Forensics For Dummies 
Table of COntents
Foreword
About This Book
Conventions Used in This Book
What You’re Not to Read
Foolish Assumptions
How This Book Is Organized
Part I: Cracking Open the Case
Part II: Uncovering the Evidence
Part III: Looking at the Body
Part IV: Working in the Crime Lab
Part V: The Part of Tens
Icons Used in This Book
Where to Go from Here
Part I: Cracking Open the Case
Chapter 1: Understanding the World of Forensics
Defining Forensics: The Science of Catching Criminals
Integrating science into the practice of law
Drawing from other sciences
Getting the Big Picture: Forensics in Action
Starting out small: Basic forensic services
Finding out about physical forensic science
Delving into biological forensic science
Investigating the Crime Lab
Creating the first crime lab
Identifying common procedures
Digging into the Criminalist’s Toolbox
The Cornerstone of Forensics: Locard’s Exchange Principle
Looking at Locard’s principle in action
Reading the trace evidence
Determining who did what where
Chapter 2: Uncovering Who Does What When: The Forensics Team in Action
Gathering the Evidence: The Criminalist at Work
From Analyzing Blood to Identifying Bugs: Forensic Science Specialists
Forensic Investigation’s Head Honcho: The Medical Examiner
Looking at two forensic systems
Checking out the duties of a coroner or medical examiner
Following the medical examiner in action
Dealing with the Dead: The Forensic Investigator
Testifying as an Expert
Understanding the court system
Getting to the heart of the “truth”
Understanding the role of expert testimony
Chapter 3: Working the Scene: Evidence Collection and Protection
Assessing the Scene of the Crime
Distinguishing between primary and secondary crime scenes
Arriving at a crime scene
Preserving and processing the scene
Documenting the procedure
Reconstructing the crime scene
Recognizing a staged crime scene
Classifying the Evidence
Determining whether evidence is direct or circumstantial
Discerning physical from biological evidence
Understanding reconstructive evidence
Identifying associative evidence
Differentiating class and individual evidence
Analyzing the evidence
Locating the Evidence
Obtaining a search warrant
Searching without a warrant
Collecting and Preserving the Evidence
Searching the area
Gathering the evidence
Packaging the evidence
Getting control samples
Keeping the chain of custody intact
Determining Where a Missing Corpse Ran Off To
Chapter 4: Peering into the Criminal Mind
Defining the Role of the Forensic Psychiatric Professional
Differentiating forensic from clinical psychiatry
How the mind matters in forensics
Testing the Brain
Getting started with a medical history and physical exam
Digging into the psyche
Asking the right questions
Using dubious techniques
Dealing with Deception
Recognizing lying perps
Debunking the eyewitness
Dealing with false confessions
Assessing Competence and Sanity
Determining a defendant’s competence
Defining insanity, loosely
Tracking Serial Offenders
Classifying the multiple murderer
Making the monsters
Profiling the Perpetrator
Assessing the perpetrator’s psyche
Taking trophies and souvenirs
Distinguishing MO from signature
Profiling the victim: Victimology
Defining the killer’s domain
Linking Criminals and Crime Scenes
Part II: Uncovering the Evidence
Chapter 5: Fingerprints: Your Personal Signature
Getting a Grip on Fingerprints
Measuring bodies: A precursor to fingerprinting
Using ridge patterns
Making Matching Easier: Classifying Prints
Grouping by arches, loops, and whorls
Developing the Henry System
Speeding up identification: AFIS
Tracking Down Those Sneaky Prints
Looking for latent prints
Powdering the print
Using chemistry to expose prints
Cleaning up the print: Digital techniques
Chapter 6: Those Messy Bloodstains
Understanding Blood’s Character
Thicker than water
Understanding clotting
Oozing, gushing, and dripping
Analyzing Bloodstain Patterns
Finding clues in passive bloodstains
Analyzing projected blood spatters
Classifying projected spatters
Understanding transfer patterns
Reconstructing the crime scene from bloodstains
Putting It All Together: A Hypothetical Case
Chapter 7: Making Good Impressions: Shoes, Tires, and Tools
Stepping Out: Shoeprints as Evidence
Characterizing and using shoeprints
Matching sole to soul — so to speak
Obtaining shoe impressions
Making the match
Tracking Down Tires
Characterizing and using tire tracks
Obtaining tire impressions
Getting Clues from Tool Marks
Characterizing and using tool marks
Preserving tool impressions
Finding Facts in Fabrics
Chapter 8: The Burning Question: Is It Arson?
