Criminalistics

A criminalist (aka crime scene technician,

examiner, or investigator) is a person who
searches for, collects, and preserves physical
evidence in the investigation of crime and
suspected criminals [see job description]. They
typically work in city or regional crime labs
and are expected to do more than the forensic
scientists and crime lab technicians there.
They are expected to be on call 24 hours a
day to go out to crime scenes, frankly when
and where detectives are stumped. Some
jurisdictions require the presence of a
criminalist at all major crime scenes. The
services of a criminalist are used at the
beginning of a case. By contrast, the services
of a forensic scientist are primarily used at the
end, or courtroom testimony phase, of a case.
All crime lab employees must be ready to offer
expert testimony in court, however.
Criminalists usually get called to testify about
matters
of
contamination,
crosscontamination, and chain of custody, but
many of them (senior criminalists) have
developed an interpretive expertise, for
example, in blood spatter analysis, trace
evidence, impression evidence, or drug
identification, as well as skills at crime
reconstruction
and
sometimes
profiling
(Levinson & Almog 1989).

The term criminalistics (Kriminalistik)

was first used by Hans Gross in
1891

But the term was mostly forgotten until the

1960s
when
a series of
cooperative
movements took place between police
agencies and criminal justice or criminology
departments to establish criminalistics (Univ.
of California) and forensic science (Michigan
State) college programs. Professors Paul Kirk in
California and Ralph Turner in Michigan
(among many others) were pioneers in those
movements.
As Osterburg and Ward (2000) imply,
criminalistics programs (available at forty-one
community colleges and only one four-year
college) followed the police science model to
record, identify, and interpret the minutia
(minute details) of physical evidence, and
forensic science (available at fourteen fouryear colleges and nine master's degree
programs) followed the medical science model
to apply generally accepted principles of
established
disciplines
(like
pathology,
serology,
toxicology,
odontology,
and
psychiatry) to the scientific examination of
physical evidence.
Forensic science is the broader term because
criminalistics is a branch of forensic science.
"Forensic" is simply an adjective that can be
put in front of any science applied to
answering legal questions. The American
Academy of Forensic Sciences web site
highlights about twenty various degree
programs that relate to some aspect of

criminalistics or forensic science education.

The world's first crime laboratory was
established by Edmond Locard in Lyon, France
during 1910.
The famous Locard Exchange Principle that
"every contact leaves a trace" is named for
him, after Locard solved a strangling case by
using fingernail scrapings. In America, a few
major cities and the FBI obtained crime labs
during the 1930s, and by the mid-1970's (the
birth of criminal justice), 47 states had crime
labs. A few criminal justice programs that
existed prior to the explosion of the field in
1974 offered a criminalistics or forensic
science concentration, but today, most
criminal justice programs only have one
course in criminal investigation.
Post-1975, the criminal justice model became
an attempt to make sense of whole systems of
justice, and the criminology model, dominated
heavily by sociology until about 1990, became
theory, research, and policy-driven. Many
criminalists consider themselves (professional)
criminologists, but few criminologists consider
themselves criminalists.
With
federal
police
agencies,
two
organizations stand out above the rest, the FBI
and ATF, mainly because their crime labs are
pretty much considered the tops in the field
and a model for elsewhere.
FBI crime lab has 4 sections: Scientific
analysis (DNA, Firearms-toolmarks, Hairs and
Fibers, Materials Analysis, Chemistry and
Toxicology, Questioned Documents; Special
Projects (film, photography, composites, art,
computer design); Fingerprinting (some 200
million records); Investigative Operations and
Support (grew out of Questioned Documents
unit and includes lie detection of various
sorts). The FBI lab only handles violent crime,
works exclusively for the prosecution, and is
considered the world's largest lab.
ATF crime lab handles Explosives, bombs,
arsons (and does it well); Trace evidence and
deciphering firearms ownership and usage;
Disaster response teams (kind of like FEMA);
Field support; and some Gang intelligence
record keeping. ATF labs are typically very
high-tech and have always been accredited.
It's typical for a Crime Lab to have 4 divisions
under a Director's Office: a section dealing
with anything pertaining to fluids, this being
called a Serology Division; a section dealing
with unknown substances, drugs, or poisons,
this being called a Chemistry or Toxicology
Division; a section dealing with anything so
small, like hairs or fibers, that they need to be
looked at under a microscope, this being called
a Trace Evidence, Biology, or Microscopy
Division; and a section dealing with guns,
weapons, instrumentation, or whatever, this
being called a Ballistics, Firearms, or
Fingerprinting (Dusting and Lifting) Division
(where Interns usually work). There are about
350 crime laboratories in the U.S. and at least
80% of them are affiliated with a police agency
(where they typically hold bureau status in the
organization). The rest are located in the

