Introduction
There are a variety of tools that may be used to commit a crime. Toolmark examination is a branch of forensics that seeks to determine if a toolmark left behind was made by a certain tool.
Examiners can determine not only the type of tool that was used, but whether a specific tool (such as a screwdriver found in the suspect's car) was used. This type of evidence is valuable in building a case.
Following successful completion of this lesson, students will be able to...
- Describe the proper way to collect tool mark evidence.
- Analyze toolmark striations or impressions.
Essential Questions
- How can scientists tell that a specific tool created a mark, not one like it?
Enduring Understandings
- An exchange of material will occur whenever someone is at a crime scene (Locard's Exchange Principle). Materials left behind (or carried away) from the crime scene as well as markings and impressions from those items can be linked to an individual or item.
- Forensics requires a team of practitioners representing all areas of science.
- The principles of scientific inquiry are required in all crime scene and forensic science analysis.
- Forensic results are open to the interpretation and subject to the limitation of the pathologist's knowledge and methods.
- Evidence must be collected in a specific and strategic manner, as well as systematically documented, to ensure that no tampering or contamination occurs.
The above objectives correspond with the Alabama Course of Study: Forensic Science and Crime Scene Investigation standards: 22, 43.