Forensics Mid-term Study Guide
Forensics Final Study Guide
Please complete questions on a separate sheet of paper.
Chapter 1/History *(Use notes)
1. Define Forensic Science:
2. Why are these people important in Forensic Science?
a) Lattes f) Locard
b) Orfilia g) Galton
c) Osborn h) Gross
d) Goddard i) Bertillion
e) Hoover
3. Name three reasons for why there’s been an increase in crime labs across America in the last 25 years?
4. Describe these main units of every crime lab? What does each one study?**
a) Biology unit d) Ballistics/Firearms
b) Drug unit e) Physical Science
c) Chemistry
5. What was the “Frye Standard”? Describe the concept of “general acceptance” as it relates to forensic evidence. How are the Federal Rules of Evidence different?
6. What makes an expert witness an “expert”?
7. What is the cooling of body post mortem called? If forensic experts find a man in his home and record his body temperature at 94 degrees F at 12:00pm, approximately what time did he die?
8. What are the 5 main categories of death?
9. Know the following definitions: rigor mortis, livor mortis, algor mortis, autopsy
10. Describe the subdivisions/subunits of a crime lab?
a) Anthropology d) Odontology
b) Psychiatry e) evidence collection
c) Pathology f) entomology
Chapter 2 – The Crime Scene
1) What are the duties of the first officer arriving on the scene of the crime?
2) What are the basic methods of crime scene recording?
3) What is a rough sketch? What is the purpose of a CAD program?
4) What would be some physical evidence from a hit-and-run scene?
5) When should note-taking be done?
6) Explain how physical evidence can be packaged. Think about different types of evidence (blood, clothing, charred debris, fingernail scrapings, etc.)
7) What is a chain of custody? Who is responsible for maintaining this?
8) What is a standard reference sample?
9) What is the difference between direct and circumstantial evidence?
10) What is the difference between class and individual evidence? Provide 2 examples for each.
11) What are the four types of search strategies? Why would you use each?
12) What is a paper bindle/druggist fold used for?
Chapter 3 - Hair and Fiber Analysis
1. Where are the cuticle, medulla, and cortex on the hair?
2. What protein makes up most of the hair?
3. What are the types of medullas?
4. How can you tell the differences between human and animal hair (think scale pattern and medullary index)
5. Explain the proper collection of hair evidence.
6. Is hair considered class or individual evidence? Explain.
7. What kind of DNA can you get from hair? (2 types)
8. What are destructive and nondestructive tests? Which one should always be done first? Why?
9. Be able to explain the three stages of hair growth.
Chapter 6 - Fingerprints
1. What are fingerprints? Where do they develop in the skin?
2. Be able to perform the Henry System of Classification.
3. What are the fundamental principles of fingerprints (3)?
4. What are the three major ridge patterns and their subclasses?
5. Know the common ridge details of a print name 5 or 6 here.
6. Distinguish latent, plastic, and visible prints.
7. Indicate the appropriate way to collect prints off of hard surfaces (glass, plastic, metal)
8. List the techniques for developing latent fingerprints on porous and nonporous objects (chemical treatments).
Chapter 7 – DNA Fingerprinting
What does DNA stand for? In what two places may you find it in the cell? How does the DNA in those two places differ?
Describe the three parts/structure of a nucleotide.
What are the four nitrogenous base pairs found in DNA? Explain their complimentary base pairing.
Who developed DNA profiling?
Describe the process of DNA replication.
What is the purpose of restriction enzymes?
What are STRs and why are they not considered “junk DNA”?
What does RFLP stand for? PCR? Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of analyzing DNA using both methods. May need a Saferstein book for this one.
Describe the process of electrophoresis.
In electrophoresis, the bands found towards the top of the wells are _________________and travel _____________, whereas the bands found towards the bottom of the wells are _________________ and travel _______________.
What does CODIS stand for?
Why would we use Y-STR analysis? mDNA analysis?
Know how to properly package and preserve items with DNA.
Aside from violent crimes, name 2 other purposes for DNA profiling.
Name 2 sources of DNA that may be found on a baseball bat.
What is touch DNA? Low Cope Number analysis?
* See website for similar DNA study guide *
Chapter 8 – Blood and Blood Spatter (Use text and PP notes)
1. In regards to blood cells, what is an antigen? Antibody?
2. What are the components of blood?
3. What are the three types of antigens that can be found on the red blood cells?
4. A person with type A blood has ______ antigens and ______ antibodies. Who can they donate to? Receive from?
5. A person with type B blood has ______ antigens and ______ antibodies. Who can they donate to? Receive from?
6. A person with type AB blood has ______ antigens and ______ antibodies. Who can they donate to? Receive from?
7. A person with type O blood has ______ antigens and ______ antibodies. Who can they donate to? Receive from?
8. What is agglutination? How do you test for blood type?
9. Which blood type has the highest frequency (most common) in the US? Which is the least frequent?
10. Name 5 pieces of physical (not biological) information you can get from a blood stain.
11. What is a blood spatter? What are the 5 major categories of blood stains?
12. Provide an example of how a wipe pattern would form. Example of transfer?
13. Know the differences between a low, medium, and high velocity impact pattern.
14. What is a projected stain? What is a cast-off stain? How can you determine the number of strikes made with a weapon?
15. Explain the characteristics of a stain caused by an arterial spurt.
16. Let’s say that some blood drops fell from a vertical surface. What does the size of the blood stain usually indicate? How do you measure the size?