private sector and some of these are

exemplary and known for a particular
specialty: Cellmark Diagnostics (for DNA),
Battelle Corp. (for arson cases), and Sirchie
Corp. (for fingerprinting and trace evidence
collection), to name a few. There is a shortage
of DNA laboratories since only 120 labs are set
up to do DNA testing (Steadman 2002). Almost
all labs in existence are forensic labs, where
"forensic" means the experts there are
available to give courtroom opinions, but when
a lab is set up to receive evidence from
ongoing criminal investigations, this is called
casework, and the lab is referred to as a
casework lab.
Before any laboratory work is done, it must be
ensured that the workplace is clean and
contamination free. Then, the evidence is
visually inspected and properly described to
document its condition. Often, it will be
photographed, weighed, and sketched. Then,
the laboratory worker (criminalist, crime lab
technician, or forensic scientist) will have to
figure out what tests are appropriate, if
sufficient amounts of the evidence exist,
properly dissect the portion to be tested, and
properly prepare the testing material (which
might include the delicate mixing of numerous
chemical compounds), all the while continuing
to document each step.
Only then does any testing begin. Some tests
include as many as five or six separate
procedures, each of which must be properly
performed and documented, the evidence
properly repackaged and relabeled, and once
again transported to storage. Only then does
the lab worker engage in the process of
interpreting what the experiments have
disclosed.
A report is prepared and the contents of that
report must be precisely correct. At the
prosecutor's discretion, the evidence has to
make it back to the police evidence room,
where it will be stored until he/she decides
they want to use it or want more testing
performed, in which case it goes back to the
crime lab. It should be fairly evident that all
this transportation of evidence gives rise to
numerous possibilities for error in the form of
destruction, mishandling, and contamination.
Generally, whenever a lab applies for
accreditation, it has to meet certain minimum
requirements which include, among other
things, the development and publication of:
1) a Quality Control Manual,
2) a Quality Assurance Manual,
3) a Lab Testing Protocol, and
4) a program for proficiency testing. Quality
control refers to measures that are taken to
ensure that the product, for example a DNAtyping result and its interpretation, meets a
specified standard of quality.
Quality assurance refers to measures that are
taken by a laboratory to monitor, verify, and
document its performance. A basic business
principle is that QA serves as a check on QC.
Protocols consist of a few hundred pages of
highly technical manuals and should include
such things as "validation studies" which the

lab performed itself to make it capable of

performing tests in any particular discipline.
Proficiency testing determines if the lab
workers individually, and the laboratories as
institutions, are performing up to the
standards of the profession.
In these tests, samples to be examined are
given to a laboratory or particular worker, but
the results are already known by a test giver.
There are two methods employed in
administering these tests, blind and known. In
the blind test, the lab worker doesn't know
that a test is taking place; they think the
evidence sample they are working on is just
another case. The open proficiency test is like
an open book exam. In addition, individual lab
workers join associations to beef up their
resumes. The two main ones are the American
Academy of Forensic Sciences (AAFS), the
American Board of Criminalistics (ABC).
Physical evidence is part of the "holy trinity"
for solving crimes -- physical evidence,
witnesses, and confessions. Without one of the
first two, there is little chance of even finding a
suspect. In homicide and sexual assault cases,
physical evidence is the number one
determinant of guilt or innocence.
Physical evidence is also the number one
provider of extraordinary clearances, where
police can link different offenses at different
times and places with the same offender.
Working with physical evidence means being
aware at all times of what the prosecutor
needs to win the case in court. This means
knowing the Types of Evidence and the Laws of
Evidence.
Without doubt, the most important concept in
criminalistics is identification, or what Paul Kirk
called
individualization
(Kirk
1936).
Identification produces unequivocal (certain)
interpretation. An equivocal crime scene, by
comparison, yields physical evidence subject
to different interpretation (and is the basis for
crime reconstruction and profiling).
When a number of details are put together
(as in points of comparison), so that they
constitute a class of one (by itself), they are
said to establish an identity, also called
individual characteristics, or entities in a class
by itself. At this point, if there are similarities
between evidence from the crime scene and
evidence from a suspect, the expert can say,
without a doubt, that identity has been
individualized.
It is important to clearly understand the
concepts of identity, match, class and
individual characteristics. Identity is a set of
characteristics
(combinations
of
class
characteristics or combinations of class and
individual characteristics) by which a thing is
recognizable or known. Identity is the same as
pattern. A pattern is established, for example,
when a particular piece of class evidence like
fiber (for which there are large quantities in
the population) is put together with another
piece of class evidence like red hair (which
usually only exists in the subpopulation of
white people).

