Part I
Home Invasion-The Importance of Forensic Evidence
One of the most powerful parts of a case against a criminal can be the forensic evidence that is collected and presented. Dramatic breakthroughs in both the scientific and technological fields have greatly impacted the criminal justice system.
A recent crime wave has swept your city. Imagine you came home last night to find your house had been burglarized. Understandably, the police and crime lab are overworked and in need of help. Physical evidence (meaning any materials at the scene of the crime that could be valuable to a criminal case) was collected by crime scene technicians at the house and from a possible getaway car and is listed below. You will need to:
Choose the three most important types of evidence collected from the link below
Define the physical properties of the evidence collected
Explain what information can be found from this evidence
Hypothesize how the evidence could be used in the investigation.
Review the evidence that was collected from the crime scene.
Note that although this is largely a hypothetical investigation, the description of a material and how it is tested will be factual and you will need to conduct research using the Kaplan Library to identify reliable sources. The final results and importance of the evidence in an investigation will be up to your interpretation and largely hypothetical.
Review the link below for additional information.
Source: National Institute of Justice. (n.d.) Forensic Science. Retrieved from http://www.nij.gov/topics/forensics/pages/welcome.aspx.
Assignment: Choose three pieces of evidence from the list presented above and complete the questions in the Assignment template.
Submitting Your Assignment
Save your copy of the Assignment in a location and with a name that you will remember. Be sure to use the "Save As" option to include your first and last name in the title of the document. For example, your Assignment might be called Shawn_Edwards_Assignment8.doc.
When you are ready, submit it to the Dropbox. For help using the Dropbox click the Additional Help button below.
ID: SC250-08-10-A
Part II
Topic: Age Is Relative
The question of age can be applied to humans, clothing, food, furniture and fossils. Doctors study how humans age and can observe how hair turns grey and skin becomes wrinkled. Rocks and other organic materials do not always provide observers the same outward changes.
In order to determine the age of a material; including human bones, radiometric dating can be applied. Determining the amount of radioactive isotopes in a geological or archeological specimen can help decipher its relative age. Since all rocks and minerals contain radioactive elements, the decay process is like a clock that a geologist can read since different radioactive elements have independent "clocks" or half-lives.
For this unit, answer the following questions:
1. Pick TWO of the following and describe how radiometric dating has been utilized to determine their age:
a. Earth
b. Moon
c. Meteorites
d. Fossils
e. Early man
f. Historic relics (i.e., Dead Sea Scrolls, Shroud of Turin)
g. Volcanic eruptions
2. Identify one element used to date rocks and minerals. How long is its half-life?
3. How can radioactivity be measured?
4. Rocks, minerals, and even food we eat can contain radioactive material. Why doesn't this radioactive material comprise a threat to humans?
5. What is an alternative method to radiometric dating? What are the strengths and weaknesses to this type of dating process?
Be sure to review the Discussion Board Grading Rubric provided under course home.
For help with citations, refer to the APA Quick Reference Guide .
Use this reference when referring to your text:
Trefil, J., & Hazen, R.M. (2013). The sciences: An integrated approach. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.