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Metropolitan Community College
COURSE OUTLINE FORM
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Course Title: Introduction to Forensic Crime Scene Investigation
Course Prefix & No:
LEC: LAB:
Credit Hours:
CRIM 2260
4.5
None
4.5
COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course provides an overview of the basic concepts of forensic crime scene
investigations. The course reviews the basic principles used by crime scene investigators. Topics include
protecting the crime scene as a first responder, processing and establishing evidence, and understanding
personnel disciplines that aid in the investigation to include special physical evidence handling
COURSE PREREQUISITE (S): None
RATIONALE: The basic principles used by crime scene investigators are essential to today's criminal justice
students. Therefore, students must have a basic understanding of how to protect a crime scene as a first
responder, process, and establish evidence and understand the personnel disciplines that aid in the investigation,
which includes special physical evidence handling.
REQUIRED TEXTBOOK (S) and/or MATERIALS:
Title:
From the Crime Scene to the Crime Lab
Edition:
Customized for the Criminal Justice Department
Authors:
Lasley
Publisher: Pearson
Materials: Text: Customized for the Criminal Justice Department
Attached course outline written by: Diane Sjuts
Date:
9/1/14
Effective quarter of course outline: Fall, 2014
Reviewed/Revised by: Diane Sjuts
Date: 4/13/16
Dean:
Date: __________
Stacey Ocander
Stacey Ocander
COURSE OBJECTIVES/TOPICAL UNIT OUTLINE/UNIT OBJECTIVE:
TITLE:
Introduction to Forensic Crime Scene Investigation
PREFIX/NO: CRIM 2330
Metropolitan Community College
COURSE OUTLINE FORM
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COURSE OBJECTIVES:
Upon completion of this course, students will gain understanding in the field of Forensic Science. As part of
the Forensic Science curriculum students will:
1. Learn through practical focus and applications; topics are arranged to integrate scientific methodology
with actual forensic applications.
2. Read case studies and discuss cases of notoriety to demonstrate actual applications of forensic science to
real investigations.
3. Discuss the role of the crime scene investigator at the actual crime scene.
4. Learn the step-by-step process of an investigation
5. Review complete coverage of forensic science, which includes crime scene procedures and processes,
and the fundamentals of forensic science techniques in the crime lab.
6. Describe the forensic science applications; such as, document examination and computer forensics.
7. Complete virtual crime scene exercises that enable students to move through various types of crime
scenes while identifying and collecting physical evidence.
TOPICAL UNIT OUTLINE/UNIT OBJECTIVES:
Chapter 1: Introduction
 Define forensic science, and list the major disciplines forensic science encompasses.
 Recognize the major contributors to the development of forensic science
 Account for the rapid growth of forensic laboratories in the past 40 years
 Describe the services of a typical comprehensive crime laboratory in the criminal justice system
 Compare and contrast the Frye/Daubert decisions relating to the admissibility of science
evidence in the courtroom
 Explain the role and responsibilities of the expert witness.
 List the specialized forensic services, aside from the crime laboratory.
Chapter 2: Securing and Searching the Crime Scene
 Discuss the responsibilities of the first police officer who arrives at the crime scene
 Comprehend the role of the lead investigator in the coordinating the crime-scene search
 Describe the conditions at the crime scene that should be given particular notice
 Understand the various search patterns investigators can use to systematically search the crime
scene for evidence
 Appreciate the necessity of documenting all initial observations and evidence collected.
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COURSE OUTLINE FORM
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Chapter 3: Recording the Crime Scene
 Explain the steps to be taken to fully record the crime scene.
 Describe the proper format and content of crime scene notes.
 Understand the basic features of film and digital camera in order to produce examination-quality
photographs.
 Describe the process and importance of creating a rough and a finished crime-scene sketch.
Chapter 4: Collection of Crime-Scene Evidence
 Define physical evidence
 Review the common types of physical evidence encountered at crime scenes.
 Describe proper techniques for handling evidence to avoid damage or contamination.
 Understand collecting and packaging procedures for common types of physical evidence.
 Define and understand the concept of chain of custody.
 List the steps that are typically required to maintain appropriate health and safety standards at the
crime scene.
 Discuss the implications of the Mincey and Tyler cases.
Chapter 5: Physical Evidence
 Describe the role of the forensic pathologist.
 Distinguish cause and manner of death.
 Describe common causes of death.
 Describe the eternal, internal, and toxicology phases of an autopsy.
 List various categories associated with the manner of death.
 Describe chemical and physical changes helpful for estimating time of death.
