ABSTRACT
Law enforcement investigators were now challenged to
protect the scene and identify and collect potential evidence
in a timely manner, as most scenes contained semiperma-
nent evidence (e.g., bullet holes, broken glass) and transient
or dynamic evidence (e.g., fingerprints, bodily fluids). The
demands for identifying and collecting evidence had to be
balanced with the concern over contamination (i.e., introdu-
cing items into the scene that were not originally there or
destroying existing evidence). The various demands required
that the law enforcement community develop protocols and
standard operating procedures (SOPs). These SOPs even-
tually became universal and, having survived judicial
scrutiny, became the framework for current-day crime
scene analysis.[4]
Basic textbooks such as Henry Lee’s Crime Scene
Handbook present this framework as part of the founda-
tions of criminalistics. The process encompasses five
Recognition-Recognition involves knowing what to look for, what constitutes potential evidence, and, more
importantly, what can be ignored. This phase also
includes the collection of evidence.
