Crime Scene Investigation

I just started with CSI:Miami season 1, and I am quite impressed by it already. The methods, the strong observations, knowledge applications, value of experience and many other parameters come into the picture when a group of individuals come together and analyze a crime scene. It is not only CSI:Miami, every other crime related TV series (Bones, 24, Castle, etc) has focused on these aspects. I did some internet search on whether the life of agents in this genre of work is actually so intriguing and nerve crunching. I found one article by a former associate director of FBI, who mentioned that what we see on movies and TV series' is just a part of the whole picture. He added that at a single moment of time, there are agents working as under cover, solving federal criminal cases, building strategies to bring down drug mafias, burning it out to train other subordinate agents, breaking some cryptic code of terrorist group, etc. Script writers often approach bureaus and spend time with the agents, listen to their experiences and attend specific trainings to understand the picture- part of which is visible on our TV screens. I wonder sometimes what the writers of Indian shows such as CID do as research work.

Personally, I am an analysis freak. I like over-analyzing. It not only brings forth some hidden or unseen relations between things but also keeps my brain's grey matter up to speed. Lot of practical knowledge goes in such situations, and practical knowledge comes from practice and experience. TV series' follow this very tightly. They would certainly have someone in the team who has a ton of experience dealing with crimes of many sorts. He/She stands apart from the team in difficult situations and is hence the factor which manipulates the TRP of the show (unless the female agents are too hot). 

Next, I would like to jolt down some methods, tools or practices followed in solving a crime in general. I will try to categorize them but being an amateur don't expect much from me.

MURDER/HOMICIDE/SUICIDE:

Things to look for (not in any particular order):

- Motive : Serial killer, cold-blooded, mafia, revenge, infidelity etc

- Cause/Time of death : bullet , drowning, poisoning, natural etc

- Weapon (in case of murder) : Build, Available sources, Registration Number, Home made knife etc

- Wound : Strangling on neck/hands, Bullet puncture, Knife stab, Trajectory inside the body, Close range or long range, Injection marks, Struggle marks etc

- Vicinity : Isolated, public place, home, party etc

- Victim background : No police history, Gang member, Immigrant, Role in the family etc

- Blood spatter : Can tell us how the scene actually happened, height of the killer etc

KIDNAPPING:

Things to look for (not in any particular order):

- Victim profile : Rich, middle-class, businessman, etc

- Motive : Ransom money, assault, threat, gathering information by torture etc

- Time frame : Last seen when, how much time has been given etc

- Location : Public place, daily routine path (school, work) etc

- Suspect profile : Kidnappers know the routine, Close-relative in need of money, etc

- Similarities with previous cases : Following some pattern or not

This is not an extensive list, but we can easily form an image of a crime scene from the above listed elements. Imagine that the police finds a body floating on an isolated lake, what are the next steps? We retrieve the body and try to identify him/her. Then we would look for cause of death - whether it was drowning or someone killed the victim and threw the body in the lake (this can be determined by analyzing the contents of the victim's lungs - If there is lot of water in the lungs, that means the victim was breathing in water in the last moments and hence drowned to death). After identifying and figuring out the cause, we go for wounds on victim's body (if any) and victim's background to figure out the motive. If it was a suicide, then we may find financial instability, suicide note or social awkwardness coming up in the background check. If not, then we look for possible suspects and motive related to each suspect. Very often we see that someone close is somehow involved unless it is random kill for loot or money. Well, now it is up to the script writer to let the flow of story go either way but in real life, we may need to improvise often and pave a different path to solve the crime.