Crime lab

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A crime laboratory, often shortened to crime lab, is a scientific laboratory, using primarily forensic science for the purpose of examining evidence from criminal cases.

Contents

Lab personnel

Police officer of the United States Park Police Identification Unit analysing evidence USPP-Identification Unit-officer.jpg
Police officer of the United States Park Police Identification Unit analysing evidence

A typical crime lab has two sets of personnel:

Crime labs

United States

In the United States, crime labs may be publicly or privately operated, although private laboratories typically do not respond to crime scenes to collect evidence. Public crime labs are organized at the city, state, or national level. A law enforcement agency that operates its own crime lab usually has access to a higher level laboratory for analysis of their evidence. Most states have their own crime labs, for instance Oklahoma has the OSBI, many other places have smaller yet sufficient crime labs. Crime labs simply do not have the funding or personnel resources to keep up with the large influx of cases being brought into the laboratory, as well as the backlog of cases already in existence. [1]

The Los Angeles Police Department founded the first crime laboratory in the United States (1923), followed by the Bureau of Investigation (1926), forerunner to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. [2]

The term "crime lab" has become a part of popular culture, largely due to the TV dramas. Some of the more famous shows are:

Several non-fiction television programs, document the resolution of criminal cases based on the scientific analysis of the evidence:

Backlogged evidence issues

Due to the lack of funding and staff, delays in the ability to test cases has occurred creating a backlog in the analysis of evidence. [3]

Rape kit backlog

Rape kit backlog refers to the problem of untested sexual assault kits. [4] The problem is twofold: it involves both the issue of rape kits not being submitted to crime labs for testing and the related issue of crime labs not having enough resources to test all of the submitted kits. [5] [6]

See also

References

  1. Houck, M. M. (2020). Backlogs are a dynamic system, not a warehousing problem. Forensic Science International: Synergy, 2, 317-324. doi:10.1016/j.fsisyn.2020.10.003
  2. Fletcher, Connie (2009). Every Contact Leaves a Trace. New York: St. Martin's Press, New York. Interview with crime lab director.
  3. Houck, M. M. (2020). Backlogs are a dynamic system, not a warehousing problem. Forensic Science International: Synergy, 2, 317-324. doi:10.1016/j.fsisyn.2020.10.003
  4. Campbell, Rebecca; Feeney, Hannah; Fehler-Cabral, Giannina; Shaw, Jessica; Horsford, Sheena (December 23, 2015). "The National Problem of Untested Sexual Assault Kits (SAKs): Scope, Causes, and Future Directions for Research, Policy, and Practice". Trauma, Violence, & Abuse. 18 (4): 363–376. doi:10.1177/1524838015622436. PMID   26698602. S2CID   35057287.
  5. Campbell, R.; Feeney, H.; Pierce, S. J.; Sharma, D. B.; Fehler-Cabral, G. (March 27, 2016). "Tested at Last: How DNA Evidence in Untested Rape Kits Can Identify Offenders and Serial Sexual Assaults". Journal of Interpersonal Violence. 33 (24): 3792–3814. doi:10.1177/0886260516639585. ISSN   1552-6518. PMID   27021733. S2CID   32860558.
  6. "Addressing the Rape Kit Backlog". Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN). Retrieved 13 May 2016.