NCJ Number
82953
Date Published
Unknown
Length
8 pages
Annotation
This paper presents the first phase of a recommended national criminalistics research program geared to the goals of NILECJ under authority of the Omnibus Crime Control Act.
Abstract
The program is designed to improve the effectiveness of the criminalistics operation, the overall function of which is to provide scientific support in the administration of justice. Criminalistics operation provides a means for examining and interpreting physical clue materials. It makes specific contributions to four major functions of the investigative process: discovery of clues, reconstruction of events, development of suspects, and demonstration of the positive or negative relationship of a specific suspect to an unlawful act. With regard to the discovery of clue materials, there is no doubt that potential physical evidence goes undiscovered in a large number of criminal investigations. Institute goals therefore focus on establishing the value of the criminalistics operation, organizing criminalistics operations so that they can handle increasing caseloads, and providing for better discovery and collection of clue materials. Turning to the reconstruction of events, goals center on establishing an educational process that produces the required number of criminalists. It is difficult to pinpoint specific needs with respect to the function of development of suspects; the one possible exception is latent fingerprints. The strongest contribution of criminalistics to the investigative process is the demonstration of a relationship between the suspect and the unlawful act. Current project areas of criminalistics research include analysis of the criminalistics operation, analysis of blood traces, and determination of major and trace elements. Figures and 17 references are included.