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A Philosophy of Crime Scene Reconstruction - Coggle Diagram
A Philosophy of Crime Scene Reconstruction
The Association for Crime Scene Reconstruction (2012)
purpose of crime scene reconstruction
"to gain explicit knowledge of the series of events that surround the commission of a crime using deductive reasoning, physical evidence, scientific methods, and their interrelationships"
the crime scene has four dimensions
width
depth
height
time
Chisum and Turvey (2007)
"the crime scene is a dynamic location; it does not remain virginal or static, as a 'frozen moment of time,' but rather it is constantly subject to change. The greater the time interval between the crime, the documentation, and examination of the scene, the greater the changes may be."
scientist
someone who possesses an academic and clinical understanding of the scientific method and the analytical dexterity to construct experiments that will generate the empirical reality that science mandates
forensic scientist
one who is educated and trained to examine and determine the meaning of physical evidence in accordance with the established principles of forensic science, with the expectation of presenting her findings in court
Dr. Max Houck (2011)
forensic science is a separate basic science, rather than simply an applied science
"it deals with topics and combinations of topics that not other science does"
forensic science is "the science of spatial and temporal relationships between people, places, and things involved in crimes"
"when two items come into contact, information may be exchanged; this exchange of information occurs, even in the results are not identifiable or are too small to be found"
Gardner and Bevel (2009)
three qualities necessary for one to be a crime scene reconstructionist
an understanding of general forensic science
"direct and specific" experience dealing with crime scenes
the "ability and willingness to be objective"
The Crime Scene
provides a snapshot of what took place, frozen in time, the culmination of a series of events that occurred over the course of seconds, minutes, hours, and even days
the asymmetry of time tells us what we have found at the crime scene was collected in sequence from first to last, and we must unravel that sequence, generally working backward from last to first
Reconstruction
organized, logical process of arriving at proper, scientifically supported conclusions about the events surrounding the creation of the crime scene being examined
an assemblage of scientific and investigative data into a coherent representation of past events
employs both deductive and inductive reasoning to answer questions associated with the commission of a particular crime
the practitioner seeks answers to certain fundamental questions
what happened?
where did it happen?
how did it happen?
when did it happen?
who was involved?
why did it happen?
Evidence
the evidence should include, but not be limited to:
physical evidence
victim statements
witness statements
suspect statements
motivational/behavioral/psychological evidence
documentary evidence
common sense