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The Author: Connie Fletcher is the author of the book Crime Scene: Inside the World of the Reals CSIs. Connie is currently a professor at Loyola University in Chicago, in their journalism department. She teaches investigative journalism, interviewing, reporting and writing, advanced reporting, ethics and communication, and literary journalism at Loyola University Chicago. Fletcher has both a Ph.D. in English literature and an MA in English literature from Northwestern University. She also has a degree in BA classics and English from Loyola University Chicago. She is a best-selling author of five books. Her most recent book isEvery Contact Leaves a Trace. Her works of writing has been featured and published in the Chicago Sun-Times, the Chicago Tribune, and the New York Times Book Review. She has also been featured on Oprah!, CNN and WGN radio. She has been recognized in the book, The Best 300 Professors, published by Random House/ Princeton Review.

Introduction:

The book begins by comparing the difference between the television show CSI and real crime investigations. It is from the author’s point of view, describing how police officers have always said that their work is not like how it is shown on CSI. She then describes what motivated her to write this book, that there was an excessive amount of inconsistencies in CSI, that did not seem to correlate or make sense with real life scenarios. She describes the process of talking with the different forensic scientists. She found their work very fascinating and relatable. Forensic scientists are very invested in their work, much more than simply focusing on the science of the issues. They truly enjoy the story and the mystery.

Chapter 1: Crime Scene Processing

This chapter discusses crime scene processing. It talks about the initial stages of an investigation, which takes place directly at the crime scene. It begins by talking about how they begin with the collection of evidence. When they initially get to the scene, they have to determine what type of crime was committed, the location of the crime scene, if the victim is there, and if there is a suspect. The first type of evidence collected is fragile evidence, such as fingerprints, as they need to protect this evidence before it gets lost or altered. It is very important that no contamination occurs at the crime scene. The scientists have to be very careful about where they walk and everything they touch. When assessing the body, they try to look at everything that may provide them with information about the scene. They carefully assess anything involving a gun shot, such as the entry and exit points. They try to reconstruct the scene, in order to determine what happened, in what time sequence, and to identify the correct positioning of all people and items involved in the crime scene. One method of doing reconstruction is by bloodstain pattern analysis. It was also discussed the mental and physical effects of analyzing crime scenes on the forensic scientists. It can be very mentally damaging and very draining.

· Terminology:

· Fragile evidence: evidence that will lose its evidentiary value if it is not preserved and protected properly. It may lose its value either because of its nature and characteristics or because of the conditions at the crime scene. (pg. 15)

· Luminol: used to detect trace amounts of blood at crime scenes, as it reacts with the iron in hemoglobin. (pg.16)

· Serology: the scientific study or diagnostic examination of blood serum, especially with regard to the response of the immune system to pathogens or introduced substances

· Latent print processing: most common method is by dusting a smooth or nonporous surface with finger print powder. The fingerprint powder is usually black granular, aluminum flake, or black magnetic. If the prints appear, they are photographed then lifted with clear tape. The clear tape is then put on a latent lift card in order to preserve the print. An alternate light source may also be used to emit a particular wavelength or spectrum of light, which produces a clear image of the fingerprint. (pg.24)

· Probative evidence: evidence which is sufficiently used to prove something important in a trial

· Evidence technician: assigned to the Investigation division, is responsible for collecting, receipting, storing and controlling physical evidence (34)

· Bloodstain pattern evidence: can be very useful in reconstructing a scene, they look at 3 things- size, shape, and distribution of stains. The size of the stain shows how the stain was formed. The distribution shows where the event started and where it then continued. The shape of the stain shows the angle at which the blood struck the surface (35)

· Hungarian Red: used for staining impressions found in blood

· Luco-Crystal Violet: it reacts with the heme-group in blood to give off a violet color. It can either be used to identify nonvisible bloodstains or to enhance and give contract to visible blood stain patterns. It is a presumptive test for blood

· Malachite Green: detection method for latent blood

· First Uniform Cop: Job is to secure and protect the evidence in the crime scene. They have to identify, isolate and secure the scene but using ropes or barriers. This restricts the access to the crime scene and prevents any destruction of evidence.