It cannot be said the investigator has

"individualized" anything at this point, but the
red hair in this example can be considered
enough of an individual characteristic which
combines with the class characteristic to
establish identity. At this point, if there is a
"match" between the fibers and hair from the
crime scene with a suspect, the examiner can
say the crime scene (unknown or questioned)
sample "may have come from the same
source" as the suspect's (known or exemplar)
sample, which is sufficient for probable cause.
Identity can also be used to conclusively
eliminate
people
as
suspects.
Class
characteristics alone do not allow matches
with a single suspect. Matches for evidence
with individual characteristics do allow
pinpointing a particular suspect. Matches at
the individual level are called similarities,
because in theory, there's no such thing as a
perfect match. An example of a similarity, or
match in individual characteristics, would be a
number of comparable points of comparison
between the friction ridge lines on a latent
(crime scene) fingerprint with the fingerprints
of a particular suspect.
This kind of (true) match allows the examiner
to say that, because the similarities outweigh
any dissimilarities, the crime scene (unknown
or questioned) sample "did come from the
Key Characteristics of a Criminal Profiler
by Marji McClure, Demand Media

same source" as the suspect's (known or

exemplar) sample, which is sufficient, most of
time, for proof beyond a reasonable doubt.
Reliability and integrity are enhanced if the
examiner has conducted tests on standards
using controls. A standard is the opposite of
exemplar.
An exemplar always comes from a suspect or
something representing a known modus
operandi or signature. Standards consist of
simultaneous tests done on items taken from
the "background" or nearby the crime scene
(control sample), items similar to one the
suspect used, such as test firings of a similar
weapon (standard sample), or items used for
calibration purposes kept in stock at the lab
(reference sample). The astute student may
notice that the word "match" is used a couple
of different ways in criminalistics.
Nobody uses the phrase (true) match, for
example, like I have used in my explanations
above. Some people prefer the term
"matching" (Ramsland 2001). Abuse of the
term "match" is even worse in forensic
science, which allows different disciplines to
set their own criteria and standards. To wrap
things up, let's conclude with an interesting
topic -- the points of comparison method - and
then attempt to present a table which
classifies evidence by their class and
individual characteristics.
law enforcement -- especially as a crime
solver. One way in which individuals can enter
the detective field is by becoming criminal
profilers. A criminal profiler uses psychology to
create a profile of a suspect. Law enforcement
professionals then use that profile to help
better understand a suspect and his motives,
so they can catch that suspect.
The Background Required
Among the techniques used to learn how to
become a criminal profiler are behavioral
sociopsychology and geographic profiling.
Such techniques help to identify patterns in
criminal cases or to predict behaviors of
people who continue to commit crimes, such
as serial murders. Among the subjects criminal
profilers need to study are case management,
motive
and
pattern
analysis,
forensic
demography and statistical prediction.

Related Articles
Is a Forensic Psychologist & a Criminal
Profiler the Same Thing?
The Pay Scale for a Criminal Profiler
Negatives to Being a Criminal Profiler
What Does a Criminal Profiler Do?
How to Get a Job in Criminal Profiling

Crime Action Profiling Capabilities

Richard Kocsis and others created models they
based on actual criminals to serve as guides in
profiling crimes. Those models resemble
interviews conducted by clinical psychologists
to form diagnoses. Using these models can
help criminal profilers conduct work in cases
such as rapes, murders and arsons. As part of
crime action profiling, criminal profilers also
study the process of profiling to establish a
baseline for the kind of information that needs
to be included in an accurate criminal profile.

As the interest in detective shows never

continues to wane, more and more people
seem intrigued by the possibility of working in

Related
Reading: Criminal
Requirements
Strong Analytical Skills

Criminal profilers use clues at a crime scene to

identify suspects.

