Medico-legal investigations of death and poisoning are sometimes a source of trouble for the analysts, depending on the source of the poisoning that has deadly affected the subject, out of which many can be intelligently enough created to be difficult to diagnose. This is when a forensic toxicologist is needed in order to identify the cause of the specific lesions that caused the death of the subject. The domains of expertise that a specialist in forensic toxicology must have are pharmacology, analytical chemistry and clinical chemistry.

The main preoccupation of the specialists in the field concerns obtaining and interpreting the results of the toxicological outcome of the investigation more than the legal outcome itself. The forensic toxicologist will, therefore, consider the context of the investigation that takes place after an incident, including any physical symptoms, the evidence collected at the crime scene that can restrict the case examination. Any chemical container or trace residues are vital for the approach of the investigation, which is why any forensic toxicologist will first follow the indices found at crime scene. Of course, narrowing the investigation can only work if the identified clues are found to have been consumed by the victim in sufficient concentration to have had a major effect on the subject.

The ‘terrain’ of examination for the forensic toxicologists consists most often in bodily fluids and tissue samples, where they have to examine the substances that can be identified. Determining which substance in what quantities have been consumed is a very hard task in some cases, since most of the chemicals don’t remain in the original form once ingested. Heroin, for instance, gets transformed into morphine if the investigation isn’t held shortly after the ingestion has taken place.  The ADME (the acronym stands for Absorption, Distribution, Metabolism and Excretion) is very different from a substance to another, having a major impact on the drug levels and the kinetics of drug exposure to the tissues, as well as on the chemical reaction of the substance as a drug.

For the investigation to take place, it is highly important that the forensic toxicologist isolates and identifies any substances that the body might have entered in contact with, such as: alcohol, illegal or prescription drugs, poisons, metals and gases (the most common example being carbon monoxide). Because of the changes of the substances once ingested by the boy, it is highly important that the specialist is very patient in collecting and analyzing the fatal substance or combination. The chain of custody for the physical examination is one of the most essential sets of rules that have to be taken into consideration once the investigation has begun, reason for which documentation is another key step in solving the case.

Another activity where the forensic toxicologists have to be very careful in analyzing the results of the substance combinations is on cases involving environmental contamination, especially if the trials involve large amounts of money and political interests on both sides, because the final report has to be even more clearly made. The methodologies used in putting together the information in order to get to the results must be explained in court in case any of the parts asks for it, and the justification has to be made in such terms that the juries can understand, avoiding the specific terms as much as possible and making the analysis seem very clear for all the ones attending, without giving any reasons to doubt.

Concerning the employer those specialists work for, it does depend from a state to another, since the trial meetings have significant differences, but most of them work in laboratories run by law enforcement agencies, medical examiners or private drug testing facilities. This ‘project-based’ work has its flaws, since they get to have even months with nothing to do. Nonetheless, when a case occurs, they have to be very precise in following the scientific protocols and procedures, yet very careful and never hasty in their analysis. Effective prioritizing is, therefore, very important in their work, since they can’t afford to lose touch while there are no open cases to be solved.

This is a classic example of job in which you cannot survive without true passion for the field and sincere interest on the effects of chemicals on human body, since constant learning is demanded for the specialists, on methodologies, technologies and new substances and their effects as well. The programs followed have to be accredited by the National Institute of Forensic Science of the country in which the forensic toxicologist wants to work. In the United States of America some of the most appreciated institutions that provide the certification are The American Board of Forensic Toxicology, the American Board of Toxicology and the American Board of Clinical Chemistry.

The easiest way to understand forensic psychiatry is by referring to it as the branch that deals with problems at the confluence of psychiatry and the law. Its role in the social system is very disputed and controversial, though no one denies its consulting relevance during criminal and civil trials. The evolution it has had in the past two decades concerning the relationship between mental disorders and criminality as well as solving very important conflicts serves as a primary argument for its increasing reliability and appreciation.

Every country conceptualizes the tasks, belonging, role and attributions differently, according to the national laws and even traditions. While in Britain most of the forensic psychiatrists work for the National State Service, in some other countries the practitioners may investigate the subjects and their diagnosis of mental illness as part of non-governmental entities. But the legal background is not the only one different from a state to another, as there also are specific national controversial decisions concerning the application of forensic psychiatry in court.

For instance, in Canada, there is a set of requirements before meeting in Court, so called ‘psychiatric assessments’, about which social organisms aiming for rights and freedom believe that this may be in conflict with the fundamental right of expression, thought, belief of any kind.

