Analytical Skills

The ability to identify a concept or problem, to isolate its component parts, to organize information for decision making, to establish criteria for evaluation, and to draw appropriate conclusions.

Deductive Reasoning

Deriving the consequences from the facts using a series of logical steps.

Eyewitness

A person who has seen someone or something and can communicate these facts.

Fact

A statement or assertion of information that can be verified.

Forensic

Relating to the application of scientific knowledge to legal questions.

Logical

Conclusions drawn from assumptions and known facts.

Observation

What a person perceives using his or her senses.

Opinion

Personal belief founded on judgment rather than on direct experience or knowledge.

Perception

Interpreting information received from the senses.

Chain of Custody

The documented and unbroken transfer of evidence.

Circumstantial Evidence

Evidence used to imply a fact but not prove it directly.

Class Evidence

Material that connects an individual or thing to a certain group.

Crime Scene Investigation

Multidisciplinary approach in which scientific and legal professionals work together to solve a crime.

Crime Scene Reconstruction

Hypothesis of the sequence of events from before the crime was committed through its commission.

Direct Evidence

Evidence that proves an alleged fact, such as an eyewitness account of a crime.

First Responder

The first police officer to arrive at a crime scene.

Individual Evidence

A kind of evidence that identifies a particular person or thing.

Paper Bindle

A folded paper used to hold trace evidence.

Primary Crime Scene

The location where the crime took place.

Secondary Crime Scene

A location other than the primary crime scene, but that is in some way related to the crime, where evidence is found.

Trace Evidence

Small but measurable amounts of physical or biological material found at a crime scene.