Psychology

A successful criminal profiler must be able to

effectively analyze a variety of evidence from
a crime scene. This includes photographs from
a crime scene, as well as photos of victims and
other evidence. Criminal profilers must also
use other information, including the victims
clothing (and its condition), weapons that may
have been used and even a medical
examiners report. Through this information,
the profiler can create a profile of a suspect
that is comprised of such characteristics as
age,
sex,
race,
weight,
height
and
psychological condition.
Investigative Psychology Skills
Criminal psychology
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For the science pertaining to the intersection
between. psychology and the legal system,
see Forensic psychology.

Sometimes criminal profilers use investigative

psychology to conduct their work. This
involves being able to studying theories,
hypotheses and behavior characteristics of a
possible suspect. Criminal profilers use
investigative psychology to explore how a
criminals actions are connected to his or her
past and present life, and what actions are
unique to that individual. Investigative
psychology
was
spearheaded
by
environmental psychologists, including Dr.
David Canter. According to Canter, there are
five approaches criminal profilers can use to
create profiles of suspects: interpersonal coher
most common psychological questions: If there
is a risk of a sexual predator re-offending if put
back in society; if an offender is competent to
stand trial; whether or not an offender was
sane/insane at the time of the offense.

The question of competency to stand trial is a

This article possibly
question of an offenders current state of
contains original
mind. This assesses the offenders ability to
research. Please improve
understand the charges against them, the
it by verifying the claims made
possible outcomes of being
and adding inline citations
convicted/acquitted of these charges and their
Statements consisting only of
ability to assist their attorney with their
original research should be
defense. The question of sanity/insanity or
removed. (April 2013)
criminal responsibility is an assessment of the
offenders state of mind at the time of the
Criminal psychology, also referred to
[1]
crime. This refers to their ability to understand
as criminological psychology, is the study
right from wrong and what is against the law.
of the wills, thoughts, intentions and reactions
The insanity defense is rarely used, as it is
of criminals and all that partakes in
[2][3]
very difficult to prove. If declared insane, an
the criminal behavior.
offender is committed to a secure hospital
It is related to the field of criminal
facility for much longer than they would have
anthropology. The study goes deeply into what
served in prisontheoretically, that is.[4]
makes someone commit a crime, but also the
reactions after the crime, on the run or in
The four roles of criminal psychologists[edit]
court. Criminal psychologists are often called
In 1981, one of the fathers of UK's criminal
up as witnesses in court cases to help the jury
psychology Professor Lionel Haward
understand the mind of the criminal. Some
described four ways, that psychologist may
types of Psychiatry also deal with aspects of
perform upon being professionally involved in
criminal behavior.
criminal proceedings. These are the following:
Contents
Clinical: In this situation the psychologist is
[hide]
involved in assessment of individual in order to
provide a clinical judgment. The psychologist
can use assessment tools, interview or
1 Psychology's role in the legal system
psychometric tool in order to aid in his/her
assessment. These assessments can help
2 The four roles of criminal
police or other competitive organs determine
psychologists
how to process the individual in question. For
example, help finding out whether he/she is
3 Profiling
capable to stand trial or whether the individual
has mental illness which means, that he/she is
4 Applied criminal psychology
unable to understand the proceedings.

5 Key studies

6 See also

7 References
Psychology's role in the legal system[edit]
Main article: Forensic psychology
Psychiatrists and psychologists are licensed
professionals that can assess both mental and
physical states. Profilers look for patterns in
behavior to typify the individual(s) behind a
crime. A group effort attempts to answer the

Experimental: In this case the task of

psychologist is to perform a research in order
to inform a case. This can involve executing
experimental tests for the purposes of
illustrating a point or providing further
information to courts. This may involve false
memory, eyewitness credibility experiments
and such. For example, this way questions
similar to how likely would a witness see an
object in 100 meters? will be answered.
Actuarial: This role involves usage of
statistics in order to inform a case. For
example, a psychologist may be asked to

provide probability of an event occurring.

