Introduction to Criminalistics - Essay Sample

Introduction

The crime scene is often one of the most evidence-rich sources when handling crime, and this makes it one of the most crucial areas for the attainment of justice and the conviction of perpetrators. It is the one place that the police department, the federal agents, the CIA, attorneys, and crime scene investigators(CSI) converge to try and put two and two together to come up with not only the what's but also the who within such a crime. The crime scene is dominated with law, science and logic and it is therefore essential to know how to collect this evidence without destroying them, and after the collection, having a guarantee of their utility and acceptability in the courts. The legal issues surrounding a crime scene are the attainment of search warrants and the perimeters within which the evidence will be obtained from. The priority put on a crime scene is not on the amount of evidence obtained, but rather on the legality and admissibility of such evidence in court.

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Fighting crime is an unopposed good thing, but this good thing should never amount to the violation of the citizen's rights and freedoms. Once a crime has happened, the area is often secured with crime scene tapes or other measures of ensuring the evidence is not tampered with. The next logical and legal thing to do will be the obtaining of a search warrant by the officers or CSI before getting in the scene and collecting the evidence. This is to ensure that the fourth amendment rights of the citizens are not violated and thereby making all the evidence collected valid in court. However, there are some instances when the search warrants are not required. These instances include searching public places or vehicles (Berlin 2011). There are other exigent factors for warrantless searches, and they come in handy when the investigators feel the evidence might be tampered with or lost, or when there is a limitation of time and they are quite confident they will obtain proof in the searched area.

Another instance is when the individuals within the crime scene need immediate medical attention, and the officers can, therefore, get them out of the scene. This exception expires immediately after the individuals are secured, and after that, a warrant is required for any further investigations to take place. Consent is another search warrant exception as the investigators will not be violating an individual's privacy if they have their permission to go about the search.

Securing the crime scene is the first step taken when officers get to a scene of the crime, and if anything goes wrong in this stage, the entire investigation is messed up. It is therefore crucial that the officers offer an allowance large enough to contain all the evidence within the scene. This will take the form of putting the perimeter slightly past the crime scene to get other forms of evidence like footprints, drag marks, tool marks and so on. To avoid the loss of potential evidence as a result of improper perimeters, it is always wise to make the crime scene bigger rather than smaller or precise. The chain of evidence ranges from the preservation, collection, transportation and analyzing, and locking out proof from the perimeter alters its conservation and therefore admissibility in court. The crime scene should be documented as frequently as possible, defining every situation as per the sight, smell and sound (McShane 2010). Perceptions and conclusions do not have a place here. An improperly set up crime scene perimeter may lead to loss of evidence, contamination of the evidence locked out from the secured region and the inadmissibility of such evidence in court.

The evidence has been collected with utmost integrity, and now it is time to present this evidence to the grand jury and the judges and convince them empirically that the perpetrators or suspects are guilty beyond reasonable doubt. The CSI is also human, and are prone to tensing up, getting confused and blacking out, traits that may present a weak case to the court. Mock trials exist because of this reason. These are programs created to assist students and investigators be conversant with the judicial system, acquire and develop communication skills and analytic abilities when presenting a case (CRF 2018). The mock trial aims at enabling these individuals to gain a clear understanding of their responsibilities and obligations to the society.

Conclusion

The crime scene investigations are as vital and crucial as any other court process and should be taken with the vitality it possesses. From the reporting of a crime to the final judgment, the evidence provided within this crime dictates how well or disastrous a trial will be, and therefore it is mandatory that all procedures for carrying out an investigation are followed to the latter. It would be futile to get to every length, collect evidence most professionally and documented as required, only to be rejected at the judge's desk. Mastering all the legal frameworks from carrying out an investigation must, therefore, be adhered to.

References

Berlin M.M. (2011). Crime scene searches and the fourth amendment. Investigative sciences journal. Volume 3(2). Pp. 4-20. www.InvestigativeSciencesJournal.org

Constitutional rights foundation (CRF) (2018). What is mock trial? http://www.crf-usa.org/mock-trial-program/what-is-mock-trial

Mcshane J. J. (2010). Securing a crime scene-common CSI mistakes in the beginning. The truth about forensic science. https://www.thetruthaboutforensicscience.com/securing-a-crime-scene-common-csi-mistakes-in-the-beginning/