Summary
Criminalistics science contributes to the clarification of crimes without losing sight of the fact that, above all, the requirements set forth by the Criminal Procedure Law must be observed. The usefulness of the evidence in the different aspects of the criminal investigation has been proven and all the factors in charge of the fulfillment of the law increasingly resort to the results of the Criminalistics Laboratory to obtain evidences difficult to obtain by other means. As the scientific-criminal investigation progresses, the importance and use of fingerprints, evidence and samples in the investigation of criminal acts increases. Virtually anything can be turned into evidence. It can be as insignificant as a particle of dust or as large as the boiler of a sugar mill.It can take the form of a gas or a liquid, or it can be a very simple pattern or span thousands of pages of documents.
The basic principle for examining fingerprints and evidence is quite simple. Whenever someone leaves a place, they take something with them and at the same time leave something of their own. It is the responsibility of the criminal expert to examine what was left at the scene of the event, formulate a hypothesis about its origin and determine who it may have belonged to. Criminalistics represents an indispensable tool that contributes to establish the necessary objectivity in the execution of expert opinions, so the assistance provided by the other sciences is completely valid and provides a high degree of scientificity to the investigation of crimes. In this way, all branches of knowledge that participate in criminal knowledge (Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Medicine, Mathematics,among others) have come to enrich the study options specific to the investigation of crimes. Obviously, Criminalistics in our days is the result of technological evolution and new discoveries in the natural sciences.
As the Austrian criminalist Hans Gross wrote, cited by Jürgen Thorwald, 1969 "Criminalistics is a heterogeneous body of knowledge taken from other sciences and usable in the investigation of crimes."
Criminalistics, due to the fact that at its birth it lacked the delimitation of its own field of study, on more than one occasion and by different authors it has been considered as Police Technique, as Scientific Police, as an auxiliary branch of Law or as part of Criminology. For the Cuban School of Criminalistics it is an independent legal science.
Criminalistics contributes to the fulfillment of the requirements set forth by criminal law, regarding the rapid, multilateral and complete clarification of the crimes that affect both our country and the international community, so that all perpetrators of a criminal action receive a just sanction and that no innocent person is punished.
It also directs its efforts towards the prevention of crimes and the eradication of the causes that generate them. In our opinion, it is an independent legal science, with a criminal legal profile, as are Criminal Law, Criminal Procedural Law, Criminology and Victimology.
One of the central objectives of this science is the study of the forms and procedures used for the search, collection, analysis, interpretation, classification and determination of the traces, evidence and samples derived from the investigation of a criminal action.
However, these objectives are not always fully achieved, which leads us to propose that it is seen as problematic: Insufficient preservation of the scene of the crime for the lifting of criminal traces in the clarification of criminal acts in the criminal process.
For this we draw up the following General Objective: Evaluate the importance of preserving the scene of the events, for the lifting of criminal traces and the subsequent use in the clarification of criminal events.
Historical evolution of Criminalistics in Cuba
What is known today as the Criminal Police emerged in the middle of the 18th century, when crime was a threat not only to the individual, but also to the State, and it was faced by this firmly outlined organization.
The emergence of Criminalistics is framed in the second half of the 19th century, when techniques corresponding to the natural sciences began to be used during the investigation of crimes.
Since the beginning of colonization, in our country different methods were used to identify those people who, in some way, violated the existing order. Those charged with enforcing justice developed barbarous methods to establish the identity of offenders. For example, the blacks brought from the African continent for the hardest tasks, when they managed to escape from the hell that constituted the barracks and workplaces, when they were captured again they were marked, initially like the beasts with red-hot irons that left the marks of their masters. Subsequently, the method of cutting off an ear was used.
The beginnings of criminal investigation and criminology in Cuba can be located around the middle of the 19th century. The liberating chiefs and the legislative structures of the Republic in Arms conceived the idea of creating a body with Police functions.In this sense, the Military Organization Law of July 22, 1869 was pronounced, whose articles detailed its functions, composition, hierarchy and subordination, in addition to providing for the development of its own regulations.
