Covers the philosophy of crime scenes as historical events, the personnel involved at a scene (including the media), the detection of criminal traces and their reconstruction, and special crime scenes, such as mass disasters and terrorist events.
SECTION 1: THE SCIENCE OF CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION1.0 The
"forensic mindset"1.1 From scene to laboratory to court2.0 What is
a crime scene?2.1 Crime scene intelligence: Connecting people,
places, and things
SECTION 2: PERSONNEL AND PROCEDURES3.0 Personnel3.1 First responder
on the scene3.2 The investigator in charge3.3 The forensic team:
Officers, scientists and specialists3.4 Non-forensic personnel:
Superiors, officials, and the media4.0 General crime scene
procedure4.1 “Freezing the scene and the 3R’s (Recognize, Record
and Recover)4.2 The chain of custody4.3 Recording the scene:
Sketching, photography, and video
SECTION 3: DETECTION AND RECONSTRUCTION5.0 Searching for evidence:
Recovery5.1 Detecting5.2 Collection5.3 Preserving5.4 Submitting
evidence to the laboratory6.0 Evidence types and enhancement6.1
Chemical evidence6.2 Biological evidence6.3 Impression evidence6.4
Other evidence types7.0 Crime scene reconstruction7.1 An
archaeological approach7.2 Bloodstain pattern analysis7.3
Photogrammetry and 3D reconstruction
SECTION 4: SPECIAL CRIME SCENES8.0 Special crime scenes8.1 Disaster
and mass fatalities8.2 Terrorist crime scenes8.3 CBRN crime
scenes8.4 Underwater and underground crime scenes
Dr. Max M. Houck is an internationally-recognized forensic expert with research interests in forensic science, education, and the forensic enterprise and its industries. He has worked in the private sector, the public sector (at a medical examiner's office and for the FBI Laboratory), and in academia. Dr. Houck has published in a wide variety of areas in the field, in books, book chapters, and peer-reviewed journals. His anthropology and trace evidence casework includes the Branch Davidian Investigation, the September 11 attacks on the Pentagon, the D.B. Cooper case, the US Embassy bombings in Africa, and the West Memphis Three case, among hundreds of others. He served for six years as the Chair of the Forensic Science Educational Program Accreditation Commission (FEPAC). Dr. Houck is a founding Co-Editor of the journal Forensic Science Policy and Management and has also co-authored a major textbook with Dr. Jay Siegel, "Fundamentals of Forensic Science." Dr. Houck lives and works in the Washington, DC area. Forensically educated at the University of Lausanne (MPhil & PhD), Frank Crispino is a former Cadet of the French Air Force Academy and a just retired Colonel of the French Gendarmerie, qualified from the French War College (the Gendarmerie is a French police with a military status). During his law enforcement career, he served as: - Head of two Gendarmerie regional criminal investigations departments in Bourges and Bordeaux, in charge of investigating serious, organized international crimes and preventing terrorist incidents; - Deputy chief of the anti-terrorism office at the General Directorate of the French Gendarmerie in Paris. - Head of the forensic anthropology department (1993-1997) and of the fingerprint department (1997-1999) at the Institut de Recherche Criminelle de la Gendarmerie Nationale (IRCGN - Forensic Lab of the Gendarmerie). - Forensic adviser of the Brigadier General, head of the forensic assets of the Gendarmerie, in charge of proposing new strategies to develop forensic intelligence. From February 1999 to July 2002 he provided forensic capacities to the Palestinian Authority granted by the European Union within the Oslo Agreements, and became Scientific and Forensic Adviser of the European Union Special Adviser Office (EUSAO) in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip on counter-terrorism. He left the Middle East after the destruction of the Palestinian forensic assets in 2002. In summer 2012, Frank Crispino joined the University of Quebec in Trois-Rivieres, Canada, to launch the first forensic academic programme in this French spoken Province, aiming at educating forensic scientists dedicated to security traces investigation and analysis. Professor Crispino is the author of about 30 papers in various forensic and security journal. Mr. McAdam has 26 years of experience in the field of forensic investigations. He is currently employed as the Supervisory Agent In Charge of the Washington State Patrol Crime Laboratory in Tacoma, Washington. He is also a proud graduate of the University of Ulster, Northern Ireland, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry in 1979. He also earned a National Certificate in Chemistry from the University of Ulster in 1977. Terry McAdam has been continuously employed as a criminal forensic scientist since 1977. He has served both the Washington State Patrol (16 years) and The Northern Ireland Forensic Science Service (10 years) with distinction for more than a quarter century. He has developed subject matter expertise and decades of total experience in the following areas of trace evidence: . Glass analysis (17 years) . Paint analysis (17 years) . Small particle identification (17 years) . Fibers (11 years) . Explosives (3 years) . Hair (14 years) . Clothing damage interpretation (17 years) . Scanning Electron Microanalysis (17 years) . Shoe impressions (11 years) . Tire impressions (10 years) Furthermore, during the course of his career, Terry McAdam has personally processed over 330 violent felony crime scenes, to include homicides and rapes (175), arsons and bombings (60), hit and run accidents (45), and firearms assaults (50). Terry McAdam has also played an integral role in the investigations of both the Robert Lee Yates (Spokane and Tacoma serial murder) and the Gary Leon Ridgeway (Green River serial murder) cases. He has testified in various felony cases in superior and federal courts throughout the State of Washington on 163 occasions involving trace evidence and crime scene processing. In addition to his academic credentials and work experience, Terry McAdam has successfully completed nearly 800 hours of additional education and training in forensic science and crime scene technology during his tenure with the Washington State Patrol.
"The Science of Crime Scenes is a good reference for the crime scene investigator. It incorporates excellent tables, charts, and illustrations which can be a great aid when processing a scene.It does a good job in describing the total spectrum of factors which can impact crime scenes and provides the reader with the necessary knowledge and tools to successfully evaluate and process the scene of a crime."--Journal of Forensic Sciences, July 2013 "The text provides in-depth detail of the science behind the scene and demonstrates the latest methods and technologies - as well as the philosophy and history behind crime scene work."--Evidence Technology Magazine, July-August 2013 ".The Science of Crime Scenes is a good reference for the crime scene investigator. It incorporates excellent tables, charts, and illustrations which can be a great aid when processing a scene."--Journal of Forensic Sciences, 2013 ".The Science of Crime Scenes fits well within the framework of crime scene training and documents the nuances of the challenging tasks required of these specialized personnel. This reviewer's recommendation is that forensic laboratories add The Science of Crime Scenes to their training literature, and allow analysts to garner invaluable insight from the highly experienced trio of authors."--Crime Scene, Volume 39, Issue 2, Spring 2013 "A half century has not dimmed skeptics' suspicions about the death of Marilyn Monroe at age 36, but the intervening decades have seen technological leaps that could alter the investigation were it to occur today. 'The good news is we're very advanced from 50 years ago,' said Max Houck, a forensic consultant and co-author of 'The Science of Crime Scenes.' 'The bad news is, we're still trying to put it in context,' he said."--Associated Press article on the 50th anniversary of Marilyn Monroe's death carried on multiple publications and sites incuding CBSNews.com
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