Understanding Fire-Starters
Determining Where and How the Fire Started
Using other people’s eyes and ears
Finding where it all started
Figuring out how it happened
Common ways to start a blaze
Heating Things Up: Accelerants
Collecting samples at the scene
Getting answers in the lab
Digging deeper into iffy samples
Drawing conclusions from testing
Investigating Homicidal Fires
Location, location, location
Poisoned by air
Evaluating Explosive Situations
Defining explosives
Investigating a bombing scene
Part III: Looking at the Body
Chapter 9: Determining the Hows and Whys of Death: Forensic Autopsies
Defining Death and Declaring It as Such
Looking for a definitive method
Checking out causes and mechanisms of death
Uncovering the four manners of death
Shadowing the Forensic Pathologist
Discovering what makes an autopsy forensic
Determining who gets autopsied
Performing an Autopsy
Identifying the body
Conducting an external examination
Dissecting the body
Looking for clues in chemicals: Toxicology
Filing the Official Autopsy Report
Chapter 10: Identifying John and Jane Doe
Identifying the Body
Digging through the artifacts
Using scars, birthmarks, and tattoos
Finding evidence of wounds or disease
Fingerprinting the dead
Checking out the choppers
Dem Bones, Dem Bones: Working with Skeletons
Determining whether bones are human
Determining age
Estimating stature
Determining sex
Determining race
Finding individual characteristics
Estimating time since death
Handling burned bones
Determining cause and manner of death
Reconstructing Faces
Comparing Photographs
Chapter 11: Estimating the Time of Death
Defining Time of Death
Using Changes in the Body to Estimate Time of Death
Measuring body temperature
Stiffening up: Rigor mortis
Getting the blues: Lividity
Determining the rate of decay
Dealing with other possibilities
Rising to the surface: When sinkers become floaters
Looking into the eyes
Using Other Clues
Discovering what was on the menu
Getting buggy
Checking other scene markers
Chapter 12: Yeow! That Hurts: Traumatic Injuries and Deaths
Unleashing the Power of Guns and Gun Evidence
Tracing those tricky bullets
Looking at entry and exit wounds
Analyzing shotgun patterns
Slicing, Dicing, and Stabbing
Taking the Hit: Blunt-Force Trauma
Scraping and scuffing
Bruising and battering
Breaking bones
Getting toothy: Bite marks
Dealing with an aching head
A Shocking Situation: Electrocution
Wreaking havoc: Electricity’s path through your body
Assessing the damage
The R Word: Dealing with Rape
Conducting a rape exam
Dealing with fatal assaults
Chapter 13: Asphyxia: Where’s the Oxygen?
Understanding Asphyxia
Gasping for Oxygen: Suffocation
Suffocating environments
Smothering
Choking sensations
Putting on the pressure: Mechanical asphyxia
Suffocating gases
Getting a Stranglehold
Finding a common thread in strangulations
Hands on: Manual strangulation
Using a ligature
Hangings
Breathing Deadly Air: Toxic Gases
That sneaky carbon monoxide
Deadly cyanide
Getting down with sewer gas
Drowning: Water, Water Everywhere
Finding the manner of death
Digging deeper to identify drownings
Part IV: Working in the Crime Lab
Chapter 14: Working with Blood and Other Bodily Fluids: Serology
Becoming Bloody Knowledgeable about Life’s Most Precious Fluid
Understanding blood
Typing with the ABO system
Finding an Identity in a Stain
Knowing when blood’s really blood
Knowing when blood’s really human
Narrowing the focus: Whose blood is it?
