Forensic Vocabulary

1. Forensic Vocabulary

2. Forensic • Relating to the application of scientific knowledge to legal questions.

3. Logical • Conclusions drawn from assumptions and known facts.

4. Fact • A statement or assertion of information that can be verified.

5. Eyewitness • A person who has seen someone or something and can communicate the facts.

6. Observation • What a person perceives using his or her senses.

7. Perception • Interpreting information received from the senses.

8. Deductive Reasoning • Deriving the consequences from the facts using a series of logical steps.

9. Chain of Custody • The documented and unbroken transfer of evidence.

10. Circumstantial Evidence(Indirect Evidence) • Evidence used to imply a fact but not to prove it directly.

11. Class Evidence • Material that connects an individual or thing to a certain group.

12. Crime-Scene Investigation • A multidisciplinary approach in which scientific and legal professionals work together to solve a crime.

13. Crime-Scene Reconstruction • A hypothesis of the sequence of events from before the crime was committed through its commission.

14. Direct Evidence • Evidence that (if true) proves an alleged fact, such as an eyewitness account of a crime.

15. First Responder • The first police officer to arrive at a crime scene.

16. Individual Evidence • A kind of evidence that identifies a particular person or thing.

17. Primary Crime Scene • The location where the crime took place.

18. Secondary Crime Scene • A location other than the primary crime scene, but that is in some way related to the crime, where evidence is found.

19. Trace Evidence • Small but measurable amounts of physical or biological material found at a crime scene.

20. Hair Follicle • The actively growing root or base of a hair containing DNA and living cells.

21. Cortex • The region of hair located outside of the medulla containing granules of pigment.

22. Cuticle • The tough outer covering of a hair composed of overlapping scales.

23. Medulla • The central core of a hair fiber.

24. Keratin • A type of fibrous protein that makes up the majority of the cortex of a hair.

25. Melanin Granules • Bits of pigment found in the cortex of the hair.

26. Neutron Activation Analysis • A method of analysis that determines composition of elements in a sample.

27. Fingerprint • An impression left on any surface that consists of patterns made by the ridges on a finger.

28. Arch • A fingerprint pattern in which the ridge pattern originates from one side of the print and leaves from the other side.

29. Whorl • A fingerprint pattern that resembles a bull’s-eye.

30. Loop • A fingerprint pattern in which the ridge pattern flows inward and returns in the direction of the origin.

31. Minutiae • The combination of details in the shapes and positions of ridges in fingerprints that make each unique: also called ridge characteristics.

32. Latent Fingerprint • A hidden fingerprint made visible through the use of powders or other techniques.

33. Red Blood Cells • Donut shaped cells that carry respiratory gases, mainly oxygen and carbon dioxide throughout the body.

34. White Blood Cells • Cells that police the body by destroying foreign invaders and fighting disease.

35. Antibodies • Proteins secreted by white blood cells that attach to antigens.

36. Antigens • Any foreign substances or cell in the body that reacts with antibodies.

37. Antigen-Antibody Response • A reaction in which antibodies attach to specific antigens.

38. Anthropology • The scientific study of the origins and behavior as well as the physical, social, and cultural development of humans.

39. Forensic Anthropology • The study of physical anthropology as it applies to human skeletal remains in a legal setting.

40. Osteobiography • The physical record of a person’s life as told by his or her bones.