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YOU WILL NEED ACCESS TO THESE RESOURCES:
Standard lecture room facilities, appropriate laboratory facilities, module handbook, access to library and to computers with www access
Blackboard VLE

THESE LEARNING STRATEGIES WILL OCCUPY YOUR TIME:
18 hours of lecture-tutorial sessions will provide for delivery of the core material. Here you will be introduced to the key theoretical principles, and you will also gain an appreciation of how forensic examination can be applied. These sessions will include 3 two hour sessions on the practical aspects of hair and fibre analysis in the first half of the module.
126 hours of independent study, much of which will be tutor-guided background reading, through textbooks, websites, etc, will help to consolidate the core material and broaden your understanding.

The individuality of fingerprints will be discussed, along with methods of classification and comparison. The basic principles of visualisation, enhancement and recovery of fingerprints will be outlined. The impressions made by footwear, bare feet, ears, etc, will be discussed and their usefulness discussed in relation to solving crimes. The forensic examination of hairs and fibres, principally by microscopy, spectroscopic and chemical analysis, will be introduced and its relevance to solving crimes will be discussed. Analysis of questioned documents, including examination of paper, writing implements and inks, banknotes, credit cards, cheques and wills, typewritten, printed and photocopied documents, handwriting and indented writing. The handling of questioned documents and the techniques for destructive and non-destructive testing will be discussed with particular reference to the sequence of examination.

Additional Assessment Information:
Students will be required to complete 2 pieces of summative assessment.

A written assignment weighted at 35% covering the first one third of the lecture material and a 2 hour class test weighted at 65% covering the remaining two thirds of the module.

The written assignment will cover learning outcomes 1, 3 and 4
The 2 hour class test will cover all the learning outcomes. It will consist of a mixture of short answers and an essay from a choice of questions on the areas of document analysis and fingerprints and other marks.

Students will be provided with formative assessment and feedback via tutor comments on work given for formative assessment.

AND REFER TO THESE TEXTS, TITLE, AUTHOR, PAGES:
Forensic Science: Andrew R.W Jackson and Julie M. Jackson, Pearson 2007
Crime Scene to Court: The Essentials of Forensic Science,
P White (ed), Royal Society of Chemistry, 1998
Criminalistics: An Introduction to Forensic Science 7th Ed, R.Saferstein, Prentice-Hall, 2001 (earlier editions are suitable)