Testing for Paternity
Inheriting your blood type
Determining fatherhood
Looking at Other Bodily Fluids
Checking for semen
Checking for saliva
Detecting vaginal fluid
Chapter 15: What’s the Deal with DNA?
Opening an Instruction Manual for Your Cells
Looking at the nuts and bolts of DNA
Mine, mine, all mine: Uniqueness and DNA
Fingering Criminals Using DNA Fingerprints
Tracking down and preserving DNA
Looking into the genome
Repeating yourself: How duplication identifies you
Understanding the DNA Fingerprinting Process
Preparing the sample
Making the match
Indexing DNA: The CODIS System
All in the Family: Using DNA to Determine Lineage
Who’s yer daddy? Paternity testing
Who’s yer granny? Mitochondrial DNA
Chapter 16: Finding Drugs and Poisons: The Toxicology Lab
Understanding Poisons
Defining Toxicology
Looking for Toxins
Collecting samples
Determining the cause and manner of death
Understanding the Testing Procedures
Presuming the results
Confirming the results
Interpreting the results
Looking at Common Drugs
Understanding alcohol
Getting down with depressants
Hopping up: Stimulants
Altering perception with hallucinogens
Dirty deeds: Date Rape drugs
Sniffing and huffing
Bulking up
Checking Out Familiar Poisons
Chapter 17: Analyzing Trace Evidence
Defining Trace Evidence
Understanding Analytical Instruments
Looking through the microscope
Testing the chemical makeup of trace materials
Splitting Hairs: Linking Crime to Coiffure
Checking out hair’s anatomy
Matching criminal to curly lock
Fiddling with Fibers
Classifying fibers
Collecting fibers
Comparing fibers
Breaking down the fiber
Cracking the Mysteries of Glass
Looking into how glass becomes evidence
Analyzing and matching glass
Breaking glass
Puttering with Paints
Dissecting paint
Solving the puzzle
Getting Down and Dirty: Soils and Plants
Identifying soils
Looking at plants and seeds
Chapter 18: Going Ballistic: Analyzing Firearms Evidence
Figuring Out Firearms
Extracting Info from Ammo
Easy does it: Handling bullets
Breaking down bullets
Determining caliber and gauge
Shuffling through shell casings
Getting Groovy: Comparing Rifling Patterns
Understanding rifling
Reading the ridges
Searching for answers in databases
The Proof’s in the Powder: Gunshot Residues
Tracing gasses and particles
Testing for GSR
Determining distance
Chapter 19: Questioning the Validity of Documents
Analyzing Handwriting
Obtaining standards
Comparing handwriting
Nabbing forgers
Exposing Alterations
Wiping away writing
Eradicating the original
Adding words
Looking for Indentions
Examining Papers and Inks
Distinguishing papers
Identifying inks
Dissecting Typewriters and Photocopiers
Hunting and pecking for clues
Finding distinctive traits in copies
Part V: The Part of Tens
Chapter 20: Ten Famous Forensic Cases
Using a Homemade Ladder: The Lindbergh Kidnapping
Sacco and Vanzetti and Sacco’s Gun
Ted Bundy’s Bite Marks
Stella Nickell’s Trail of Fingerprints
Finding Fibers on Jeffrey MacDonald
Georgi Markov and the Lethal Umbrella
The Hendricks Family’s Last Meal
Picturing John List
Being Anastasia Romanov
Faking Hitler’s Diaries
Chapter 21: Ten Ways Hollywood Gets It Wrong
The Quick Death
The Pretty Death
The Bleeding Corpse
The Exact Time of Death
The One-Punch Knockout
The Disappearing Black Eye
The Fast-Acting Poison
The Untraceable Poison
The Instant Athlete
The High-Tech Lab
Chapter 22: Ten Great Forensic Careers
Criminalist
Crime Scene Investigator
Forensic Investigator
Forensic Pathologist
Forensic Pathology Technician
Forensic Anthropologist
Forensic Toxicologist
Fingerprint Examiner
Forensic Document Examiner
Forensic Medical Transcriber
Index
