CRJS470-DB3 Name Class Date Professor

CRJS470-DB3 Sexual assault is a crime when the criminal offender forces sexual activity onto an unwilling victim. In this type of crime there are usually critical bodily fluids such as semen, sweat, hair and blood left on the victims body and clothes as well as on the bedding or in the area where the victim was attacked. When collecting evidence it is essential that any evidence that is located at the scene or on the victim is carefully collected and preserved in order to be later used in a court of law to prove the guilt of the criminal offender. When there is a sexual assault that involves a live witness it is important to get information form the victim in order to collect and preserve relevant evidence as well as the carefully examine the scene to identify potential evidence.(Schiro, 2010). When recovering evidence from bedding or clothing there are specific forensic procedures that need to be followed. When recovering semen from bedding or clothing the forensic investigator will need to collect the evidence and place the entire thing in a dry paper bag before carefully labeling and transporting to the lab. Visible hair would need to be collected off the bedding using tweezers and placed in separate small coin envelope. Each bag will be carefully documented. While DNA is one of the best tests for hair evidence there are other types of tests are available for hair recovered from a crime scene. One test is a hair mineral test that will provide the forensic investigator with information concerning the type of drugs or even poisons located in the hair as well as any heavy metals or other toxins (Curtis, 2010). Hair can be analyzed through the Microscopic hair analysis for it characteristics such as color, length, type of body hair, and determine if it belongs to a human or animal.

When DNA is recovered at a crime scene the investigators will attempt to match the created profile to suspects in the case or know offenders stored in the DNA database. The CODIS database or Combined DNA Index System is the national database where DNA profiles are stored. This database allows law enforcement agencies and forensic investigators to share and compare DNA profiles in order to match them to the genetic profile left at the crime scene (DNA Initiative, 2011). The biological sample that is left at the crime scene is matched to genetic profiles already stored in the database.

References Curtis, J. (2010). Hair Analysis. WebMD. Retrieved September 7, 2011 from http://www.webmd.com/skin-problems-and-treatments/hair-loss/hair-analysis DNA Initiative (2011). Combined DNA Index System (CODIS). Retrieved September 7, 2011 from http://www.dna.gov/dna-databases/codis Schiro, G. (2010). Special Considerations for Sexual Assault Evidence. Retrieved September 7, 2011 from http://www.crime-scene-investigator.net/evidenc4.html