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This course provides an overview of the most commonly used scientific laboratory methods, instrumentation, and strategies used by forensic scientists in their laboratory analysis, characterization, and individualization of the physical evidence collected in a criminal investigation. A historical overview of the forensic sciences and of the contemporary system of American forensic science laboratories is explored. Students survey the types of physical evidence collected in criminal investigation and the scientific methods and instrumentation used in forensic science laboratories to analyze the physical evidence. Students review modern DNA analysis and the statistical context in which the results of DNA analysis are interpreted. Each course will be taught by a guest lecturer specializing in a particular topic:
William Wilson - Crime Scene, Ballistics, Blood Spatter
Mike Deckelman & Dennis O'Halloran - Arson
James DeFrancesco - Instrumentation
Michael Murphy - Fingerprints
Dr. Karl Larson - Toxicology & Anabolic Steroids
Chris Palenik - Microscopy/Trace
Larry Olson - Document Examination
Terry A. Dal Cason -Drugs
Dr. Sandy Zabel - DNA
Additional Information:
Required Text: Criminalistics: An Introduction to Forensic Science by Richard Saferstein, 9th edition.
In the other 2 courses in the program, you learn what forensic science can do. In this course, you learn what gets into the courtroom, what is kept out, and why. Scientific proof and legal proof are not the same; and it is not "evidence" until it is allowed into a courtroom. You will learn how to authenticate a forensic exhibit, and what it takes to qualify as a forensic expert, and why even DNA results can be kicked out of a courtroom. You will learn the role that forensic evidence plays at the different stages of a case, and how constitutional rights can limit the collection of forensic evidence. This course is ideal for "first responders" such as police officers and nurses; journalists; high school science and government teachers; attorneys and paralegals; and anyone who is interested in becoming an expert witness, from an anthropologist to a psychologist.
Course Materials: Forensic Evidence, 2nd Edition. Kiely, Terrance Federal Rules of Evidence, 2008 edition, with advisory committee notes. (Aspen Publishers, edited by Mueller & Kirkpatrick)
Investigation of Death & Death Scenes FOREN 375-0
This course provides an overview of the medical examiner's most commonly used laboratory methods, instrumentation, and strategies used during the medico-legal investigation of human remains and of death scenes. Included are descriptions of the unique functions of the medical examiner's facility within the contemporary criminal justice system, followed by an overview of the laboratory methods and instrumentation used in forensic pathology. Unique contributions and scientific laboratory methods used by other types of forensics specialists are explored. Each course will be taught by a guest lecturer specializing in a particular topic:
Dr. Mitra Kalelkar, Deputy Chief Medical Examiner, Cook County - Introduction
Dr. J. Scott Denton, Assistant Chief Medical Examiner, Cook County - Decomposed and Skeletal Remains
Dr. Claire Cunliffe, Assistant Medical Examiner, Cook County - Natural Disease
Dr. James Filkins, J.D., Assistant Corporation Counsel, City of Chicago - Thermal, Electrical and Lightning Injury
Dr. J. Scott Denton, Assistant Chief Medical Examiner, Cook County - Gunshot Wounds
Dr. Nancy Jones, Assistant Medical Examiner, Cook County - Sharp Injuries
Dr. Nancy Jones, Assistant Medical Examiner, Cook County - Blunt Trauma and Child Abuse
Dr. Claire Cunliffe, Assistant Medical Examiner, Cook County - Motor Vehicle Accidents
Dr. Adrienne Segovia, Assistant Medical Examiner, Cook County - Asphyxial Deaths, Drug and Alcohol Related Deaths
