{"id":9211,"date":"2021-09-06T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-09-06T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=9211"},"modified":"2021-09-09T08:10:20","modified_gmt":"2021-09-09T12:10:20","slug":"how-crime-scene-investigations-really-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=9211","title":{"rendered":"How Crime Scene Investigations Really Work"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Author and former U.S. Army forensic pathologist (and professional Santa) Bradley Harper<\/a> led a fascinating seminar at the recent Killer Nashville conference that provided a bit of \u201cthe inside story\u201d (you should pardon the expression) on autopsies and crime scene investigations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His opening analogy was an interesting digression with a distinguished pedigree. He said Aristotle maintained there are only three arguments: Blame, Values, and Choice. Fixing blame is what forensics tries to do, and blame always relates to events that happened in the past tense. Values, he said, are always argued in the present tense (\u201cwe believe in. . .\u201d), and choices are argued in the future tense. When two people are arguing, if one is using the past tense (blame), and the other is using present or future tense, they will never agree. This is a handy trick to remember next time you\u2019re setting up a fictional confrontation!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Forensics is even older than Aristotle. It began in China about 3000 years ago when a murder occurred, with the assailant presumed to be part of a particular guard unit. The magistrate asked each guard member to lay his sword on a table. Then they waited. Before long, one and only one of the swords was covered with flies, attracted by the invisible traces of blood still on the sword.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fast-forward to 19th <\/sup>century France and the efforts of numerous men of science to bring scientific methods to the analysis and systematization of crime investigations. Advances in photography, fingerprinting, and the standardization of autopsy procedures elevated the field. These pioneers\u2019 accomplishments soon found their way into literature, starting with Edgar Allan Poe\u2019s detective, C. Auguste Dupin. And then there was Sherlock Holmes. In 1910, a devoted Holmes fan, Frenchman Edmond Locard, set up the world\u2019s first crime lab. You\u2019ll remember Locard as the man who developed the exchange principle: \u201cevery contact leaves a trace.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what happens with in an autopsy? Harper said the steps include: verify the deceased\u2019s identity (preferably with a thumbprint); take a full-body x-ray; make an external examination; U.S. pathologists use a Y incision and remove the top of the skull to reveal the internal organs and brain, any of which may be taken out for further analysis if necessary; analyze stomach contents, blood, urine, spinal fluid, the vitreous humor of the eye, etc; and take lots of pictures throughout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read More<\/strong>:
The Three Basic Issues<\/a> (from Thank You for Arguing<\/em>)
The Virtual Autopsy<\/a> \u2013 explore online!
The Exchange Principle<\/a>
Autopsy: A Screenwriter\u2019s Guide<\/a>
The Nutshell Studies<\/a> of Frances Glessner Lee<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Author and former U.S. Army forensic pathologist (and professional Santa) Bradley Harper led a fascinating seminar at the recent Killer Nashville conference that provided a bit of \u201cthe inside story\u201d (you should pardon the expression) on autopsies and crime scene … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"How Crime Scene Investigations Really Work -- the inside story from a former US Army forensic pathologist and professional Santa. (!)","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[52,54,174,29],"tags":[1905],"class_list":["post-9211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crime","category-detective","category-first-draft-blog","category-writing","tag-forensics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-2oz","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9211"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9211\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9215,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9211\/revisions\/9215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}