65544 Chemical Criminalistics
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Subject handbook information prior to 2024 is available in the Archives.
Credit points: 6 cp
Result type: Grade and marks
Requisite(s): 65202 Organic Chemistry 1 AND 65316c Criminalistics
The lower case 'c' after the subject code indicates that the subject is a corequisite. See definitions for details.
These requisites may not apply to students in certain courses. See access conditions.
Description
This subject builds upon the discipline, knowledge and skills developed in 65316 Criminalistics. In Chemical Criminalistics, students learn methods to analyse, interpret and report on a variety of microtraces and chemical traces that require a higher level of analytical chemistry and forensic reasoning skills. Lectures are complemented by a practical program that allows students to gain hands-on experience with mock cases designed to sharpen their activity reconstruction capabilities, and workshops focused on evidence interpretation, emerging technologies and practices and casework management. At the end of this subject, students are proficient in selecting and using appropriate analytical procedures, forensic interpretation and expert witness reporting.
Subject learning objectives (SLOs)
Upon successful completion of this subject students should be able to:
| 1. | Illustrate the utility of chemical and microtraces in modern forensic science |
|---|---|
| 2. | Evaluate the results of forensic analyses in the context of a case scenario |
| 3. | Formulate and test hypotheses about the source and activity that created a trace |
| 4. | Employ the most appropriate sequences of analytical procedures to analyse the trace in a particular case scenario |
| 5. | Synthesise and communicate expert opinion to a lay audience in a variety of formats |
Course intended learning outcomes (CILOs)
This subject also contributes specifically to the development of following course intended learning outcomes:
- Demonstrate a command of forensic science practice, including the detection, collection, and analysis of traces in order to exploit and integrate the results of analyses into investigative, evaluative and intelligence frameworks. (1.1)
- Apply investigative, critical thinking and problem-solving skills to forensic science problems and design experimental methods to test hypotheses and critically analyse and interpret data. (2.1)
- Practise safe, ethical, and professional conduct with consideration for the role of forensic science in addressing current and future challenges faced by law enforcement, the legal system, security, and the wider community. (3.1)
- Apply forensic science professional skills with a high degree of personal autonomy and reflection to demonstrate initiative and innovative thinking in solving complex forensic problems. (4.1)
- Demonstrate skills in communicating experimental conclusions, expert opinion, and the justification of professional decisions related to forensic science processes effectively to expert, scientific, and non-expert audiences. (5.1)
Contribution to the development of graduate attributes
Chemical Criminalistics exposes students to more advanced concepts, philosophy, methods and interpretation models within the forensic science discipline. It builds on prior knowledge and skills developed in Stages 1 and 3 (65242 and 65316). This subject also provides students the opportunity to further develop their problem solving, analytical and communication skills within professional scientific and legal contexts.
Graduate Attribute 1: Disciplinary Knowledge
Students will learn how to analyse and interpret more complex forms of forensic evidence (“trace evidence” or microtraces) that require a sound understanding of applied chemistry. Students will develop and reinforce their knowledge throughout the session in lectures, practical sessions and workshops. Students will have the opportunity to demonstrate the application of their knowledge in all assessment items and feedback will be provided during the session to assist student development.
Graduate Attribute 2: Research, Inquiry and Critical Thinking
Students will manage and investigate realistic mock cases in the practical sessions, and engage in workshop activities reflecting the challenges and philosophies of contemporary forensic science using knowledge drawn from the lectures and independent research. Students must work with limited background information and a trace of unknown quality, and use their knowledge, supplied instrumentation, and independent research to characterise the trace and provide an expert opinion. Each mock case, like a genuine case, has challenges that involve different approaches to problem solving. By forming and testing hypotheses on the source of - and the activity that led to the transfer of - forensic traces, students will build their problem solving and critical thinking skills alongside their understanding of scientific method. The development of inquiry-based learning is embedded in all tasks or activities students engage with during the teaching session. Feedback will be provided to students both formally (on assessable activities) and informally during class.
Graduate Attribute 3: Professional, Ethical and Social Responsibility
All mock case work in the practical sessions is performed in a professional team environment using instruments, techniques and processes applied in operational laboratories. Students will refine their professional, collaborative and independent learning skills through laboratory and workshop sessions. Students will have an opportunity to refine generic skills such as time management, critical thinking, personal organisation, and self-reflection, as well as discipline-specific professional skills including laboratory proficiency, interpretation, documentation, and ethical practice. Student development of these discipline-specific professional skills will be monitored and assessed in practical and workshop activities, with opportunities for formal and real-time feedback.
