You’ve seen it countless times.
Police search the crime scene and find evidence such as hair, blood samples, and shell casings. It is sent to a lab and after being analyzed by a forensic scientist, the evidence can help put the culprit behind bars.
Or maybe that’s how forensic science is portrayed on “CSI” and “Law & Order.” But in reality, forensic science is often much more complex.
How accurate is forensic science?
What exactly is forensic science? How does forensic science work in a real crime investigation? Learn more about the role forensic science plays in solving real crime cases.
What is Forensic Medicine?
Forensic medicine, also known as criminology, is the use of scientific methods to assist professionals in the criminal justice system. It utilizes many scientific disciplines such as chemistry, physics, and biology to accurately determine what happened at crime scenes such as murders, sexual assaults, and robberies.
San Francisco Police Department crime scene investigators document the scene of a shooting on January 18, 2011. (Lee Suzuki/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)
How does the forensic process work?
It starts with a thorough documentation of the crime scene. Photographs of the area are taken, bullet holes are measured to determine the bullet’s trajectory, and potential witnesses are interviewed.
Physical evidence such as fingerprints, blood, and DNA samples, as well as any possible murder weapon, will be collected. These items will be sent to a laboratory for analysis.
Victimology, the study of victims to gain insight into the perpetrator’s behavior, is also an important component of forensic medicine.
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For Dr. Mary Ellen O’Toole, director of the Forensic Science Program at George Mason University and former special agent in the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Division, victimology begins by considering a number of questions.
“Why was the victim chosen and did the perpetrator know the victim? What was the level of risk to the victim? Is this person a person who was victimized in their own home in a safe area?” ” she told Fox News Digital during the call.
Finding answers to these questions can help uncover the perpetrator’s actions and possible motives. O’Toole said that at this point in the investigation, “we are still reviewing the entire incident, but we have already formed some preliminary opinions.”
St. Paul Police Officer Ron Himes demonstrates the process of digitally imaging evidence in a crime lab. (Bruce Bisping/Star Tribune via Getty Images)
Criminal investigation and “operational orders”
When conducting an investigation, it is important to perform the tasks in the correct order.
Investigators must make important decisions about something as simple as how to move around a scene. In other words, do you go into the bathroom first or into the bedroom? It’s important to be careful when one wrong step can confuse or ruin potential evidence.
This is especially important if the item is to be tested in a laboratory. Some tests may destroy important evidence about the item.
“Think about firearms,” Dr. Peter Ballentine, dean of the University of New Haven’s forensic science department and a former detective with the Connecticut State Police Major Crimes Unit, told FOX News Digital by phone. . “You may want to know if your firearm works. But if you first send it in for operability testing and don’t realize until later that there was biological evidence on it, The evidence would very likely be lost, destroyed or changed from its original appearance. ”
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For this reason, non-destructive testing should be performed as early as possible in the process.
As test results come in and more information becomes available, investigators will be able to get a more complete picture of what happened at the crime scene. They may have a hypothesis about what happened when they first see the scene, but appearances can be deceiving.
A death that appears to be natural may be a homicide, and vice versa. That’s why forensic science can provide objective data that helps build an idea of how a crime happened.
Forensic medicine: “Connecting things, people, and places.”
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, forensic science helps investigators obtain evidence and establish “an association between a person suspected of committing a crime and a crime scene or victim.”
When Valentin explains this concept to his students, he focuses on three things. “Forensic science is about connecting people to people, connecting people to objects, and connecting people and objects to places,” he said.
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For example, he points to the ongoing University of Idaho murder case. The main suspect, Brian Koberger, was discovered after investigators found matching DNA on a bundle of knives used to kill four students.
Instead of going through thousands of hours of surveillance footage, investigators were able to narrow their search to specific vehicles and specific cell phone serial numbers. Thus, they determined that Koberger was near the crime scene at the time of the murder.
“This is a great example of how forensic information can be used to focus an investigation,” Valentin said. “We have a mountain of data that shows we have a suspect from out of state and his vehicle was in the area during the crime period. That’s probably enough evidence to convince a jury. .”
Boston Police Department crime investigator Amy Kratz uses a microscope at the Boston Police Crime Lab. (Mark Garfinkel/Media News Group/Boston Herald via Getty Images)
Crime scene analysis: Patience pays off
One thing that differs from the way forensics is portrayed on TV is the length of time it takes to get results. In fiction, analysis takes only a few hours. In reality, it can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks.
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In the case of “Green River Killer” Gary Leon Ridgway, one of the most prolific serial killers in U.S. history, it took more than a decade for a single piece of evidence to lead to his arrest.
Ridgway committed numerous murders from the 1980s to the early 2000s. Investigators considered him a suspect and also took a saliva sample from 1987, but there was not enough evidence to convict him.
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In the 1980s, DNA profiling was still in its infancy. But in the decades that followed, the technology developed rapidly, and in the early 2000s, DNA testing linked Ridgway’s saliva sample to DNA taken from murder victims.
“It may take years, but that’s what forensics is all about,” O’Toole said.
