Even the greatest crime investigator in history relied on the only true witness "evidence "to solve a crime. Although fictitious, Sherlock Holmes' techniques of intense observation and logical application of detail inspire the basis of solving any crime. Those skills, added to today's growing technology allow police efforts to successfully conduct an investigation. Since evidence is stable and will not change its story once in front of the jury, or forget what it saw, those who collect, analyze, and interpret the crime scene play a very important role. Forensic science is science applied to answering legal questions. Under the rules of forensics, evidence is broken down into four categories: .
Testimony - statements from witnesses under oath.
Direct evidence - eyewitness's accounts.
Circumstantial evidence - information that may disprove or prove a point.
Real/physical evidence - any tangible article (fingerprints, weapons, blood, etc). .
It is the accumulation of all the above evidence types that weigh down the case at hand. .
Physical evidence is attained through forensic analysis and is most useful in cases involving homicide or foul play. When the call comes into the dispatcher at the police department, notifying the police that there may be a murder, an officer arrives to preserve the crime scene and control the situation until the homicidal unit arrives. Once the expert detectives arrive, there is an assessment of tiny details to large details that were noted about the crime scene. Examples of the more obvious noted details are like whether or not the lights are on, or if the doors are open or closed, and location of furniture as well as the body. The rest of the process is handled by various individuals with a certain area of specialty. Once of the most crucial facts to determine is time of death. Along with witness accounts and such, postmortem (after-death) changes are the most accurate because of the known fact that when we breathe, oxygen comes into lungs and is circulated through our system by passage of blood cells.