· Sherlock Holmes: He was “a master of observation” (pg. 25) He used trace evidence, fingerprints, ballistics and handwriting analysis to evaluate theories.

· Fingerprint Analysis: a device was developed where you can rotate a curved surface, and get the photograph with the open-shutter camera on film so you can get the entire fingerprint (pg. 22)

· Grid search: performed by 2 or more people overlapping separate line searches forming a grid (pg. 24)

· Strip search: used by 1 or 2 investigators that walk in straight lines across a crime scene (pg. 25)

· Spiral search: the investigator moves in either an inward or outward spiral (pg. 25)

· Firearm analysis: use 2 points of reference: where the bullets enters and exits or if the bullet passes through an object. (pg. 38) A firearms examiner will perform the analysis of the firearm evidence. The evidence can include bullet fragments, cartridge cases, firearms, and shot shell wads and pellets. They want to get residue from the suspected shooter to see if he/she has recently been in contact with the firearm. The second type of residue is items like the victims clothing to determine the distance between the firearm and the victim. The firearms examiner has been trained to know an extensive amount of information about firearms and ammunition, evidence detection, recovering, handing and examining and many more. In the lab, they often use measuring devices to weight and measure the bullet evidence They also use microscopes to study class characteristics of the evidence.

· Quotes

· “Rule number one for people who conduct reconstruction: Keep an open mind. Don’t develop a TV syndrome, where you think, in two seconds, “Okay I’ve got it!” Reconstruction is not always straightforward. It’s not always a black-and-white issue. Presence of evidence is important. Absence of evidence may be equally important” (36)

· Important Cases:

· There was a homicide at an outdoor part in the snow. There were many different footprints leading different ways. They used luminol to determine the direction of where the blood trail led to.

· Homicide case in 2000:

· A women and her daughter were murdered

· A paramedic went into their apartment and threw up in the sink, they thought he was the killer

· There was a break-in and a murder in a cabin. They had to build a fire to warm up the place, in order to do latent fingerprint processing.

· A guy was found dead in his apartment, lying in a puddle of blood in his bathroom. There was a knife in his neck. There were footprints that led away from the body, yet stopped at the door. The guy went to the bathroom and tried to cut himself several times, without success. He walked to the door, before deciding to go through with killing himself. He walked back to the bathroom on his previous footsteps because he didn’t want to make more of a mess.

· Missing Asian women:

· Her relatives hadn’t heard from her, and her husband kept changing story about where she was

· He withdrew a large amount of money from her bank account, he had gambling debts

· A sleeper sofa from his basement was missing, when they sprayed luminol it glowed in the area the sofa was and going towards the bathroom and up the stairs

· They searched stool and found tissue pieces stuck to it

· They found the tip of a finger in the drain

· A trashcollector had come to pick up the sofa, but wanted to keep it for himself

· New residents moved into the husband’s home, they found a small machete wrapped in newspapers stuffed in the chimney

· In a crawl space in their home, they found some boxes, behind them they found a stained strip of fabric, which was a part of the sofa

· It had human blood stained across it, they got DNA to determine it was from a family member of the relatives

· Six-person homicide in flint Michigan:

· In a drug house, vie for power within the drug family

· 2 people when the scene first started, the suspect killed them both

· after 2 people enter the house, then 2 more

· suspect killed them in pairs as they entered the house

· the suspect used guns from the house, they found many bullets from this crime and from other previous times

· several weapons used, a handgun and a revolver

· there were fingerprints on the shotgun

· References

· "Securing and Searching the Crime Scene." Securing and Searching the Crime Scene. Pearson Education, 2011. Web. 01 Nov. 2016.