Description
For this exercise, you will need to create a crime scene sketch. Choose a room in your home that has five items of evidence and four items that are not evidence. Complete a hand-drawn sketch and submit it as either a photograph or scan. Follow the lecture provided to guide you. Use the best technique for measuring each object. Label all parts of the sketch correctly.
MUST BE IN APA FORMAT! LECTURE PROVIDED BELOW> I HAVE PROVIDED ALL THE EXAMPLES FROM THE LECTURE AS ATTACHMENTS! PLEASE USE THOSE ATTACHMENTS TO GUIDE YOU.
(LECTURE)
What is a Sketch?
So, what is a sketch, and what does it need to contain? A sketch, diagram, or map (depending upon your jurisdiction) is a “snapshot” of the scene that is drawn instead of photographed. The sketch draws attention to items in the scene. Some of those items are information, and some of those items are evidence. In a sketch, we document as much of the scene as is needed to tell the story.
Sketches primarily occur during two different stages: (1) an on-scene or “rough” sketch and (2) an off-scene sketch. On-scene sketches are typically hand-drawn, whereas off-scene sketches are prepared in an office by a CSI with a professional computer-aided design (CAD) program.
When you prepare a sketch, no matter the stage, imagine that you nor your notes or photographs will not be available to testify in court. Thus, you must ask yourself: “Does the sketch tell the story?” If the answer is no, then the sketch is probably not thorough enough. The sketch must contain enough information to recreate the basic portions of the crime scene with no assistance from notes or photographs. Obviously, it can’t contain every element, but it should be able to inform the reader what happened.
A rough sketch of a crime scene (Gardner, 2019).
Equipment Needed
Analog Technology
All a sketch requires is just a paper and pen, right?
Perhaps that is true—especially if that’s all you have—but a free-hand sketch will not look professional. An unprofessional product may be able to tell the story, but will it withstand scrutiny in the court room? Perhaps not. Because of this, you need to have:
Clipboard or solid, stable surface,
Paper (preferably graph paper),
A ruler or straight edge,
A pencil or pen (preferably with various colors to easily identify and locate items on the sketch).
Pen or Pencil?
It may be personal taste, but some CSIs prefer a pencil. Why? You can correct mistakes. Others say that pencil marks can be erased or changed, and this manipulation should be avoided. Although graphite can indeed be changed, it stands to reason that—if it was changed—the CSI would know it and be able to testify to that fact. Additionally, the CSI will make copies of the on-scene or “rough” sketch which keeps the sketch from being altered.
Digital Technology
Let’s face it: Some of us are not very good at drawing. With the advent of computer-aided drawing programs, we now have tools to circumvent this challenge. These programs range from the very basic, such as PowerPoint, to very advanced 3D sketch programs. With these programs, the CSI can clearly document the scene and attract attention to the items which are deemed important.
Remember, however, that such technology typically isn’t used on the scene; we typically have to rely on hand sketches at first. Some larger departments employ full-time graphics professionals who can complete the work at the scene.
The Jencks Act
There is a federal law (18 USC section 3500) that is commonly referred to as the Jencks Act. This is a very important law when it comes to sketches. The Jencks Act says that anything based on testimony must be retained. So, if you draw a sketch and later destroy it because you made a “better” version on a computer, that sketch is now inadmissible. Because of this, defense attorneys will always look for hand-drawn sketches. So, take your time and prepare your hand-drawn, on-scene sketch with the same attention to detail.
Sketch Components
Crime scene sketches normally are referred to as a bird’s-eye (or overhead) sketch or an exploded view (or cross projection) sketch. A bird’s-eye (overhead) sketch is drawn from the perspective of a drone being directly overhead.
Select the button below to view an example of a bird’s-eye sketch.
Bird’s-eye Sketch: Draft 1
SEE ATTCHMENT 1
Example of a bird’s-eye sketch. Note, however, that it is missing crucial elements.
This sketch is not even close to complete, but this is what is frequently drawn at the crime scene. So, what’s it missing?
