What is Chain of Custody ?

Chain of Custody is a legal term that refers to the ability to guarantee the identity and integrity of the specimen from collection through to reporting of the test results. It is a process used to maintain and document the chronological history of the specimen. (Documents should include name or initials of the individual collecting the specimen, each person or entity subsequently having custody of it, the date the specimen was collected or transferred, employer or agency, specimen number, patient's or employee's name, and a brief description of the specimen.) A secure chain of custody, together with the analytical techniques used by the Regional Laboratory for Toxicology to confirm the identity of drugs present in a specimen, leads to the production of a legally defensible report.

The chain of custody is the path which evidences take from the forest / crime scene to the Wildlife Forensic Lab.

What is Forensic Science? What is Forensic Science? Forensic science is the application of
principles and methods of all the traditional Forensic science is the application of sciences, such as methods physics, chemistry, biology principles and of all the traditional and sciences, biochemistry, to reconstruct events that such as physics, chemistry, biology had and taken place at a (crime) scene and biochemistry, to reconstruct events that provide information that is relevant to had factual taken place at a (crime) scene and a legal proceeding. provide factual information that is relevant to a legal proceeding.

Locards Principle
The Locard exchange principle, also known as Locard's theory, was postulated by 20th century forensic scientist Edmond Locard. He was a pioneer in forensic science as formulated the basic principle of forensic science: "Every contact leaves a trace".

Locard's exchange principle states that "with contact between two items, there will be an exchange"
Every crime scene contains evidence of the perpetrator of the crime. This is because of Locard's Principle: "There is no such thing as a clean contact between two objects. When two bodies or objects come into contact, they mutually contaminate each other with minute fragments of material."

Branches of Forensic Sciences

 Forensic Biology: Forensic biology, or pathology, deals with diseases and how they affect the body. Forensic pathologists help law enforcement through autopsies, where scientists determine the cause and manner of someone's death by examining organs, blood and urine. Based on this information, the police are able to decide if they should pursue a killer or close the case because someone actually died of natural causes.

 Forensic Behavioral Sciences / Forensic Psychology: Forensic psychologists and psychiatrists can work in criminal cases where issues like a defendant's fitness to stand trial, testify or decline representation are in dispute. They are also called to render opinions in civil cases that deal with patients' rights. These types of cases can revolve around issues--such as involuntary hospitalization, whether a patient can refuse treatment and disability claims. Forensic Psychologist deals with psychological and other cases like- Brain Fingerprinting, Polygraphy, Narco-Analysis, Lie Detection etc

 Forensic Anthropology: Forensic anthropologists work in cases that involve tragedies such as terrorist attacks, plane crashes and natural disasters when remains need to be identified. Through their examinations, forensic anthropologists can determine the gender, race and size of a victim, which helps police narrow down that person's identity. In some cases, forensic anthropologists will use skulls to reconstruct the face of a victim, and the rendering is released to the public to generate leads.

 Questioned Document and Handwriting Examination: Questioned document examination (QDE) is the forensic science discipline pertaining to documents that are (or may be) in dispute in a court of law. The primary purpose of questioned/forensic document examination is to answer questions about a disputed document using a variety of scientific processes and methods. Many examinations involve a comparison of the questioned document, or components of the document, to a set of known standards. The most common type of examination involves handwriting wherein the examiner tries to address concerns about potential authorship.

 Forensic Dentistry / Forensic Odontology: Deals with the collection, evaluation and proper handling of dental evidence in order to assist law enforcement officers and in civil & criminal proceedings. The role of such an expert is to identify bodies and skeletal remains from dental records, reconstruct faces from skulls as well as connect the crime scene with whatever little evidence is available from the scene.

 Forensic linguists / Voice Identification: Forensic linguists analyse the content of written or oral communication to identify the culprit and they can determine whether two communications are from the same person. This is found useful in various cases involving matching notes and handwritten contents.

 Forensic Fingerprint / Dactyloscopy: Dactyloscopy is the scientific study of fingerprints. Fingerprints is perhaps the most well known of the forensic sciences. It also involves the identification of fingerprints and their ability to categorically link suspects to or exclude suspects from a crime scene. It requires meticulous and painstaking efforts in gathering information about finger prints from the scene of crime.

 Forensic Engineer / Engineering: These experts deal with traffic accidents, fire investigations, and a variety of wrongful injury cases. Engineers are involved in failure analysis, accident reconstruction, causes and origins of fires or explosions etc.

 Forensic Accounting: Forensic accounting is the specialty practice area of accountancy that describes engagements that result from actual or anticipated disputes or litigation. "Forensic" means "suitable for use in a court of law", and it is to that standard and potential outcome that forensic accountants generally have to work. Forensic accountants, also referred to as forensic auditors or investigative auditors, often have to give expert evidence at the eventual trial. All of the larger accounting firms, as well as many medium-sized and boutique firms, have specialist forensic accounting departments. Within these groups, there may be further sub-specializations: some forensic accountants may, for example, just specialize in insurance claims, personal injury claims, fraud, construction, or royalty audits.

 DNA profiling: DNA profiling (also called DNA testing, DNA typing, or genetic fingerprinting) is a technique employed by forensic scientists to assist in the identification of individuals on the basis of their respective DNA profiles. DNA profiles are encrypted sets of numbers that reflect a person's DNA makeup, which can also be used as the person's identifier. DNA profiling should not be confused with full genome sequencing. It is used in, for example, parental testing and rape investigation.

 Medical Jurisprudence or Forensic Medicine: Medical Jurisprudence or Forensic Medicine, the application of medical science to legal problems. It is typically involved in cases concerning blood relationship, mental illness, injury, or death resulting from violence. Autopsy (see post-mortem examination) is often used to determine the cause of death, particularly in cases where foul play is suspected. Postmortem examination can determine not only the immediate agent of death (e.g. gunshot wound, poison), but may also yield important contextual information, such as how long the person has been dead, which can help trace the killing. Forensic medicine has also become increasingly important in cases involving rape. Modern techniques use such specimens as semen, blood, and hair samples of the criminal found in the victim's bodies, which can be compared to the defendant's genetic makeup through a technique known as DNA fingerprinting; this technique may also be used to identify the body of a victim. The establishment of serious mental illness by a licensed psychologist can be used in demonstrating incompetency to stand trial, a technique which may be used in the insanity defense (see insanity), albeit infrequently.

 Forensic toxicology: Forensic toxicology is the use of toxicology and other disciplines such as analytical chemistry, pharmacology and clinical chemistry to aid medical or legal investigation of death, poisoning, and drug use. The primary concern for forensic toxicology is not the legal outcome of the toxicological investigation or the technology utilised, but rather the obtaining and interpreting of the results. A toxicological analysis can be done to various kinds of samples.

 Cell Phone / Mobile Phone Forensics: Mobile Device Forensics and Sim Card Forensics etc are sub-branches of digital forensics relating to recovery of digital evidence or data from a mobile device under forensically sound conditions. The phrase mobile device usually refers to mobile phones however can also relate to any digital device that has both internal memory and communication ability.

 Computer Forensics / Cyber Forensics: Computer forensics is an exciting part of the IT field, where computer experts with specialized skills recover data from erased, formatted, damaged or otherwise obscured sources. Many times their skills are called on by law enforcement to recover data that can be used as evidence in a legal case. Sometimes they are just asked to recover data that was carelessly erased or to recover family pictures from a hard disk drive that was damaged in a power surge. Cyber Forensic Experts deals with many cyber crime cases like- Email Examination, Video Examination, IP Tracking etc