Accelerant:
A booster such as gasoline, kerosene, or paint thinner added to make a
fire burn faster.
Criminal Justice:
The entire system of crime prevention and detection, apprehension of
suspects, arrest, trial adjudication of guilty or innocence, and
handling of guilty by correctional agencies, together with the
executive, legislative and judicial rules governing these procedures and
processes.
Circumstantial Evidence:
Evidence which proves a fact through inference or logical association
with other facts.
Forensic Anthropology:
A branch of anthropology which deals with the examination of skeletal
remains, usually for the purpose of identifying the remains.
Forensic Auditing:
The application of accounting and auditing disciplines to matters in
litigation or debate.
Forensic Ballistics:
The science of detecting and identifying lethal bullets and the firearms
from which they were fired.
Forensic Case Work:
Specialized training to professionals in the fields of criminal justice,
mental health, or social services. Course work concentrates on the
nature of the offender and the offense, the designated systems that
treat or otherwise manage the offender, issues and interventions in case
work and the legal and ethical issues that confront the workers in the
system.
Forensic Chemistry:
Chemistry applied to questions of law.
Forensic Medicine:
The application of the various types of medical knowledge to the purpose
of the law. Forensic medicine includes anatomy, toxicology, chemistry,
botany and other fields of science that may be used in court to support
or dispute a case.
Forensic Nursing:
Forensic Nursing is the application of nursing science to public or
legal proceedings and the integration of the forensic aspects of health
care with the bio-psycho-social education of the professional nurse.
Students are prepared to deal with the prevention, scientific
investigation, and treatment of victims of trauma and/or death as well
as the investigation and treatment of perpetrators of abuse, violence,
criminal activity and trauma accidents.
Forensic Odontology:
A branch of dentistry which deals with the analysis of dental evidence,
such as teeth, jaw bones, and oral tissue, usually for the purpose of
identifying dead persons.
Forensic Palynology:
Palynology is the study of pollen and spores. Forensic Palynology
involves using pollen and spore data to place an object or person in a
specific location or to limit the available possible locations. This is
possible because the same mix of pollen (from different trees, bushes
and grasses) will only occur where those same sources grow together.
Forensic Pathology:
A specialty in medicine that deals with the determination of the causes
of death, especially unnatural deaths. A forensic pathologist is
typically a medical examiner or coroner who performs autopsies.
Forensic Photography:
A crime laboratory function which utilizes specialized photographic
techniques to make visible latent evidence which is not otherwise
visible to the unaided human eye. Forensic photography is typically used
to examine alterations and obliterations to documents, laundry marks and
handwriting.
Forensic Psychiatry:
Psychiatric knowledge applied to questions of law, as in the
determination of insanity. Forensic psychiatry is concerned with
psychiatry is concerned with psychiatric advice or opinion on a crime, a
defendant, or a convicted offender.
Forensic Science:
The application of chemistry, physics and other sciences to the
examination of physical evidence within the context of the legal
process.
Forensic Serology:
The study of examination of blood and other body fluids in a crime
laboratory.
Forensic Sociology:
The study of social factors which influence the application of science
and medicine to law, specially in how social factors influence death
investigation.
Forensic Toxicology:
The biomedical science that studies the effect of foreign substances
introduced into the living body. A forensic toxicologist assist the
criminal investigative function by analyzing urine, blood, organs and
tissues for poisons, drugs, alcohol and other foreign substances.
Investigative Psychology:
Investigative Psychology introduces a more scientific and systematic
basis to previously subjective approaches to police investigations. This
behavioral science contribution is best thought of as working at various
levels, from that of the crime itself, through the gathering of
information and on to the actions of police officers working to identify
the criminal.
