Forensic Science Course Outline

Processing and photographing a crime scene; types of evidence; collecting, cataloging and preserving evidence; instruments comprising the crime scene kit; death investigations; distinguishing the cause of death; the role of pathologists; estimating time of death based on stages of decomposition; the autopsy; how coroners conduct and gather evidence in the autopsy process.

Identifying homicide victims; examining dental features, fingerprints, blood-type and DNA; technological advances in DNA analysis; the four basic types of forensic science; techniques for manipulating and analyzing physical images; trace evidence analysis; crime lab instruments and their use in examining hair, fibers, glass, dust and more; serology; using blood type, DNA and semen evidence to solve crimes; forms of print analysis.

Using science, intuition, induction, deduction and abduction to make crime scene conclusions; toxicology testing; reconstructing a crime scene; pattern evidence; interpreting blood spatter patterns; evaluating eyewitness accounts; criminal logic; profiling: its use and misuse in the science of victimology.

Deceptive tactics used by criminals to stage crime scenes, plant misleading evidence and lead investigators in the wrong direction; interrogation methods and instruments such as lie detectors, voiceprint analysis and stress evaluators; polygraph results; feigning mental illness, malingering and other criminal tactics; solving forensic puzzles; arson and bomb investigations; determining the true causes of fires; tracing the origin of explosives through chemical analysis; following paper trails to track down criminals.

The development of forensic science; the five basic crime lab functions: physical science, biology, firearms analysis, document analysis and photographic analysis; analytical and scientific skills of the forensic scientist; how investigators process, secure, isolate and record crime scene evidence using a variety of sophisticated techniques; protocols for collecting various kinds of evidence.

Identifying and comparing physical and chemical properties of the most common types of physical evidence; interacting with medical examiners, criminalists and law enforcement personnel to recover and analyze crime scene evidence; an overview of the metric system; forensic characteristics of glass and soil; methods to collect and preserve glass fragment and soil evidence.

Techniques and instruments for examining organic evidence; theories and principles of chromatography, spectrophotometry and mass spectrometry; measurement and analysis tools; analyzing tools, explosives and poisons to gather inorganic evidence; how to determine the elemental composition of materials; atomic absorption spectrophotometry and x-ray diffraction.

Using the compound, comparison, stereoscopic, polarizing and scanning electron microscopes; comparative analysis of microscopic evidence; the microspectrophotometer; identifying and analyzing hair, fiber and paint particles; extracting evidence from automotive paint; analyzing paint particles in the laboratory.

The psychological and physical factors contributing to drug dependence; characteristics of opiates, hallucinogens, depressants, stimulants, anabolic steroids and the so called "club drugs"; drug identification testing procedures; collecting and preserving drug evidence; measuring alcohol in the blood system; breath testers and gas chromatography tests; interpretative conclusions reached as a result of drug tests.

Blood testing and typing; immunoassay techniques; analyzing blood stains and stain patterns; locating, collecting and preserving blood evidence; semen analysis in rape and other sexually related crimes; the structural components of DNA; base pairing, replication and polymerase chain reaction; the relation of DNA to bodily functions; DNA analysis.

Arson and explosion investigations; using the gas chromatograph to trace chemical composition and origin of materials; the nature of explosives; combing bomb sites; firearms identification; tool marks; analyzing bullets, gunpowder residue and serial numbers; extracting evidence from shoe and tire marks and other impressions; collecting, preserving and analyzing residues, minute particles and other impressions as evidence.

The three classes of fingerprints as defined by patterns of loops, whirls and arches; the automated fingerprint identification system; methods used to detect fingerprints; techniques for preserving fingerprints; document and voice examination; handwriting analysis and comparisons; methods used to compare copiers, printers and fax machines; analyzing alterations, erasures and virtual obliteration of documents; analyzing voice data with the sound spectrograph.

The impact of the Internet on forensic science; global networks and databases; researching forensic science on the Web; the Internet as a research tool in criminal investigations; the future of forensic science; the broadening applications of forensic methodology as an integral component of investigation.