Therefore, the courts may ask how likely a
person will reoffend if a sentence is declined.
Advisory: Here a psychologist may advice
police about how to proceed with the
investigation. For example, which is the best
way to interview the individual, how best
cross-examine a vulnerable or another expert
witness, how an offender will act after
committing the offence.[5]
Profiling[edit]
Main article: criminal profiling
A major part of criminal psychology, known as
criminal profiling, began in the 1940s when
the United States Office of Strategic
Services asked William L. Langer's
brother Walter C. Langer, a well
renownedpsychiatrist, to draw up a profile
of Adolf Hitler. After the Second World
War British psychologist Lionel Haward, while
working for the Royal Air Force police, drew up
a list of characteristics which high-ranking war
criminals might display, to be able to spot
them amongst ordinary captured soldiers and
airmen.
A renowned Italian Psychologist Cesare
Lumbroso (1835-1909) was thought to be one
of the first criminologist to attempt to formally
classify criminals based on age, sex, gender,
physical characteristics, education, and
geographic region. When comparing these
similar characteristics he better understood
the origin of motivation of criminal behavior.
Published his book called The Criminal Man.
Lumbroso studied 383 Italian inmates. Based
on his studies, he suggested that there were
three types of criminals. Born Criminals which
meant these people are degenerates and the
insane criminals are ones that suffer a mental
illness. Also he studied and found specific
physical characteristics. A few examples
include asymmetry of the face, eye defects
and peculiarities, and ears of unusual size, etc.
[2]

In the 1950s, US psychiatrist James A.

Brussel drew up what turned to be an
uncannily accurate profile of a bomber who
had been terrorizing New York.[citation needed]
It was first introduced to the FBI in the 1960s
when several classes were taught to the
American Society of crime lab directors. Most
of the public at that time knew little if not
anything about how profilers would profile
people until TV came into play. Later films
based on the fictional works of author Thomas
Harris that caught the public eye as a
profession in particular Manhunter (1986)
and Silence of the Lambs (1991). The fastest
development occurred when the FBI opened
its training academy, the Behavioral Analysis
Unit (BAU), in Quantico, Virginia. It led to the
establishment of the National Center for the
Analysis of Violent Crimeand the violent
criminal apprehension program. The idea was
to have a system which could pick up links
between unsolved major crimes.[citation needed]
In the United Kingdom, Professor David Canter
was a pioneer helping to guide police
detectives from the mid-1980s to an offender
who had carried out a series of serious

attacks, but Canter saw the limitations of

"offender profiling" - in particular, the
subjective, personal opinion of a psychologist.
He and a colleague coined the
term investigative psychology and began
trying to approach the subject from what they
saw as a more scientific point of view. [citation
needed]

Criminal profiling, also known as offender

profiling, is the process of linking an offender's
actions at the crime scene to their most likely
characteristics to help police investigators
narrow down and prioritize a pool of most
likely suspects. Profiling is a relatively new
area of forensic psychology that during the
past 20 years has developed from what used
to be described as an art to a rigorous science.
Part of a sub-field of forensic psychology called
investigative psychology, criminal profiling is
based on increasingly rigorous methodological
advances and empirical research. [citation needed]
Criminal profiling is a process now known in
the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) as
criminal investigative analysis. Profilers, or
criminal investigative analysts, are trained and
experienced law enforcement officers who
study every behavioral aspect and detail of an
unsolved violent crime scene in which a
certain amount of psychopathology has been
left at the scene. The characteristics of a good
profiler are discussed. Five behavioral
characteristics that can be gleaned from the
crime scene are described: 1) amount of
planning that went into the crime, 2) degree of
control used by the offender, 3) escalation of
emotion at the scene, 4) risk level of both the
offender and victim, and 5) appearance of the
crime scene (disorganized versus organized).
The process of interpreting the behavior
observed at a crime scene is briefly discussed.
[6]

Applied criminal psychology[edit]

The effect of psychological and social factors
on the functioning of our brain is the central
question forensic or criminal psychologists
deal with, due to the fact it is the seed of all
our actions. For Forensic Psychiatry, the main
question is 'Which patient becomes an
offender?', or 'Which offender becomes a
patient?'. Another main question asked by
these psychiatrists is, 'What came first, the
crime or the mental disorder?'.
Criminal and forensic psychologists may also
consider the following questions:
1. Is a mental disorder present now? Was it
present during the time of the crime?
2. What is the level of responsibility of the
offender for the crime?
3. What is the risk of reoffending and which
risk factors are involved?
4. Is treatment possible to reduce the risk of
reoffending?
Accordingly, individual psychiatric evaluations
are resorted to measuring personality traits
by psychological testing that have good
validity for the purpose of the court.[4]
Key studies[edit]

A number of key studies of psychology

especially relevant to understanding
criminology have been undertaken, these
include: [7][8]

Bobo doll experiment , Bandura, Ross &

Ross (1961)

The Stanford prison experiment, (Philip

Zimbardo 1973)

Loftus and Palmer (1974) eyewitness

study