Criminalistics

We explain what criminology is, its principles and investigation methods. Also, differences with criminology.

What is criminology?

The criminology It is a discipline that studies and investigates crime that is, the crime, applying scientific methods and knowledge that allow us to reconstruct the way it was committed, identify the culprits, and explain with great certainty what happened. Together with criminology and other similar disciplines, it constitutes what is known as forensic sciences.

Criminology is often understood as an auxiliary discipline of criminal law or even law in general. It has been defined as the “science of small details”, given that focuses on investigative details to find the truth of the crime committed (that is, faithfully recompose your circumstances).

Although it is an autonomous discipline, it is common for it to use practices and knowledge from the natural sciences and many other technical disciplines. As a formal field of study, criminology was born around the 17th century, at the hands of forensic medicine since doctors began to assist in the investigation of cases of homicide or physical violence, contributing their specialized knowledge.

By that time, there was already legal medicine, created in 1575 to assist in the resolution of legal conflicts through medical knowledge, and fingerprinting, which emerged around 1665, which is the study of the impressions left by fingerprints. Hand in hand with criminology, many of these disciplines flourished and provided vital knowledge for the understanding and resolution of crime.

Key to this was the incorporation, during the 19th century, of famous criminals into the ranks of the police in Europe, as was the case of the famous Eugene-Francois Vidocq (1775-1857). The latter was the first to propose ballistics studies to solve a homicide, and the first to use molds to capture fingerprints at the crime scene.

However, the most outstanding criminologist of all time was the Austrian Hans Gross (1847-1915), who is considered the father of this discipline, and founder of a scientific method known as the “Graz school of criminology”. given that he was also a founding member in 1912 of the Royal and Imperial Institute of Criminology of the University of Graz, in Austria.

Principles of criminology

Criminology studies crime from a scientific perspective, that is, methodical, verifiable and concrete, free of speculation and subjectivity, and committed to physical and tangible evidence. To do this, it is guided by a set of principles, that is, fundamental approaches, among which the following stand out:

• Principle of use. Every crime is committed using some physical, chemical, biological or computer agent, which can then be used as evidence.
• Exchange principle. When committing a crime, the criminal, the victim and the scene of the crime exchange traces or recoverable and verifiable evidence.
• Correspondence principle. Every trace, mark or scar necessarily corresponds to the hardest body or object that caused it.
• Certainty principle. All evidence of any type that is found at the crime scene deserves a detailed scientific study to know whether or not it corresponds to the fact investigated, in such a way that the highest possible levels of certainty are always aspired.
• Production principle. Every criminal act produces salvageable evidence, given that there is no perfect crime. This evidence will depend on the type of crime and the morphology of the place where it is committed.

On the other hand, the criminalistic process, that is, the method of scientific investigation of crimes, responds to its own fundamental principles, such as:

• Protection of the scene to prevent evidence from being stolen, modified or new evidence capable of distorting the process being incorporated.
• Observation of the scene because in it the necessary evidence will be found to begin the investigation.
• Establishing the location of the events that is, once the evidence has been observed, it must be properly recorded through written description, photography, planimetry, etc. Time plays against the truth.
• The lifting of evidence which must be done appropriately so as not to destroy or alter the evidence.
• The study of clues in the laboratory so as to be able to apply experimental scientific practices and obtain more specialized evidence from them.
• The chain of custody responsible for verifying that the collection, transportation, handling and preservation of evidence is appropriate so as not to vitiate the conclusions drawn from it.
• Preparation of an expert report that is, the delivery of the scientific conclusions obtained to the relevant authorities.

Research methods

Criminalistics uses a multitude of scientific investigation methods and techniques, in order to collect the greatest possible amount of data, information and evidence from the crime scene. Among these methods are:

• forensic medicine which consists of the anatomical and physiological study of the corpse or the body of the victim, to extract from it the pertinent medical or biological evidence.
• Forensic meteorology which consists of the study of the meteorological conditions at the time of the crime, to trace its evidence in the objects involved.
• forensic genetics which consists of the collection and comparison of genetic material between the crime scene and potential suspects. It is of particular use in cases of sexual crime, since there are useful DNA samples in secretions such as saliva, semen, blood, etc.
• Forensic ballistics which consists of the study of cartridges, bullets and weapons, as well as the crime scene, to check whether a weapon was involved in a crime or not, and follow the trajectory of the bullets fired.
• forensic anthropology which consists of the recomposition of features, sex, size, ethnic group and other bodily factors from found human remains.
• Fingerprinting which involves collecting and matching fingerprints at a crime scene, to determine whether a person held a weapon, was in a location, or touched the victim's body.
• forensic entomology which consists of the study of insects and arthropods that live on a corpse in both urban and rural environments, in order to determine how long it was exposed to the elements and other circumstantial factors of the crime.
• Forensic toxicology which consists of the search for foreign substances or stimulants (alcohol, drugs, chemicals, etc.) in the body of the subjects involved, living or dead.
• The piloscopy which consists of the scientific study of hair or hair found at a crime scene, to determine whether it is of animal or human origin, and whether or not it belongs to a specific person.

Criminalistics career

The criminalistics career has a global presence in numerous universities and institutes of forensic sciences. Usually taught as a bachelor's degree although there are also smaller technical approaches.

Those who graduate in this career are known as criminalists and usually find employment in State judicial institutions, in private investigation centers, in NGOs and other international justice organizations, or even in educational institutions in the area.

Criminalistics and criminology

We should not confuse these two disciplines, which, although they address the same object of study: crime, do so from very different points of view and with very different objectives.

Criminology focuses on revealing how the crime occurred, that is, on reconstructing what happened through investigation. On the other hand, criminology studies crime from a philosophical point of view trying to find the reason for the crimes that happen. We can think of this difference as the first being a practical, applied discipline, while the second is a theoretical, reflective discipline.

References

• “Criminalistics” on Wikipedia.
• “Difference between criminology and criminalistics: what is what?” in Business & Law School.
• “Study criminology: Where to do it and what is your job opportunity?” at Universia Argentina.
• “What is criminology?” (video) at the Mexican College of Criminologists.