This book is designed to provide a UK perspective on procedures and practices that are relevant to the processing of crime scenes. The identification and gathering of physical items of intelligence in police investigations at crime scenes, which will subsequently become evidence in a court of law, in a manner that will stand the scrutiny of cross‐examination, requires the bringing together of several strands of knowledge. We are conscious of the relationship between the gathering of evidence and its subsequent scientific analysis in the context of the UK legal system. Without an understanding of the way in which the item may be subsequently analysed, many of the methods of packaging of items carry no significance. Only when the correct procedure is understood in the context of the protection of the evidence from damage for the purposes of subsequent analysis will the rationale for a particular packaging procedure be apparent. Thus, in this book there are chapters devoted to different types of physical evidence where the link between the evidence item and its subsequent analysis is made clear. The other aspect of evidence gathering is to ensure the continuity of the items so that the location and subsequent analysis of each item can be verified during its passage from the crime scene to the court room.

The second edition of this book is intended as an introductory text on common procedures for the identification and processing of evidence at scenes of crime. The course is largely based on operating practices that exist within management of crime scenes in the UK. The text is primarily aimed at people who are studying crime scenes as part of a study programme, but we think that the work will prove useful to a wider range of readers including:

• undergraduate students studying courses in the criminal justice sector, such as forensic science, criminalistics and policing;
• people employed in the criminal justice sector such as police officers, crime support teams, legal personnel and forensic science services, all of whom may need an introduction to crime scenes;
• members of the general public who want to know more about how crime scenes are processed.

Students who are using this text as a learning vehicle will be expected to study some crime scene work during their course and will need to understand selected fundamental principles, and gain a knowledge of processes and the reasoning for operating procedures in order to underpin their subject. Thus, we have aimed to include only those aspects of crime scene processing that would be relevant as an introduction to such. Each chapter begins with an introduction that explains the relevance of the contents. The significance of the material is given importance by the choice of examples, wherever possible. The text expects little in the way of prior knowledge and introduces concepts at a basic level. This keeps each chapter brief whilst covering most of the necessary material that you will require during your undergraduate course.

We realise that you may not feel confident tackling concepts of which you have had little prior experience. Each chapter thus contains relevant questions that aim to assess your understanding of the materials presented, with answers provided on the publisher’s website. These can be accessed by visiting http://booksupport.wiley.com and entering the book title, author name or ISBN.

The aim of this website is to provide high‐resolution images to support the text, and they are also included in the book itself. In addition, many photographs lose quality when reproduced in a text such as this, and points that need illustrating may be better represented by images viewed on a PC.

The dedicated space within the publisher’s website that can be used with this text contains many images, including all the tables, photographs and drawings, and many of the forms, that are presented. These are in downloadable format so that they can be adapted or integrated into a lecture series on the subject.

Some of the material covered in the chapters will require rote‐learning and this is something that you will have to work towards. It would be impractical for you to remember such materials at the first attempt. Rote‐learning can be made easier by breaking a subject down into small parts. The regular review of such material will also aid your memory. The same applies to other ideas that are introduced in the text. Concepts can sometimes seem difficult to grasp, but re‐reading material that you find difficult, slowly and carefully, will help you to gain a much clearer understanding of its meaning.

This text uses the term ‘Crime Scene Investigator’ (CSI) to denote the person responsible for the processing of crime scenes. In the UK, these personnel have different names, depending on the constabulary to which they are attached. In some areas terms such as Crime Scene Examiner, Forensic Scene Investigator, Scenes of Crime Officer and Scientific Support Officer are used instead. There is a different emphasis between a Crime Scene Investigator, who can be seen as an active thinking investigator, and an examiner, who can be viewed as a passive collector of evidence. A modern CSI will need to be both of these.

The management of CSIs varies between police forces. It can fall under the remit of a Scientific Support Service or Department (sometimes called Scenes of Crime Department) but this is not always the case. Since the way in which CSIs are managed does not impact materially on their day‐to‐day activities we shall refer to management structures using the term ‘Scenes of Crime Department’.

Where possible, chapters include a list of suggested further reading where it is in the public domain. Much of the training materials given to CSIs are restricted and not publicly available. In some chapters there is also a reference list where it is felt that this may help the reader.