and a victim to a mutual location through trace evidence. For example, a fiber sample obtained from a suspect's person can be identified through scientific analysis as originating from a garment worn by the victim. The analysis of the fiber evidence can help establish if the victim and suspect were in the same area. Trace evidence examiners would greatly benefit from advancements in this forensic discipline.
Ohh, need to remind all of you readers, this is a very basic and simple layman explanation regarding about this matter. In order to understand more about Forensics Evidences, a lot of readings and research need to be done. Luckily nowadays, we can get help from our dearest search engine that is the hardworking Google in order to get more information about this matter.
Now, enough about all this legal and "serious" matter. Being crazy-addicted to movies, i do call myself as the *DIE-HARD-FAN-OF-MOVIES* I really enjoy waching movies, doesn't care what kind of genre it is (preferable action, horror, cartoon, and com-rom) oh yess, com-rom means (COMEDY ROMANTICS)..teehee..
so now, I have this new movies that using Evidence as their basic principle in making this movie. cool huh? and to complete the coolness, this movie title is.... EVIDENCE!
This movie is about a detective that hunts down a killer through video footage shot by the victims of a massacre at an abandoned gas station. The duration is 94 minutes and the director had done an amazing job in describing the facts about psychopath in an intelligent way. The plots also were so detailed and coming together in a good way. so hope you guys enjoy this movie.
And, remember : KNOWLEDGE CAN BE OBTAINED ANYWHERE, NOT NECESSARILY IN A CLOSED ROOM THAT THE PEOPLE CALLED (CLASSROOM).
That's all, toodle-doo guyss ~~