ABSTRACT

The premise of this text is that crime scene investigations are joint scientific and investigative endeavors, the success of which requires experience, creative thinking, logic, and the correct application of the science and the scientific method. These investigations are intensely intellectual exercises. To disagree is ignorance, inexperience, or stupidity. It is much like what the legendary golf pro Bobby Jones thought about his profession and is credited with saying, “Competitive golf is played mainly on a five-and-a-half-inch course . . . the space between your ears.” So it is with crime scene investigation and reconstruction. In fact, a competent crime scene investigation is as cerebral an exercise as any scientific endeavor in forensic science. Students need to understand that scene investigations are comprehensive, tedious, and difficult scientific exercises that dovetail experience, training, and education.