As outlined in your readings, the key elements of a sketch are the Heading, Diagram Area, Legend, Title Block, Scale, and Direction. Although these may be called slightly different things depending upon your jurisdiction, they all satisfy the same things—telling the reader what they are looking at, providing basic information, and giving spatial comparisons.
The Heading is like a chapter title. It tells you what you should expect. (E.g., “Rough sketch depicting measurements of crime scene at 123 West Anywhere St, Nowhere, USA.”)
The Diagram Area is just the area you draw the picture.
The Legend is like a map; it tells you what things are since you can’t really write a description of everything on the diagram.
The Title Block gives the reader the administrative data.
Finally, the Scale and Direction information provides the reader with an understanding of the relationship of things in the scene.
Now, select the button below to reveal how these elements are incorporated into the on-scene sketch.
Bird’s-eye Sketch: Draft 2
SEE ATTCHMENT 2
The sketch still isn’t perfect, but it is far better than the original. Note how the data for the title block and legend has not been inserted.
Next, let’s talk about the title block. Think back to the Week 1 analogy of how processing a crime is similar to a term paper. What information goes on the cover page of a term paper? Typically, you’d include the author, subject, class, and date. The title block for a sketch is similar. It must include the case number, location, preparer, date, and time of examination. (Note that some agencies will require more information, such as the offense, victim name, and others who assisted in processing the scene.)
Select the button below to see the sketch example with the title block.
Bird’s-eye Sketch: Draft 3
SEE ATTACHMENT 3
The sketch now includes crucial information in the updated title block.
Now what we have is a sketch with everything that the CSI deems important labeled (and there are no measurements). As you can see, there is far too much handwriting on the sketch to be quickly understood. Let’s update the missing legend to fix this.
Select the button below to see the sketch example with the updated legend.
Bird’s-eye Sketch: Draft 4
SEE ATTCHMENT 4
The sketch now includes crucial information in the legend, making it easier to read.
Furniture, appliances, or other items of interest that are not evidence but help explain the crime scene should be documented within the legend. It is suggested that you use numbers for evidence and letters for non-evidence items. This is because most evidence tents use numbers, thus allowing you to match the photographed evidence tents with your sketch. This will help to keep you (and your audience) organized.
Remember: There are Other Types of Sketches.
To this point, you have been looking at a bird’s-eye sketch. Don’t forget: There are other types of sketches. Cross projection or exploded view sketches, for example, are completed when evidence is discovered on a wall or the ceiling. In that case, you effectively “push” the wall down to become a flat surface.
You can see what that looks like in Figure 7.4 in your text.
Figure caption: A cross-projection sketch or exploded view lays down vertical surfaces adjacent to the horizontal surface, allowing evidence on both to be displayed. This view helps the viewer to understand interrelationships between various articles (Gardner & Krouskup, 2019).
SEE ATTACHMENT CROSS
Measurements
If one of the purposes of a sketch is to give the viewer an idea of spatial relations (i.e., how close things are to each other), the way to do that is to measure the items.
There are six different methods of measuring items at the crime scene:
Rectangular coordinates,
Triangulation,
Baseline coordinates,
Polar coordinates,
Triangulation or rectangular coordinates on a grid, and
Triangulation on a baseline.
Your reading this week covers these measurements in detail. Be certain to review them. For now, let’s focus on (1) the overall process and how the sketch process isn’t always a straightforward, A-to-B process, and (2) measuring floating items.
Don’t Count on Linearity
You may have noticed that the example sketch discussed in the last lecture did not have measurements. This is simply because it’s your first phase of the sketch; it’s simply an overview and you can continue to add to it with elements like measurements.
Oftentimes, you will need to make measurements as you go. As you begin to process the scene, there may be items that need to be completely processed (and even collected) before you can move on.
