Evidence

The crime is never unnoticed. The most mischievous acts leave some traces; these traces are called – a piece of evidence; it may be anything, which is crucial to solve an act of crime. How is the piece of evidence going to be defined? ''It is something legally submitted; it represents a means of ascertaining the truth of any legal matter of act under an investigation before it''. The evidence can be categorized into the following groups: testimonial, real, physical. The most difficult to credit is a testimonial evidence which is given in a form of a statement under the oath. Physical evidence is any type of evidence with an objective existence. It has to have size, shape and dimensions. The number of physical evidence is infinite. Physical evidence determines a crime, shows key elements of a crime as shown in the following examples:

Proof of rape requires showing non-sensual sexual intercourse. The victim's torn clothing, bruises and bleeding are sufficient to prove non-consent.

In arson investigation there are burn parts of carpeting or any other objects as well as the presence of the fire itself. The laboratory examination will determine what other factors triggered the fire: e.g. gasoline.

In some cases physical evidence place the suspect in the contact with the victim or directly with a crime scene:

The fibers found in a victim's home – and a fur of a dog found on the suspect's clothing may suggest that the suspect knew the victim before the crime was committed. A victim owed a dog. A so-called 'friend' – planned and executed the brutal attack.

The abusive substances allow the potential victim to be very vulnerable; any pills or medications are tested in the laboratory examination – classified and listed in the code, namely, one drug is not the one that is described in the container, mostly these are steroids, antidepressants, high-drugs. Physical evidence can exonerate the innocent.

An 8- and 9-year-old brother and sister accused an elderly neighbor of child molestation. They claimed that the man gave each of them pills that made them feel drowsy and then he molested them. The investigator had a physician examine the children and blood and urine specimens were collected for a toxicology screen. The analyses of the blood and urine specimens were negative. When presented with this information, the children confessed that they had fabricated the entire story because they disliked their neighbor.

This horrid means of defamation and disgrace occur often, therefore, not only children are not trusted upon but also a thorough procedure of elimination the potential suspects take place; all the allegations are taken very seriously into account; every single detail is examined separately; DNA typing may turn out to be false – it meant – someone has been submitted to false allegations and the irreversible harm is done. Nonetheless, it may also tun out positive – and then a true identity of a rapist is revealed. The outcome goes both ways.

The suspect confronted with a physical evidence may confess or make some statements. It leads the investigation toward certain direction; no always the right one.

Volunteers in a psychological test were witnesses to staged assaults. At the conclusion of the mock crimes, they were asked to detail their observations in writing. Over a period of several months, they repeatedly were asked to write down what they had observed. The study showed that people fill in gaps to events not observed. If a portion of an event was not seen or did not make sense, the subjects made up scenarios that seemed reasonable to the episode. This behavior occurred subconsciously; subjects were not aware that it was taking place. They simply reported what they believed they had seen.

The order of clothing fragments will help to reconstruct the torrent of the event in which two people were killed, it is important who was struck first to point out the suspect – a potential killer. Finger print is an indispensable piece of evidence that has been ever taken, in 97% of cases it helps to lead the investigation to a suspect and ultimately to conviction. Individualization of the physical evidence help to estimate the unique source it came from, a subtle difference between individualization and identification is palatable. During the overall investigation the physical evidence is collected and preserved; there are blood samples, hair specimens, medical tests, teeth impressions. The evidence is put into a container and labelled, tagged. It contains:

1. Name or initials of the individual collecting the evidence and each person subsequently having custody of it;
2. Dates the item was collected and transferred;
3. Agency, case number, and type of crime;
4. Victim’s or suspect’s name;
5. Brief description of the item;

For scientific reasons the sufficient material should be collected; the thorough examination of the crime scene is essential, namely, it is not possible and often impossible to return to the crime scene to gather more pieces of evidence. It should be done instantly at the given time. Any piece of evidence should be handle softly – otherwise too many fingerprints will obliterate it. Mistakes are unforgiving, it is advice to keep all the precocious procedures intact.

The laboratory is having its own infernal protocol – it is important to stick to the rules entirely; the whole procedure rely on the expertise of the individual professional practitioners and the standard of practice maintained by profession. Therefore they focus on:

• responsibility to the employer who rarely has the ability to judge the quality and productivity of the forensic laboratory;
• managerial competence – the laboratory managers display a competence; they are responsible for various activities such as long range planning, management of change, group decision making, clearly define the whole overall of duties;
• integrity shows the work of the team and the managers – both of them must be truthful and honest;
• quality the team is responsible for implementing the quality, laboratory tests are vert thorough;
• efficiency an emphasis is put on an economical expenditures of resources;
• health and safety.

The sufficient amount of evidence make the case ongoing to court; yet before one goes to court some requirements must be fulfilled such as:

• Keep thorough notes, records, photos, diagrams, etc.

• Carefully prepare your reports and consider appropriate language, completeness,

and opinions.

• Prepare your prosecutor through a pretrial conference.

• Review the case before you arrive in court.

• Never allow a prosecutor or defense attorney to push you beyond your area of expertise or opinion. Ask yourself, can my testimony withstand the evaluation of a competent opposing expert?

The crime solving process is time-taking and difficult, it involves continuous education and improvement of skill and knowledge. Mistakes are scarcely accepted.

Bibliography:

1. Criminal Investigations – Crime Scene Investigation. 2000
2. Forensic Science. 2006
3. Techniques of Crime Scene Investigation. 2012.
   Acknowledgments
4. https://www.politie.nl/mijn-buurt/politiebureaus/05/burgwallen.html and a Chief Inspector – Mr. Erik Akerboom                                         ©