Evidences Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Evidences - Essay Example 79). The principle also posits that the more violent the contact, the higher the possibility of the transfer and that a person’s body, including his clothing, is a rich source of trace materials that he accumulated from contact with things, persons and places. The main advantage of trace evidence is that their microscopic nature allows their transfer from one surface to another without detection by the naked eyes. However, trace evidence are not treated with equal weight when presented as evidence in courts but their value are considered on a case to case basis. Trace evidence include, among others, fingerprints, DNA, hair, lint from clothes, scratched paint, broken glass and dirt in shoes (Mozayani & Noziglia 2006 p 265). Trace evidence are processed in the laboratory by a trace evidence analyst, also known as a forensic scientist, and these microscopic evidence are characterized, identified and compared with other trace evidence in other cases, and introduced in court to comprise the evidence of a party (Houck 2003 p 1). Before they are processed however, they need to be collected carefully from the scene of the crime. It was Locard who recommended that trace evidence that can be seen by a magnifier should be collected using tweezers or needles and placed in folded paper packets. On the other hand, garments or clothing can be scraped, brushed or shaken for trace evidence over clean paper. When trace evidence are completely invisible to the naked eye, Dr. Max Frei-Sulzer of the Zurich Police Department Crime Laboratory recommended using tr ansparent tape over the suspected area as a means of lifting the trace material. The same method of tape lift, albeit of a different type, can be used on gunshot residue (GSR) particles. GSR are examined under a scanning electron microscopy (SEM) which are collected from the hands or clothing of the suspect, particularly in areas where the gun made contact after it was fired (Mozayani & Noziglia 2006 p 266). The