Criminal Investigations: Crime Scene Investigations (7Summits)

Publisher: Facts on File, 2009 | ISBN: 0791094057 | 122pages | PDF | 5.8MB

The relatively new fields of criminology and criminal science have been a boon to law-enforcement agencies worldwide. In the past, police often relied on imprecise eyewitness testimony and rudimentary surveys of crime scenes to identify criminals and solve crimes. Criminals who fled to other regions often could avoid arrest. Today, forensic techniques such as fingerprinting, questioned-document analysis, and DNA analysis give police a wide range of tools with which to identify criminals and prove guilt. Using landmark cases to illustrate forensic procedures in action, Crime Scene Investigation details the emergence of modern crime-fighting techniques from the mid-1800s to the present, focusing on how crime scenes are investigated, how evidence is processed, and how evidence is used in court to build a case for conviction.