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Crime scene
 
 
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A crime scene is a location where an illegal
LAW

LAW may refer to:* Anti-tank warfare, e.g. the US Army M72 LAW or the British Army LAW 80*Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights ...
 act took place, and comprises the area from which most of the physical evidence
Forensic identification

Forensic identification is the application of forensics and technology to identify specific objects from the trace evidence they leave, often at a crime scene or the scene of an accident....
 is retrieved by trained law enforcement personnel
Police

Police are agents or agencies, usually of the executive , empowered to enforce the law and to ensure public and social order through the legitimized use of force....
, crime scene investigators (CSIs) or in rare circumstances, forensic scientists.

ctly speaking, a crime scene is a location wherein evidence of a crime may be found. It is not necessarily where the crime was committed.






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A crime scene is a location where an illegal
LAW

LAW may refer to:* Anti-tank warfare, e.g. the US Army M72 LAW or the British Army LAW 80*Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights ...
 act took place, and comprises the area from which most of the physical evidence
Forensic identification

Forensic identification is the application of forensics and technology to identify specific objects from the trace evidence they leave, often at a crime scene or the scene of an accident....
 is retrieved by trained law enforcement personnel
Police

Police are agents or agencies, usually of the executive , empowered to enforce the law and to ensure public and social order through the legitimized use of force....
, crime scene investigators (CSIs) or in rare circumstances, forensic scientists.

Evidence collection

Strictly speaking, a crime scene is a location wherein evidence of a crime may be found. It is not necessarily where the crime was committed. Indeed, there are primary, secondary and often tertiary crime scenes. For instance, the police may use a warrant
Warrant (law)

Most often, the term warrant refers to a specific type of authorization; a writ issued by a competent officer, usually a judge or magistrate, which wikt:commands an otherwise illegal act that would violate individual rights and affords the person executing the writ protection from damages if the act is performed....
 to search a suspect
Suspect

In the parlance of criminal justice, a suspect is a known person suspected of committing a crime.Police and reporters often incorrectly use the word the suspect when referring to the actor, or perpetrator of the offense ....
's home. Even though the suspect did not commit the crime at that location, evidence of the crime may be found there. In another instance, an offender might kidnap at one location (primary crime scene), transport the victim (the car being a secondary crime scene), commit another crime at a distant location (murder
Murder

Murder as defined in common law countries, is the unlawful killing of another human being with intent , and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide....
, for instance) and then dispose of the body at a fourth scene.

All locations wherein there is the potential for the recovery of evidence must be handled in the same manner. They must be protected from interference of any kind so as to preserve any trace evidence
Trace evidence

Trace evidence is normally caused by objects or substances contacting one another, and leaving a minute sample on the contact surfaces. Material is often transferred by heat induced by contact friction....
. It is usually achieved by taping a wide area around the crime was committed to prevent access by any person other than the investigators. The conditions at the crime scene must be carefully recorded in great detail, as well as conserved. Only when recording has taken place can items be removed for laboratory analysis.

Legal concepts impacting the usefulness of evidence in court (Daubert, chain of custody
Chain of custody

Chain of custody refers to the chronological documentation, and/or paper trail, showing the seizure, custody, control, transfer, analysis, and disposition of evidence, physical or electronic....
, etc), apply to the recovery of evidence whether or not a crime actually occurred at that location.

Reconstruction

Crime scene reconstruction
Crime reconstruction

Crime scene reconstruction is the use of scientific methods, physical evidence, deductive reasoning, and their interrelationships to gain explicit knowledge of the series of events that surround the commission of a crime....
 is the use of scientific methods, physical evidence
Physical evidence

Physical evidence is any evidence introduced in a trialin the form of a physical object, intended to prove a fact in issue based on its demonstrable physical characteristics....
, deductive reasoning
Deductive reasoning

Deductive reasoning, sometimes called deductive logic, is reasoning which constructs or evaluates deductive Argument s.In logic, an argument is said to be deductive when the truth of the conclusion is purported to follow necessarily or be a logical consequence of the premises and its corresponding conditional is a necessary truth....
, and their interrelationships to gain explicit knowledge of the series of events that surround the commission of a crime.

See also

  • Forensic photography
    Forensic photography

    Forensic photography is the art of producing an accurate reproduction of a crime scene or an accident scene for the benefit of a court or to aid in the investigation....
  • Trace evidence
    Trace evidence

    Trace evidence is normally caused by objects or substances contacting one another, and leaving a minute sample on the contact surfaces. Material is often transferred by heat induced by contact friction....


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