Graduate Attribute 4: Reflection, Innovation and Creativity
Forensic science is a rapidly evolving discipline with the workplace regularly adapting to or adopting new processes, interpretation frameworks, or changing legal or accreditation requirements. Graduates need to have the flexibility to apply new techniques and to learn from their colleagues in order to succeed. Students in Chemical Criminalistics will practice their peer learning, discussion, and reflection capabilities formatively in practical sessions and workshops and in the adoption of feedback from their casework, culminating in the cross-examination exercise at the end of the practical program.
Students will investigate realistic case scenarios containing different types of traces of unknown quality and with limited background information. Using their knowledge, supplied instrumentation, and independent research, students will create a realistic examination strategy to characterise the trace and provide an expert opinion on the likelihood of the source and activity that led to its creation. Each mock case, like a genuine case, has challenges that involve different approaches to problem solving. Students will refine their ability to respond to more complex situations that will form the basis of later subjects 65314 Complex Cases and 65315 Forensic Research Project. Real-time feedback opportunities are provided in the practical sessions.
Graduate Attribute 5: Communication
Students will have the opportunity to refine the communication skills and formats they learnt in 65316 Criminalistics both informally and via formal assessment. Emphasis is placed on the advancement of students' ability to communicate complex scientific concepts to a non-expert audience in both written and oral formats - an important part of professional practice - and ongoing feedback is provided to students through the practical classes and linked assessments. Students will also further develop their oral and written peer-to-peer scientific communication skills through collaborative learning in workshops and practical sessions.
Teaching and learning strategies
All learning materials, including lecture notes, additional multimedia and electronic copies of subject manuals can be found in the relevant modules on Canvas.
Interactive online lectures:
Lectures are scheduled for a 2 hour block in 8 of the 12 session weeks.The lectures arm students with the knowledge required to analyse and interpret chemical traces commonly recovered at crime scenes, including emerging technologies and methods that are at the forefront of the discipline. While the focus of the lectures is on trace evidence, the skills acquired in this subject build on the knowledge and professional skills developed in the pre-requisite subjects. The topics discussed in these sessions provide the foundation for the workshops and practicals, where students apply their new knowledge. The lectures are broken into structured blocks of information and application/activity - facilitated by interactive online tools - with opportunities for class discussion and participation.
Workshops:
Students will attend three workshops focused on the more challenging aspects of interpretation, forensic science philosophy and professional practice as part of Chemical Criminalistics. These workshops are designed to give students a smaller and more supportive class environment to discuss and apply advanced scientific and reasoning methods used in forensic science, and to engage with future challenges forensic science and policing through collaborative learning activities. Students are placed in charge of their own learning through self-directed workshop preparation activities and a classroom focus on discussion and application.
Practicals:
The practical sessions for Chemical Criminalistics allow students to gain experience with the analysis of different types of chemical and microtraces in a collaborative, professional setting. Students are given four mock cases (based on realistic case scenarios) to investigate as a team during the semester. Prior to commencing each case, student teams will identify propositions of interest, the aims of their investigation, and design and implement an examination strategy to be used in the laboratory. The hands-on session time is dedicated to the analysis of evidence and formulating the initial interpretation of their findings in the context of the case. This initial interpretation is then refined by each student and used to synthesise and report their expert opinion in different styles of expert witness testimony. These classes are student-led with one-on-one and group support provided by teaching and professional staff. As cases are assigned on rotation, students familiarlise themselves with the techniques required for their case scenarios by designing an examination strategy as a start-of-lab activity for each new case.
Self-directed online learning:
Online learning modules, including quizzes and multimedia, that supplement the concepts learnt in face-to-face classes will be available on Canvas from week 1 onwards and can be accessed or revised at any point during the semester. The modules include interactive revision modules on core skills required in the practicals that provide immediate feedback and a glossary of terms for reference purposes. Links to further reading, podcasts and vodcasts are also provided to students to expand their learning outside of the classroom.
Content (topics)
- Detection, collection, analysis and interpretation of forensic traces that are primarily characterised by chemical methods or instrumentation (see program for breakdown).
- What are the aims of laboratory analysis? What hypotheses or inferences can be drawn about a crime scene or activity based on microtraces?
- How is a specimen searched for and recovered from an item, including simple and complex matrices?
