Tracing
The track customer deals with the search, saving and evaluation of scientific and other visible or to be rendered visible signs or evidence in connection with a criminal offense are. Micro-trace science deals with the criminal investigation of the smallest traces such as hair and textile fibers .
Forensics in criminology
This topic goes far beyond the analysis of fingerprints or traces of blood, for example , and has become a scientific and technical discipline in its own right. Within the police authorities and the identification services , specially trained detectives , forensic technicians and scientists are busy looking for, securing and (partially) evaluating criminal traces.
In the case of capital crimes, forensic traces must be examined and assessed by an expert from the respective KTI ( Forensic Institute ) or a KTU (Forensic Research Center), who will prepare an expert report. Some states allow for smaller offenses (z. B. burglary , theft , breaches) semi-skilled employees (civil servants / employees) of the Criminal Police immediately processing the crime scene . Most of the federal states and the BKA, however, maintain a specially trained crime scene group that is responsible for securing evidence for all crime groups.
The forensic institutes of the federal states employ specially trained forensic technicians as experts for trace evaluation. In particular, the areas of serology , technical traces of form , ballistics , written and document analysis as well as chemistry including toxicology are mostly no longer staffed with detectives, but primarily with scientists or engineers with criminalistic and technical training. Only in the area of dactyloscopy are civil servants or employees of the public service still being trained to become experts.
Significance of traces in other subject areas
In archeology , zoology and paleontology (palaeozoology), methods and working methods comparable to those used in criminology are often used.
examples are
- In archeology, the investigation of scorch marks , bacteria , etc. in certain soil layers or in prehistoric caves (see e.g. Altamira Cave, Geißenklösterle Cave or Gudenushöhle ),
- the investigation of injuries (e.g. on bog bodies or on Ötzi ), or
- in zoology, the analysis of traces of ( recent ) animal species living today ( ennology ), and in paleontology, fossil traces from the geological past ( palichnology ).
See also
- Attention , witness , evidence (legal)
- chemical analysis , genetic analysis , excavation , measurement technology
- Locard's rule
literature
- Robert Weihmann: Lessons and Study Letters Criminology 23. Traces 2 . ISBN 3-8011-0417-6 .
- Jürgen Thorwald : The hour of the detectives. Becomes and worlds of criminology. Droemer Knaur, Zurich and Munich 1966, pp. 434–496.