Chapter 1: The Homicide Crime Scene
The chapter begins by emphasizing the critical nature of homicide crime scenes and the basic principles involved in initiating an effective homicide investigation. It outlines the five components of Practical Homicide Investigation: teamwork, documentation, preservation, common sense, and flexibility.
The text explains that the primary crime scene is where the body is found, which may differ from where the murder occurred. It stresses the importance of focusing resources on this location and clarifies that there are no secondary crime scenes, only multiple crime scenes.
Definition: Corpus delicti refers to the body of evidence that proves a crime has been committed.
Highlight: The crime scene is proof that a crime has been committed and contains all corpus delicti.
Example: Multiple crime scenes may include where the body was moved from, where the assault leading to death took place, or where evidence connected to the crime was discovered.
The chapter also introduces Locard's theory of transfer, which explains the exchange of trace evidence between the perpetrator, victim, and crime scene.
Vocabulary: Res gestae refers to "things done," including spontaneous statements made by a suspect.