- What analysis techniques and sequences should be carried out for particular types of chemical or microtraces? Why is the correct selection of these sequences important for reliable forensic science?
- How are the results of an analytical sequence presented and interpreted in a meaningful and valid manner?
- What is the importance of discrimination (or a failure-to-discriminate) between a putative source and the trace? How does a Bayesian probabilistic approach inform the interpretation and significance of a failure-to-discriminate result?
- How is chemical criminalistics (and forensic science in general) evolving with new technology and legal challenges?
- How are traditional comparative methods being implemented for modern policing and crime scene reconstruction? Can analytical chemistry be used to determine the age, timeline or history of a trace?
Assessment
Assessment task 1: Evaluative reporting
| Intent: | This assessment task contributes to the development of the following graduate attributes: 1. Disciplinary knowledge 2. Research, inquiry and critical thinking 3. Professional, ethical and social responsibility 4. Reflection, Innovation and creativity 5. Communication |
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| Objective(s): | This assessment task addresses subject learning objective(s): 2, 3, 4 and 5 This assessment task contributes to the development of course intended learning outcome(s): 1.1, 2.1, 3.1, 4.1 and 5.1 |
| Type: | Laboratory/practical |
| Groupwork: | Group, individually assessed |
| Weight: | 40% |
| Length: | Please see Canvas for detailed instructions and templates. |
| Criteria: | You will be assessed on your ability to:
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Assessment task 2: Cross-examination video
| Intent: | This assessment task contributes to the development of the following graduate attributes: 2. Research, inquiry and critical thinking 4. Reflection, innovation and creativity 5. Communication |
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| Objective(s): | This assessment task addresses subject learning objective(s): 2, 3 and 5 This assessment task contributes to the development of course intended learning outcome(s): 2.1, 4.1 and 5.1 |
| Type: | Presentation |
| Groupwork: | Individual |
| Weight: | 30% |
| Length: | Approx. 10 min |
| Criteria: | You will be assessed on your:
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Assessment task 3: Checkpoint quizzes
| Intent: | This assessment task contributes to the development of the following graduate attributes: 1. Disciplinary knowledge 2. Research, inquiry and critical thinking 4. Reflection, innovation and creativity |
|---|---|
| Objective(s): | This assessment task addresses subject learning objective(s): 1, 2, 3 and 4 This assessment task contributes to the development of course intended learning outcome(s): 1.1, 2.1 and 4.1 |
| Type: | Quiz/test |
| Groupwork: | Individual |
| Weight: | 30% |
| Length: | Open. Students should budget approximately 30 minutes per quiz, depending on familiarity and confidence with the topic. |
| Criteria: | You will be assessed on your:
|
Required texts
The Standard Operating Procedures manual will be provided via UTSOnline and a hard copy will be handed out in the first practical session. This manual includes the expert witness report style guide and chapters on each trace examined during the mock cases. Students must bring a copy (printed or electronic) to every practical session.
Recommended texts
The following texts and reference materials are available via the UTS Library (most are available as online and print books):
Saferstein R., Criminalistics - An Introduction to Forensic Science,Prentice-Hall, 2011, ISBN 9780132216555
Wiley Encyclopedia of Forensic Science, Allan Jamieson (Editor), Andre Moenssens (Co-Editor), 2009, ISBN: 978-0-470-01826-2 (selected chapters provided via UTSOnline)
Encyclopedia of Forensic Sciences (Second Edition), Editors-in-Chief: Jay A. Siegel and Pekka J. Saukko , ISBN: 978-0-12-382166-9
Curran, J., Hicks, T., Buckleton, J., Forensic Interpretation of Glass Evidence, CRC Press LLC, 2000 (online & print)
Forensic examination of glass and paint: analysis and interpretation, ed. B. Caddy, CRC Press LLC, 2001
Forensic examination of fibres 2nd edition, eds. J. Robertson & M. Grieve, Taylor & Francis Ltd, 1999
Robertson, J. Forensic examination of hair, Taylor & Francis Ltd, 1999
Scientific examination of questioned documents 2nd edition, eds J. Seaman Kelly & B. Lindblom, CRC Press LLC, 2006
Aitkin, C., Taroni, F., Garbolino, P., Biedermann, A., Bozza, S., Bayesian Networks for Probabilistic Inference and Decision Analysis in Forensic Science 2nd ed., Wiley-Blackwell, 2014
Other resources
Links to relevant resources such as videos, podcasts, journal articles and scholarly books will be provided to students via UTSOnline to supplement their learning and independent research.