Crime & Clues

"I tend not to try to determine why people do things at crime scenes."
-Criminalist Charles Morton
California v Menedez II
Trial transcript 12-5-95

Crime scene reconstruction may answer the question of where a victim was standing when an axe hit him or who stepped in the pool of blood by the door or what caused the revolver's hammer to fall or when the third shot hit the car window or how the knife ended up out on the patio, but the crime scene reconstructionist cannot answer the ultimate question, the final question that tugs at everyone's mind, the all-encompassing, all-seeing, all-knowing question of WHY did the crime happen? This may account for the fact that attorneys (for either side) very seldom ask "Why?" questions.

"This reconstruction appeared on the face of it to be not only highly ingenious but practically flawless; and it was conclusively proven to be completely wrong."
- Henry Rhodes Clues and Crime

In a sense, all areas of criminalistics and investigation are geared to the reconstruction of the criminal act. The latent print examiner can "reconstruct" the position of a suspect's hand on a door; the serologist can sometimes "reconstruct" the stabbing victim's position from stain patterns on clothing; the medical examiner can "reconstruct" the wounding of a human body. A more precise look at reconstruction, however, requires that we distinguish between the terms reconstruction, re-creation, and reenactment.