Case Studies in Criminalistics Workshop

Wayne Moorehead, Dr. Peter De Forest, and Peter Diaczuk lead the Inter/Micro 2008 Thursday workshop for a full audience.

2008 INTER/MICRO WORKSHOP I

Microscopical Thinking and Trace Evidence Workshop

Dr. Peter R. De Forest
John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York, NY

With assistance from:
Peter Diaczuk, John Jay College of Criminal Justice & Wayne Moorehead

This workshop is designed to provide the participants with a broad perspective concerning the role of microscopy and that of a generalized microscopical, or trace evidence, approach to the problems of physical evidence assessment and interpretation in complex cases. It is expected that those participating in the workshop will possess a basic theoretical understanding of polarized light microscopy, as well as a modicum of practical experience with the use of the polarized light microscope.

The one day workshop will have three interwoven components: short lectures, hands-on laboratory exercises, and presentations of illustrative case examples. The lecture portions of the workshop will present several aspects of microscopical theory and trace evidence concepts and philosophy. Two very different meanings of the adjective trace will be discussed. Most of the day will be spent on laboratory exercises and case examples. These exercises and case examples will be selected to illustrate the advantages of applying microscopical thinking and problem solving to dealing with complex cases. The point will be made that trace evidence approaches have an extraordinarily wide applicability in criminalistics. Furthermore, the applications of this approach to casework transcend the dimensional constraints of the microscopic domain, because this process is not limited only to material transfers.