1. Forensic Science
Observation Skills

2. OBSERVATION AND AWARENESS TEST
?funny ad awareness test?? – YouTube
Stop at 25 seconds
How many did you count?

3. Forensic Investigator
Important skills: observe, interpret, and report observations clearly
Identify and record evidence
Determine its significance AFTER collected
The first step is CAREFUL OBSERVATION
Consciously paying attention to the details of your surroundings
Our brains do not naturally do this—they automatically filter out what we deem unimportant

4. Activity
Each row of two tables will have 1 forensic investigator and 3 observers
Pick your investigator now

5. Observation vs. Perception
3 sides to every story
Limited, and may not accurately reflect what is really there
Our brains fill in information that is not really there.
Arocdnicg to rsceearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer are in the rghit pcale. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit pobelrm. Tihs is buseace the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

6. What Influences Observation Skills?
Emotional state
Anxiety, fear, happy, upset, depressed
Alone or with a group of people
Number of people or animals in the area
Activities going on around you
This is how conflicting statements from witnesses arise
Different descriptions of bank robbers
Where were you on 9/11?
People will stick to what they think they saw, even after they have been shown that it is impossible
Ex)Ronald Cotton 20/20 Interview

7. HOW TO BE A GOOD OBSERVER
1. Examine your environment systematically
  We know we are not naturally inclined to pay attention to all of the details of our surroundings
What is your system?
2. Train yourself to turn off your “filters”
Observe everything at a crime scene, as you do not know what will be important
…be data gathering robots

8. HOW TO BE A GOOD OBSERVER
3. Do not interpret or make conclusions until all evidence has been gathered and processed
Don’t make the evidence fit YOUR hypothesis or interpretation, let the evidence create your hypothesis
4. Document and photograph all the information. This is very important when investigators are trying to reconstruct the crime scene.
Also, a judge will not accept evidence that has not been properly documented and photographed

9. WHAT FORENSIC SCIENTISTS DO
Find, examine and evaluate evidence from a crime scene
Act as expert witnesses for the prosecution lawyers
What skills should they possess?
Analytical skills
Patience
Deductive Reasoning (verify facts)
EX) Sherlock Holmes

10. CASE STUDIES Carlo Ferrier (1831) 15 yr old Italian immigrant
Money exchanged for corpses (natural causes of death) at King’s College in London
Three men sentenced to death
Evidence: body was fresh, no marks except for back of neck (blow to back of head), police noticed soft earth in back yard of one of the three men that were questioned The victim’s bloody clothes were buried there

11. CASE STUDIES Michael Evans and Paul Terry (Florida)
Convicted of rape and murder of Lisa Cabassa
Based on faulty eyewitness testimony
August 2003, 27 years later, DNA evidence proved their innocence.

12. CASE STUDIES Frank Lee Smith Florida death row inmate
Convicted of 1986 rape and murder of an 8 year old child
No physical evidence found, eyewitness testimony
4 years after the crime, she recanted her testimony, saying she was pressured by police to testify against him
Prosecutors refused a post conviction DNAtest
He died of cancer in 2000.
A DNA test was performed after his deathand he was exonerated

13. Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes: The True Story