ABSTRACT
Over the last 50 years forensic science has become increasingly relied on and intertwined with criminal investigations and the criminal justice system. As the use of forensic science expanded in criminal investigations the field split into distinct bodies of practitioners. The three major groups of people providing forensic services for criminal investigations include medical professionals employed by coroners and medical examiners, scientists employed by laboratories, and the field technicians known as crime scene investigators (CSIs). When it comes to CSIs perhaps the most critical aspect of the work that is performed involves
documenting the crime scene. The work that is done by medical professionals and laboratories relies on the documentation collected at the crime scene. If meaningful value is to be placed on the discoveries made during autopsy then the context of how the body relates to the crime scene must first be considered. For instance, if a pathologist utilizes body temperature to help determine time of death the physician will first endeavor to determine the environment in which the body was discovered. Was the body in a warm room with the heat turned high or out in the cold? If a scientist in the DNA laboratory is to analyze a DNA swab it must first be understood where the swab was obtained from.Was the DNA deposited during the crime or at some earlier time? Similarly, if a latent print is identified as belonging to an individual it must be understood where the impression was located before that person can be ruled in, or out, as a suspect. All of these decisions and conclusions rely on good documentation from the scene. Once a suspect is charged, the work of the forensic service providers is turned over to the justice
system. It is here that the true weight of the evidence will be decided. The judge acts as a gatekeeper and must decide what evidence is admissible and the jurors must weigh the evidence that is presented to them to reach a determination of guilt or innocence. Again reliance on the scene documentation becomes critically important to explain the findings so the judge and jury may understand, in a comprehensive manner, its true meaning and significance. The methods that have been developed for scene documentation at the crime scene involve
recording the scene in an as in condition using visual, written, and metrological methods.Visually
recording the scene centers on photography and is sometimes supplemented with video and other imaging technologies. The written form involves note taking and report writing, and metrology (metrology is the science of measurement) involves utilization of measuring tools to gather spatial information and fix locations which are reported and depicted on exhibits such as sketches and diagrams.
