[ARCHIVED CATALOG] 2013-2014 Undergraduate Academic Catalog

Oct 18, 2024

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[ARCHIVED CATALOG] 2013-2014 Undergraduate Academic Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

CRM 343 - Bodily Fluids as Evidence

3 credits

Prerequisite(s): POL 123 - Introduction to Law and the Legal System, CRM 220 - Survey of the Criminal Justice System, and CRM 230 - Introduction to Crime Scene Investigation
This course covers the value of body fluids found at the crime scene, the interpretation of their patterns, and methods used to locate them. The successful student will understand the science of blood stain interpretation; presumptive testing of seminal fluid and blood; the various flight characteristics of blood and the use of trigonometry to determine angles of impact and the origin of stain patterns; the chemicals associated with the location of visible and invisible stain patterns produced from body fluids; the chemical reactions associated with these and other chemicals used in connection with body fluid processing; the scientific limitations relevant to courtroom testimony on such topics as blood stain interpretation, antigen-antibody reactions, and presumptive blood and presumptive seminal fluid testing; and the history of DNA analysis and its modern-day evidentiary value.