The scientific incursions into the fields of the law have become, nonetheless, more and more authorized, irrespective of this science’s national given status – as a private or public service. The changes of perspective concerning forensic psychiatry are consistent and regard the evolution of understanding and appreciation of the connection between criminality and mental disorders, the evolution of the legal assay to define legal insanity, the methodology of treatment of mental conditions that assure alternatives to custodial care and last, but not least, the positive public attitude and perception concerning the importance of mental conditions generally speaking.

Strongly related to criminology, the main activity related to courts in forensic psychiatry is evaluating an individual’s competencies to stand trial, to identify mental diseases or defects and use them in order to defend the accused, as well as offering recommendations concerning the sentence. The work is divided into two major areas of activity: Competency to Stand Trial (also known as CST) and the Mental State at the Time of the Offense (commonly known as MSO).

• Competency to Stand Trial. It is highly important for the defendant to understand all the charges he is accused for in order to be able to go to court and assist his attorney. His presence doesn’t only have to be physical, but rational and mentally sane as well for the charges to be available in the case of conviction.

In addition to this, any prisoner to face the death penalty must be evaluated as psychically competent to be executed, meaning that his is in complete understanding with the sentence. Both during civil and penal proceedings forensic psychiatrists are often called as expert witnesses to state their opinion considering different issues of discussion in the trial. The specialists are only called when some of the presented reports aren’t easily understandable and the jury needs professional explanation of the results. Their interpretation plays the part of an independent analysis, regardless of the interests of both parts.

• Mental State Opinion. As the title would suggest, the investigation’s results only represent a specialist’s view of the mental state of the accused – concerning his/her capacity of understanding and reasoning during the time of the crime. Although it is deprived of any decisional power, it plays a very important role in the economy of the jury’s decision nonetheless. The status of this consultation varies from a state to another, but the certainty that the defendant was completely aware of the criminal nature of the act cannot go unpunished, no matter how every state conceptualizes the idea of mental sanity and penalty execution competency.

Concerning the field belonging of the forensic psychiatrists, there have been many debates over the years, but the only logical conclusion in the end, accepted and assumed almost unanimously, is that their first obligations are towards the medical field that specialized them as medical staff in the first place. It is because of this qualification that they are able to perform various examination that are taken into consideration during trials. The control of institutions as well as the huge difference of interests between the patients and the public put a lot of stress and responsibility on the shoulders of these practitioners, all over the world. However, there are many differences as well from a cultural space to another. For example, in some states forensic psychiatry is not defined as a subspecialty per se and in the states where it is, the duration of the training process and the content of the curriculum differs as well.

Criminal profilers are among the most mystic people in law enforcement, it almost seems they conjure an aura of mystery and intelligence; after all, this is probably the work of the number of movies and TV series which were built around this field of work. In this article, we’ll take a look at exactly what a criminal profiler does, the myths and reality of the job, and what requirements are needed to work in this field.

Offender profiling/criminal profiling

According to Wikpiedia, “offender profiling, also known as criminal profiling, is a behavioral and investigative tool that is intended to help investigators to accurately predict and profile the characteristics of unknown criminal subjects or offenders“. If we put that in common English, criminal profiling is the act of developing a psychological profile of an offender/criminal based on what can be deducted from the crime scene.

Picture a sketch of a criminal; the sketch is made based on how a witness (or more) describes him. The sketch can be more or less accurate, depending on the accuracy of the description and the skill of the portrait artist. The criminal profile is a mental sketch of the criminal, done based on what can be deducted from the crime scene and it also can be more or less accurate, depending on how much information the crime scene provides, and also the deductive skills of the profiler.

Criminal profilers work closely with investigators and detectives, and their main weapon is the power of deduction. You can think of them as a type of modern day Sherlock Holmes, though that’s a long stretch, and they rely on hard cold facts much more, and far less on intuition. There’s often only a thin line between detectives and profilers, but the line exists nonetheless: detectives do many things while also working with deductions, while profiling relies solely on the psychology of the criminal.

What does a criminal profiler do?

A highly reputable paper by identified four main approaches to offender profilig:

– The geographical approach, in which geographic patterns are analyzed in order to determine where the criminal works/lives/hangs out, what type of places does he like, etc.
– The typological approach looks at the specific characteristics of the crime scene to characterize the criminal based on several important traits – this is what you usually see in the movies when somebody characterizes the criminal, though it is presented in a very distorted light.
– Investigative psychology, in which psychological theories of analysis are used to to present characteristics about the criminal based on his type of offense and behavior
– The clinical approach to offender profiling in which the understanding of psychiatry and clinical psychology is used to determine whether the offender is suffering from mental problems or other psychological affections.

Usually, profilers analyze old cases; sometimes, old cases with big layers of dust on them. However, in some cases, they tap in early on and get on the field, sometimes even travel to the crime scene.

