Class times and Location
    Tuesday and Thursday, 10:20 a.m.-12:10 p.m., Room 1281 Anthony Hall

Office hours:
    Office: 506 Baker Hall (355-2194) - Office Hours: Mondays and Wednesday 10am to noon

COURSE SYLLABUS AND DESCRIPTION

Prerequisites
    None

Textbook

REQUIRED:  Lee, H. and Harris, H., Physical Evidence in Forensic Science, 2000

Recommended:  Saferstein, Richard, Criminalistics - An Introduction to Forensic Science, 6th Ed., 1999.

Class procedures

1)    Attendance at course exams and the final exam is required.  No make-up
    exams will be given.  There will be no exceptions.

2)    Attendance will not be taken at class meetings.  If you come to class, please be
    courteous to other students.  If you feel you must leave before the class period is over,
    wait until the mid-class break.

3)  You MUST have your PILOT email account activated.  There will be times when I will
    communicate with the whole class by email and you may thus miss some valuable
    information.  For example your grade and feedback on each exam will be emailed to
    you and that will be the only way you will be able to get feedback.  In addition, you
    should also learn how to use the World Wide Web (WEB).  I have a home page on the
    WEB at: http://www.cj.msu.edu/~faculty/siegelj.html.  It will contain this syllabus, copies of the
    study guides for each period and other handout materials.  Although I will be giving out
    hard copies of the syllabus and some of the other materials, you can get extras only by
    downloading them from the WEB.

4)    Although there is a required textbook for this class, it does not cover all of the course
    topics in sufficient depth (or at all), so I will supplement the material with lectures and
    handouts as necessary.  On my web site there will be a written study guide for that
    class.  This will consist of a set of questions or outlines that cover the main points of
    the topic.

5)    Owing to the large size of this class, the instructional model will be largely lecture.  I
    will make liberal use of audio and visual aids to enhance the material.  I strongly
    encourage questions during class time.

6)    Statement on Commercialized Notetaking:

The class lectures and supporting materials distributed or exhibited in this course
include intellectual property protected by copyright law.  It is contrary to University
policy for any student to sell or profit from the transmission or reproduction of these
materials (whether directly to other students, by contract with third parties and/or
through commercial note-taking services) without the express written permission of
the instructor.  The relevant University policy is the policy on attendance and class
notes found in Academic Programs, 1997-1999 on p. 42.  Students who provide these
materials for profit are subject to removal from the class, pending a hearing by the
department or school.

Grading

    There will be 3 exams during the course (midterms) and a final exam at the end.  The dates of
the exams are given below in the schedule of activities.  The three midterms will each consist of
short answer, objective questions.  Each midterm will count 100 points.  If you take all three
exams, the lowest one will be dropped.  If you choose, you may miss one exam and then that one
will be dropped.  You may miss only one exam.

    After each exam is graded, you will be sent a feedback sheet by email.  This sheet will have
the grade for the exam and a key to the objective questions (right answers).  Correct answers to
the essay questions will be posted on my WEB page.  You must access your PILOT email
account to get your feedback sheet.  No hard copies will be available and I will not have access
to your feedback sheet.

    The final exam will be cumulative of the entire semester’s work and will count 200 points.  It
will consist of 100 objective questions.  If you miss the final exam, you will be given an
incomplete that must then be made up by the 5th week of the next fall semester or the grade for
the course reverts to a 0.0.
 
 

CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE GRADE AND GRADING SCALE
 
 

Two best midterms	@ 100 points each
Final Exam	200 points
Total maximum:	400 points

Grading Scale:

Course Content and Organization

    Forensic science is the application of scientific methods to matters involving the public.
One of its principle applications is the scientific analysis of physical evidence generated by
criminal activity.  This course will cover four major aspects of physical evidence using real
criminal and civil cases:

  1. The generation of physical evidence by criminal activity
  2. Collection and preservation of physical evidence
  3. Analysis of physical evidence by a forensic science laboratory
  4. Presentation of scientific expert testimony in court

Course objectives:
 

1. Explain the significance of forensic science and its function in the criminal justice system
2. List and describe the various types of physical evidence and classify them by type and probative value
3. Describe methods for collection and preservation of physical evidence from crime scenes
4. Describe how each type of physical evidence is analyzed by forensic scientists
5. List and explain the rules of evidence that apply to scientific and physical evidence
6. Describe the techniques of expert testimony and contrast it with lay testimony in court

Given below is the tentative schedule for each class period of this course. Under the "readings" head,ing, "PE" refers to pages in the book, "Physical Evidence in Forensic Science", "?ENC" refers topages in the Encyclopedia of Forensic Sciences".
 
 

Date

Topic

Readings

Part I - Introduction to Forensic Science

Jan 9	Introduction to course/nature of forensic sicence/history and development of forensic sicence	ENC: 297-302, 1070-1076, 471-478 PE: 17-24
Jan 11	The crime laboratory: types and Organization	ENC: 64-73
Jan 13	The crime scene: search and collect evidence, the chain of custody	ENC: 409-411 PE: 25-32
Jan 18	Physical evidence classification. Begin chromatography	ENC: 712-716, 1077-1084 PE: 3-16
Jan 23	Chromatography and spectroscopy	ENC: 146-160
Jan 25	Spectroscopy and microscopy	ENC: 179-193, 161-166

Part 2 - Biological Evidence

Jan 30	Human hairs Botanical evidence: natural fibers; marihuana; pollens	ENC: 999-1024, 1032-1040 PE: 173-180
Feb 1	1st Exam
Feb 6	Blood and body fluids; blood spatter; semen and rape kits	ENC: 399-402, 432-446, 457-461, 1322-1349 PE: 49-70, 219-226
Feb 8	Forensic entomology	ENC: 699-705
Feb 13	Forensic anthropology	ENC: 194-197, 217-226, 242-253
Feb 15	DNA	ENC: 479-485, 515-525, 535-544 PE: 87-98
Feb 20	DNA continued: Video: "Murder, Rape and DNA"
Feb 22	Forensic pathology	ENC: 303-307, 1149-1160, 1167-1171

Part 3 - Chemical Evidence

Feb 27	Drugs	ENC: 589-609, 626-630 PE: 113-124
Mar 1	Alcohol	ENC: 74-92, 102-111
Mar 13	2nd Exam
Mar 15	Fibers	ENC: 815-853 PE:125-130
Mar 20	Paint	ENC: 1141-1148
Mar 22	Glass and Soil	PE: 157-164, 231-234
Mar 27	Fires and Explosions	ENC: 900-938, 729-744, 758-763 PE: 33-42, 71-76

Part 4 - Pattern Evidence

Mar 29	Fingerprints	ENC: 284-289, 869-876, 890-899 PE: 131-146
Apr 3	Questioned documents	ENC: 566-597, 969-980 PE: 99-112
Apr 5	Firearms and toolmarks	ENC: 944-968 PE: 147-156, 239-244

Part 5- Behavioral and Legal Aspects of Forensic Science

Apr 10	Polygraph and detection of deception	ENC: 550-555, 1102-1110 PE:257-272
Apr 12	Police psychology
Apr 17	3rd Exam
Apr 19	Law and Forensic Science	ENC: 1099-11-1, 724-728
Apr 24	Law and Forensic Science (continued)
Apr 26	Video: State of Florida v. W.K. Smith: Testimony of Jay A. Siegel (for the defense)
May 3	Final Exam, 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 noon

Back to top