Wednesday, April 28, 2010

CSI Is Helping Crooks Cover Their Tracks

I was wondering when this was going to happen.

Criminals watch television too, and there is evidence they are also changing their behaviour. Most of the techniques used in crime shows are, after all, at least grounded in truth. Bleach, which destroys DNA, is now more likely to be used by murderers to cover their tracks. The wearing of gloves is more common, as is the taping shut--rather than the DNA-laden licking--of envelopes. Investigators comb crime scenes ever more finely for new kinds of evidence, which is creating problems with the tracking and storage of evidence, so that even as the criminals leave fewer traces of themselves behind, a backlog of cold-case evidence is building up.

I wonder if we have any criminals going over the crime scene with a black light in order to get rid of any hairs or skin that they may have left behind?

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