Profilers may also work with lawyers, conduct private investigations, or work with the police, FBI, or other such organizations. So what do you need to do to become a profiler?

The job

Good profilers typically have the following traits and abilities: a very logical mind, an ability to solve puzzles, and the tenaticity to keep going and going when it seems no answers are available. You have to be a borderline cynic, and a hardened mind, with an ability to ignore the awful things (or at least not let them get to you). You’re going to be involved in some seriously disturbing cases, and you have to deal with the huge stress involved in catching offenders such as a serial killer. Your mental health has to be excellent, and you shouldn’t be phased by bizarre human behavior.

The education requirements for the job are also quite demanding – the absolute minimum is a masters degree, preferably in forensic psychology. This being said, there is no fixed educational path required, no specific certifications are usually asked. Most criminal profilers have degrees in psychology or the more specific area of forensics psychology or criminal justice. Experience is also necessary, and an apprenticeship is a rather common practice – though finding another profiler to work with is usually a hard job.

So if you’re a highly analytical, detail noticing person prepared to work in a highly stressful environment, surrounded by disturbing circumstances, a carreer in criminal profiling may be the right thing for you!

Besides the scientific status of computer forensic investigation, combining all the juridical, social and deontological norms that portray its main activities and objectives, forensic investigations have an indisputable practical use. Digital forensic science is known to be the branch of forensic science in charge of the recovery and investigation in material found in digital devices, most often related to computer crime. Computer forensic investigation is a more specific field of it and it encompasses examining digital media in order to identify, extract, document and interpret the data found for evidentiary or root cause analysis.

The methods used to discover, recover, monitor or detect juridical relevant information in order to analyze, inspect or resolve a wide range of computer crimes and misuses. The relevance of the inspected data can lead to termination of employment, arrests, preventing future similar activity and even prosecutions, depending on the act severity.

There are numerous activities inside the computer forensic investigations’ spectrum of activity, in both business and nonbusiness fields. Some examples of such eligible situations are: theft, trade secrets, fraud, extortion, pornography, virus distribution, any branches of intellectual property, unauthorized use of personal information, industrial espionage.

As some of these examples can be encountered in business environments as well, there are also some specific examples here as well: tracking internet browsing habits, reconstructing events, wrong dismissal claims, software piracy or selling company bandwidth. All these investigations have a large usage among civil litigations, criminal prosecutors, private corporations, insurance companies, law enforcement officials as well as private citizens.

The entire process is divided in four main steps, as it follows: acquisition, identification, evaluation and presentation. Each of them involves accuracy and dealing with top secret information. Among the numerous restrictions that the investigators have to work with
some of the most important are: not damaging any piece of possible evidence or any document that is not included in the investigating process, preventing viruses or any software applications from affecting the computer in cause, protecting the pieces of evidence
from any possible mechanical or electromagnetic damage once extracted from the device.

Another very important responsibility of the investigator is to establish and maintain a continuous chain of custody, limiting at the same time the amount of the operations made and assuring the honoring of all the ethical rules and laws under which the entire process takes place.

The specificity standard set of the procedure supposes careful analysis of the information that might be useful during the investigation, but the modus operandi implies radical rules to be followed, given the importance of the conclusions and their accuracy. One of these very important things to take into account when searching for evidence is not being random about it, but very organized and selective. One of the ways to do this is designating suspected equipment as off-limits to normal activity.

During the investigation, it is recommended to give special time and effort to installing the proper monitoring tools in order to assure the security of the entire process. After the necessary information gets collected, it is highly relevant that its storage is held in maximum security.

The information is classified in volatile and nonvolatile, after the perishability degree. Some of the most common in the first category are network information, active processes, loggedon users, open files. The nonvolatile information encompasses configuration settings, system files and registry settings available after rebooting and the most adequate way to use it is from a backup copy.

In order for the forensic investigation to develop under normal conditions it is necessary that some requirements are respected concerning the knowledge of the subject given the investigation. These regard hardware features of hard drives and settings, familiarity with BIOS and the way it works, operation systems, software packages knowledge and, selfexplanatory, forensic techniques and packages.

In order to gain experience many such investigations are needed to be performed. But the authorities recommend 16 standardized steps in computer forensic investigation trainings: shutting down the device, documenting the system hardware configuration, taking the system to a secure location, making backups of the hard disks, authenticate the data on every device, documenting the system date, making a list of key words to search for, evaluating the Windows swap, evaluating the file slack, evaluating the unallocated space, searching files, document file names, identify anomalies found, evaluate program functionality, document findings and retain copies of the used software.

The name given to data detecting and recovery is steganalysis. It encompasses some specific methods of detecting and decoding data, such as: human observation, software analysis, statistical analysis on the detecting activity and reconstruction and check swap files for data recovery.