Crime & Clues

Intent Behind the Bullet

Originally published in the Association of Firearm Toolmark Examiners Journal, Oct. 1993.

Just because a shot was fired, and just because someone was injured or died as a result of the shooting, and just because a shooting reconstruction was completed...this does not mean that the expert can render an opinion about the intent behind the bullet thus fired.

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Why Crime Scene Reconstruction Does Not Answer the Why? Question

By Dean H. Garrison, Jr.

This article originally appeared in the MAFS newsletter April 1996.

"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.

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Introduction to Crime Scene Reconstruction

This article originally appeared in the MAFS newsletter, 27(2), April 1998.

Definitions:

Crime Scene Reconstruction- The use of scientific methods, physical evidence, deductive reasoning and their interrelationships to gain explicit knowledge of the series of events that surround the commission of a crime.
-Association for Crime Scene Reconstruction, The Scene, 4(1), Jan 1997, p. 2.

Criminal Profiling- The application of psychological theory to the analysis and reconstruction of the forensic evidence that relates to an offender''s crime scenes, victims and behaviors.
- Turvey, B., "CP101: An Introduction to Criminal Profiling", Online Course,
http://www.corpus-delicti.com, May 1997.

Introduction

While both of these activities may appear to be similar and are in fact related, it is important to note that they are not the same. The difference between the two is most easily understood by looking at which questions about the crime they attempt to answer.^1,2,3,4 Crime Scene Reconstruction looks at the physical evidence and attempts to determine "What happened?" and "How did it happen?".^5,6 Criminal Profiling looks at the physical evidence and the reconstruction and attempts to determine "Why may this have happened?" and "What does that tell us about Who may have done it?".⁷ It is important to keep in mind that only those directly involved in the crime know for sure what happened and why, and they may be unable or unwilling to say. ^8,9

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Shooting Reconstruction vs Shooting Reenactment

By D.H. Garrison, Jr.

Originally published in the Association of Firearm and Toolmark Examiners Journal, April 1993.

"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.

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