17. How can you tell if a person was “on the move” with a bloody hand or nose for example?
18. What is a passive stain?
19. Why is it important to know the angle of impact? How do blood drops that originated from an acute angle differ in shape from those that are dropped from a vertical?
20. What’s another name for the secondary blood drops that form when some blood breaks free from the main contact (parent) drop?
21. What are some chemical tests that are used to determine if a blood stain is indeed blood?
Chapter 11 – Death: Meaning, Manner, Mechanism, Cause, and Time
1. What is the definition of death?
2. What is the difference between manner, cause, and mechanism of death? A man, who could not swim, was pushed off a boat and drowned. What is the manner, cause, and mechanism of death in this case?
3. What is the primary purpose of an autopsy?
4. What is livor mortis? What is the timeline for this post mortem condition? Is it permanent or temporary? What factors affect the rate of this condition? How does each factor alter the rate?
5. What is rigor mortis? What is the timeline for this post mortem condition? Is it permanent or temporary? What factors affect the rate of this condition? How does each factor alter the rate?
6. What is algor mortis? What is the timeline for this post mortem condition? Is it permanent or temporary? What factors affect the rate of this condition?
7. List the timeline for how stomach and intestinal contents can decipher time of death.
8. What is the approximate post mortem interval if…
a) the skin shows blistering?
b) fluids begin to leak from body openings?
c) the skin takes on a marbled appearance?
d) the corpse bloats with carbon dioxide?
9. What is forensic entomology?
10. What is the approximate post mortem interval if you find very large maggots on the body?
11. What would you expect to find on or around the body 8-12 days post mortem?
12. What factors can influence the rate of blowfly development?
13. A naked, male corpse was found at 8am on Tuesday. The air temperature was already 81 degrees Fahrenheit. The body exhibited some stiffness in the face and eyelids and had a body temperature of 93.9 degrees Fahrenheit. Livor mortis was not evident.
a) Approximately how long ago did the man die? Justify your answer.
b) Would clothing on the body have made a difference in determining the time of death? Why or why not?
c) What stage of blowfly development would you expect to see on this corpse?
Safersein Text (Ch 5) – Organic Analysis – refer to notes I gave to you
1. Know the difference between organic and inorganic compounds. What are some organic compounds that are analyzed using organic instrumentation?
2. What is chromatography? What are the different phases of matter?
3. What is gas chromatography? How would you categorize the stationary and moving phases?
4. What are some advantages to using gas chromatography?
5. What is one major advantage to using High Performance Liquid Chromatography?
6. Describe the moving and stationary phases in Thin Layer Chromatography. What must be done to visualize the compounds that are separtated?
7. How do you calculate the Rf value of components on a chromatogram?
8. What can be separated using electrophoresis?
9. A spectrophotometer is an instrument that measures…
10. How are UV and infrared spectroscopy different?
11. What are some advantages to using mass spectrometry?
Saferstein Text (Ch 6) – Inorganic Analysis
1. What are destructive and non-destructive tests? Which one should always be performed first?
2. What types of evidence are examined using inorganic instrumentation?
3. What is the basis of the emission spectrum? How are the “lines” produced?
4. How do atoms achieve an “excited” state?
5. How do atoms later lose that “excitement”?
6. Describe how neutron activation analysis works. For what types of evidence would we use NAA?
Other Topics We Discussed This Year
1. What is forensic anthropology? (Refer to Ch 13 in text and “Recovering the Romanovs” worksheet)
2. What are three pieces of information that we can establish from a skeleton?
3. What are some skeletal differences between males and females?
4. How are you able to distinguish whether bones are from an adult or child?
5. There are 200 students in your class and you want to find the likelihood that a student in this class would have blonde hair. You count 30 students that have blonde hair. Using your probability handout, determine the probability (P) of finding a student in your class with blonde hair. Show in both fraction and decimal form. ** Bring calculators to final exam.
6. Using this same probability, determine the number of students in the school (student body 850) that would likely have blonde hair.
Foot and Tool Mark Impressions
1. What is the difference between class and individual characteristics? Provide at least 2 examples of each.
2. What is the difference between a print and an impression?
3. How can something like a shoe print/impression be individualized?
Drugs and Toxicology
1. Name and classify the common abused drugs.
2. Describe some lab tests commonly used for drug identification. How do they test for marijuana?
3. Explain how alcohol is absorbed into the bloodstream, transported through the body, and finally eliminated by oxidation and excretion.
4. How does the Breathalyzer work? Discuss some common field sobriety tests.
5. How is someone’s blood alcohol concentration usually measured?
6. What are some methods that toxicologists use for isolating and identifying drugs and poisons?
7. Refer to Drugs/Tox packet. Study multiple choice. Some of the SAME questions will be asked on the final exam.
EXAMS
** Level 7 – Tuesday, May 27th 7:30-9:00am
** Level 5, Wednesday, May 28th 7:30-9:00am
Both classes should report directly to Room 116 for their exam. Bring pens, pencils, and a calculator.
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