 Discuss the role of the forensic anthropologist in death investigation.
 Describe the role of the forensic entomologist in death investigation.
Chapter 6: Death Investigation
 Explain the difference between the identification and comparison of physical evidence.
 Define and contrast individual and class characteristics of physical evidence.
 Appreciate the value of class evidence as it relates to a criminal investigation.
 List and explain the function of national databases available to forensic scientists.'
Chapter 7: Crime-Scene Reconstruction
 Define crime-scene reconstruction
 Discuss the ways investigators maintain objectivity during reconstruction.
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Understand the processes of deductive reasoning, inductive reasoning, and falsifiability, and how
these processes are used in reconstruction.
Describe the limitations and fallacies involved in the reconstruction of crime scenes.
Explain the role physical evidence, testimonial evidence, and reenactments play in reconstructing
the events surrounding the commission of a crime.
Describe the utility of an event timeline in a crime-scene reconstruction.
Chapter 8: Fingerprints
 Identify the common ridge characteristics of a fingerprint.
 List the three major fingerprint patterns and their respective subclasses.
 Distinguish visible, plastic, and latent fingerprint.
 Describe the concept of an automated fingerprint identification system (AFIS).
 List the techniques for developing latent fingerprints on porous and nonporous objects.
 Describe the proper procedures for preserving a developed latent fingerprint.
Chapter 9: Firearms, Toolmarks, and Other Impressions
 Describe techniques for rifling a barrel.
 Recognize the class and individual characteristics of bullets and cartridge cases.
 Understand the use of the comparison microscope to compare bullets and cartridge cases.
 Explain the concept of the NIBIN database.
 Explain the procedure for determining how far from a target a weapon was fired.
 Identify the laboratory tests for determining whether an individual has fired a weapon.
 Explain the forensic significance of class and individual characteristics to the comparison of tool
mark, footwear, and tire impressions.
 List some common field reagents used to enhance bloody footprints.
Chapter 10: Bloodstain Pattern Analysis
 Discuss the information that can be gained from bloodstain pattern analysis about the events
involved in a violent crime.
 Explain how surface texture, directionality, and angle of impact affect the shape of individual
bloodstains.
 Calculate the angle of impact of a bloodstain using its dimensions.
 Describe the classifications of low-, medium-, and high- velocity impact spatter and appreciate
how these classifications should be used.
 Discuss the methods of determining the area of convergence and area of origin for impact spatter
patterns.
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COURSE OUTLINE FORM
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Understand how various blood pattern types are created and which features of each pattern can
be used to aid in reconstructing events at a crime scene.
Describe the methods for documenting bloodstain patterns of a crime scene.
Chapter 11: Drugs
 Compare and contrast psychological and physical dependence.
 Name and classify the commonly abused drugs.
 Describe the laboratory tests normally used in a routine drug identification analysis.
 Describe and explain the process of chromatography.
 Explain the difference between thin-layer chromatography and gas chromatography.
 Describe the utility of ultraviolent and infrared spectroscopy for the identification of organic
compounds.
 Describe the concept and utility of mass spectrometry for identification analysis.
 Understand the proper collection and preservation of drug evidence.
Chapter 12: Forensic Toxicology
 Explain how alcohol is absorbed into the bloodstream, transported throughout the body, and
eliminated by oxidation and excretion.
 Understand the process by which alcohol is excreted in the breath via the lungs.
 Understand the concepts of infrared and fuel cell breath-testing devices for alcohol testing.
 Describe commonly employed field sobriety tests to assess alcohol impairment.
 List and contrast laboratory procedures for measuring the concentration of alcohol in the blood.
 Relate the precautions necessary to properly preserve blood in order to analyze its alcohol
content.
 Understand the significance of implied-consent laws and the Schmerber v. California case to
traffic enforcement.
 Describe techniques that forensic toxicologists use to isolate and identify drugs and poisons.
 Appreciate the significance of finding a drug in human tissues and organs as it relates assessing
impairment.
 Describe how to coordinate the drug recognition expert (DRE) program with a forensic
toxicology finding.
Chapter 13: Trace Evidence I: Hairs and Fibers
 Recognize and understand the cuticle, cortex, and medulla areas of hair.
 List the three phases of hair growth.
 Appreciate the distinction between animal and human hairs.
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List hair features that are useful for microscopic comparisons of human hair.
Explain the proper collection of forensic hair evidence.
Describe and understand the role of DNA typing in hair comparison.
Understand the differences between natural and manufactured fibers.
List the properties of fibers that are most useful for forensic comparisons.
Describe the proper collection of fiber evidence.
