ABSTRACT
Extensive documentation—contemporaneous notes, photographs, worksheets, forms, chains of custody, color-coded analyses, and final reports—is integral to the forensic sciences. Transparency and thorough documentation are critical to limit the perception of bias and to allow other forensic scientists to replicate an analysis in order to determine the accuracy of the conclusion. Documentation may also include visual aids for testifying in a court of law. In this laboratory exercise, latent prints are developed on porous and nonporous evidentiary items. The processes are documented with contemporaneous notes, photographs, and a final report.
