Crime Scene Investigation Roles And Practices - 1751 Words

Crime Scene Investigation: Roles and Practices Christopher Jackson Weber State University Introduction Background Information: Forensic science once thought a Pseudo-Science is now a staple in the arsenal of weapons that police forces utilize daily. Recently Williams and Weetman refer to forensic science as something that is recurring throughout an investigation. It is utilized at the scene of the crime, in the laboratory, in the briefing room, in interviews and in the courtroom (2013, p. 381). Throughout their research Williams and Weetman take note of the ever changing combinations of institutional structures, dynamic processes and agents in the routine usage of forensic science in policing. In order to make use of this†¦show more content†¦The small amount of research that attempts to assess the benefits of forensic science is said to fall short of its intended goal. Williams and Weetman (2013) propose numerous reasons for forensics falling short. Some are the reduction of extant studies which view police and forensic process as linear rather than separate entities; s aid studies also have failed to provide a sense of how forensic science is enacted in the course of an investigation. (Williams and Weetman 2013). The existing research fails to acknowledge the expertise and skill of those who perform forensic tasks throughout the course of an investigation. The current study seeks to clarify the role of CSI practices by looking further into trace and contamination avoidance. Along with trace and contamination avoidance, CSI work in general is studied in an effort to further the understanding of how it works between the field and in the courtroom. Trace evidence, the term given to physical evidence that is the result of transference of material from a victim or a crime scene to something else (Nickell and Fischer 1998, p. 54). Trace evidence can be used to identify a large number of things, such as glass fragments, fibers from clothing or hair, as well as blood and many other types of