For example, if you have a bloody knife in front of the door, you may need to completely process and collect it before you move on. If that was the case, your sketch would be partially drawn, showing that action before you move on. In our visual example in the last lecture, we don’t have any items that must be taken care of immediately. So, we could create the sketch in a linear fashion. However, this linearity isn’t always granted. Frequently, you’ll need to process the scene in a series of non-linear tasks. In the case of that bloody knife, you would complete all steps of crime scene processing for that knife and then continue with your sketch.
Measuring Floating vs Permanent Items
As you read, it is important to measure items that are floating (not attached to anything) to permanent portions of the room. The permanent items could be the corner of a room or edge of a doorframe, a reference point (RP) that you create on a line against a wall, or any other item in the room that can’t be moved. Do not measure one item of evidence to another item of evidence or to a floating item (e.g., a couch in the middle of the room). Continuing with the sketch we have been drawing, you can now see measurements for the outside dimensions of the room and measurements for the items. You will notice in our example that all of the items of “evidence” are on the rug. This makes our sketch of evidence measurements easy to draw as an extracted sketch. (Additionally, please keep in mind that this sketch is relatively simple. It does not include very many items, and it does not include most measurements for those items which are flush to a wall. In a real crime scene, everything would need to be measured. Imagine all of the items in your living room!)
Adding More Detail
If you know your sketch is going to get very busy, you can draw an overview sketch and then draw extract sketches that may only have a portion of the room measured. You can do as many of these as you need to ensure the information is easily read. Each sketch needs to have all the required elements, and the header must identify what the sketch contains. You could even break the room down into multiple smaller areas. If the space on the floor in the living room is perhaps 8 feet by 6 feet (the size of a typical throw rug in a living room) and contained four shell casings, a tipped over broken, lamp, six bloodstains, and a body, that piece of carpet may be the entire sketch area. In that case, the carpet has four corners, and you would measure everything to the outside of the carpet as if it were a room. Then you could fix the carpet to points in the room.
Select the button below to see the sketch reformatted as an extract.
Bird’s-eye Sketch: Draft 6
SEE ATTCHMENT 6
You’ll notice that the furniture is no longer included. That is purposeful. Now, the rug can be far larger, and still show the measurements to “fix” the rug in the room. Also, you will notice that both the group of expended shell casings and the group of bloodstain patterns now have “boxes” around them to measure. You can imagine that this decision would be made at the scene; they were close enough to each other that they told a story that the deceased likely stood and dripped blood, and the shooter likely stood in one spot and all the shell casings landed in a similar spot. Note that, had the blood been a trail or the shell casings spread out, they would need to be handled individually. Now, there are eight reference points on the sketch that make your measurements far easier to read.
Use Your Log and Be Consistent!
SEE ATTACHMENT LOG
All measurements should be placed on a log that supplements the sketch. It should be attached to the text (and not placed in your notes.) Remember: consistency is key. You will also notice that the measurements in the sketch are written in inches. Not only does this provide consistency, but it aligns with your tape measure, too.
An example of an evidence measurement log for the field of evidence found using triangulation on a grid. Note that each stake in the grid has a distinct identity (e.g., stake 0,10 is zero intervals along the X-axis and ten intervals along the Y-axis). (Gardner, 2019)
Layering Items
Layering items from the scene in your sketch can also make it easier to read. Computer-assisted sketching makes this possible. You can have items appear and disappear, measurements of information disappear, and then reappear with evidence items, etc. However, remember, that the hand-drawn sketch is the first thing a defense attorney (or defense investigator) is going to look for.
Documenting the Crime Scene
After documenting a crime scene using photography, the next step is to measure the exact location of evidence in the scene for creation of a crime scene sketch. This video breaks down how to accurately document the location of objects and evidence using the three main methods for measurement, Rectangle, Triangular, and Baseline.
Creating a Basic Crime Scene Sketch
One of the simplest methods for creating a court worthy crime scene sketch is to use Powerpoint or another computer application. This series walks you through the basic how-to of creating sketches in Powerpoint using the Rectangle, Triangular, and Baseline methods. This video will also guide you step by step through the requirements for completing your Crime Scene Sketch Assignment.