Chapter 14: Trace Evidence II: Paint, Glass, and Soil
 List the most useful examinations for performing a forensic comparison of plant.
 Understand the application of stereoscopic microscopes, pysrolysis gas chromatography, and
infrared spectrophotometry in forensic paint comparison and examination.
 Define and understand the properties of density and refractive index.
 List and explain forensic methods for comparing glass fragments.
 Understand how to examine glass fractures to determine the direction of impact of a projectile.
 List the important forensic properties of soil.
 Describe the proper collection and preservation methods for forensic paint, glass, and soil
evidence.
Chapter 15: Biological Stain Analysis: DNA
 List the A-B-O antigens and antibodies found in each of the four blood types: A, B, AB, and O.
 List and describe forensic tests used to characterize a stain as blood.
 List the laboratory tests necessary to characterize seminal stains.
 Explain how to properly preserve suspect blood and semen stains for laboratory examination.
 Contrast chromosomes and genes.
 Name the parts of a nucleotide and explain how they are linked together to form DNA.
 Understand the concept of base pairing as it relates to the double-helix structure of DNA.
 Explain the technology of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and how it applies to forensic DNA
typing.
 Understand the concept of base pairing as it relates to the double-helix structure of DNA.
 Understand the DNA-typing techniques known as short tandem repeats (STRs).
 Describe the difference between nuclear and mitochondrial DNA.
 Understand the use of computerized DNA databases in criminal investigation.
 List the necessary procedures for the proper preservation of biological evidence for laboratory
DNA analysis.
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Chapter 16: Forensic Aspects of Fire and Explosion Investigation
 List the conditions necessary to initiate and sustain combustion.
 Recognize the telltale signs of an accelerant-initiate fire.
 Describe how to collect physical evidence at the scene of a suspected arson.
 Describe laboratory procedures used to detect and identify hydrocarbon residues.
 List some common commercial, homemade, and military explosives.
 Describe how to collect physical evidence at the scene of an explosion.
 Describe laboratory procedures used to detect and identify explosive residues.
Chapter 17: Document Examination
 Define questioned document.
 Know what common individual characteristics are associated with handwriting.
 List some important guidelines for collecting known writings for comparison to a questioned
document.
 Recognize some of the class and individual characteristics of printers and photocopiers.
 List some of the techniques document examiners use to uncover alterations, erasures,
obliterations, and variations in pen inks.
Chapter 18: Computer Forensics
 List and describe the hardware and software components of a computer.
 Understand the difference between read-only memory and random-access memory.
 Describe how a hard disk drive is partitioned.
 Describe the proper procedure for preserving computer evidence at a crime scene.
 Understand the difference between and location of visible and latent data.
 List the areas of the computer that will be examined to retrieve forensic data.
 Relate various areas found on the computer where a user's Internet activities can be investigated.
 Describe how e-mails, chat, and instant messages on the internet can be traced and recovered.
 List and describe three locations where investigators may pinpoint the origin of a hacker.
 Describe the types of services offered by modern mobile devices, such as cell phones, and the
potential investigative value they have.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS/EVALUATION:
Upon completion of these course objectives, students will have gained an increased knowledge in the field of
forensics.
Metropolitan Community College
COURSE OUTLINE FORM
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COURSE OBJECTIVES/ASSESSMENT MEASURES
COURSE OBJECTIVES
ASSESSMENT MEASURES
Learn through practical focus and applications; topics
are arranged to integrate scientific methodology with
actual forensic applications.
Test (i.e., written, oral, open book, take home,
multiple choice) and/or reports (i.e. written,
oral, self-report)
Read case studies and discuss cases of notoriety to
demonstrate actual applications of forensic science to
real investigations.
Test (i.e., written, oral, open book, take home,
multiple choice) and/or reports (i.e. written,
oral, self-report)
Discuss the role of the crime scene investigator at the
actual crime scene.
Test (i.e., written, oral, open book, take home,
multiple choice) and/or reports (i.e. written, oral, selfreport)
Learn the step-by-step process of an investigation
Test (i.e., written, oral, open book, take home,
multiple choice) and/or reports (i.e. written, oral, selfreport)
Review complete coverage of forensic science, which
includes crime scene procedures and processes, and
the fundamentals of forensic science techniques in the
crime lab.
Test (i.e., written, oral, open book, take home,
multiple choice) and/or reports (i.e. written, oral, selfreport)
Describe the forensic science applications; such as,
document examination and computer forensics.
Test (i.e., written, oral, open book, take home,
multiple choice) and/or reports (i.e. written, oral, selfreport)