The lofty purpose with which the Cuban liberators of the 19th century focused their efforts on creating an apparatus for the maintenance of order on a legal and just basis is a cause for admiration. This, in its own right, is part of the historical and combative traditions of the National Revolutionary Police.
Two important facts allow us to frame the emergence of Criminalistics in Cuba:
- The argument about the need to create Documentology, as an independent discipline, dedicated to the investigation of documents related to the commission of criminal acts (counterfeiting of banknotes from the Spanish Bank of Havana and theft and falsification of documents from the General Warehouse of Effects Timbrados), a proposal made by Don Ramón Zambrana y Valdés, who was the first Cuban appointed to occupy a position as professor at the Department of Legal Medicine and Toxicology at the University of Havana. The organization of the Photographic Archive, in which they were registered the portraits of the convicts and inmates sanctioned by the Vagos Correctional Facility in the Plaza de La Habana.At that time, the impression of the index finger was already used for the identification that was made to Chinese citizens who were hired to work in our country. The tradition of Cuban Criminalistics in the 19th century is completed with the scientific achievement achieved by Dr. Oscar Amoedo Valdés, from Matanzas, who, working as a professor at the Faculty of Dentistry in Paris, practiced for the first time in history the massive identification of people, who had died in a tragic accident that occurred on May 4, 1897 in the so-called Bazar de la Caridad, where 126 people perished due to a fire. The identification of 30 of these victims was carried out by Amoedo on the basis of the investigation of the dental apparatus of the deceased.The following year he wrote the book "L'Art Dentaire en Medicine Legale" (The Dental Art in Legal Medicine), which is considered a universal classic and, later, Amoedo was described as the "Father of Forensic Stomatology", which naturally links our country to the emergence of this Specialty.
The criminalistic antecedents of the 20th century begin with Military Order No. 159, of May 17, 1902, of the interventionist Governor Leonardo Wood, which establishes the creation of the Laboratory of the Island of Cuba, dependent on the Ministry of the Interior and which would have the Bacteriology, Histology, Legal Chemistry and Epizootic Sections.
The General Budget Law for the period 1904-1905 led the Legal Chemistry Section to adopt a new structure, becoming independent from the remaining sections of the Laboratory of the Island of Cuba, with:
- Department of Toxicology for the investigation of volatile poisons and others. Department for the investigation of alkaloids, glycosides, blood stains, semen, writings, gunshots, etc. Department of Heat.
On November 23, 1904, the first expert report on Legal Chemistry was issued and on February 10, 1905, the first on blood investigation. On November 28, 1907, Steegers issued the first dactyloscopic technical report, addressed to the Investigating Judge of the Central District of Havana; two years later the Criminal Identification Cabinet was created, in which its Fingerprint System was used.
After having accepted the report entitled "Fingerprint identification", presented by Don Fernando Ortiz Fernández, who is considered the "Father of Cuban Criminalistics", due to the efforts he made to establish this science in our country, issued Presidential Decree No. 1173, of December 20, 1911, by means of which the National Identification Cabinet (GNI) was created, attached to the Ministry of the Interior. On the same date Ortiz was appointed Technical Identification Inspector, to implement the system throughout the country.
The first Director of the GNI was Juan Francisco Steegers Perera, who served in the position for a decade, until he died at the age of 65, having dedicated a large part of his life to the development of his profession and for which he has been recognized as the "Pioneer of fingerprint practice in Cuba."
On October 24, 1913, President Mario García Menocal, in accordance with the Executive Power Law and by Presidential Decree No. 963, ordered that the Legal Chemistry Section pass, in its capacity as auxiliary to the Courts, to form part of the Ministry of Justice, maintaining the organization, personnel and materials that it had at that time. In this way the Legal Chemistry Laboratory arose and the Dr. in Pharmacy José A. Fernández Benítez was appointed as its Director.
After the triumph of the Revolution, the GNI (including the LQL) remained attached to the Police, then passed to the Rebel Army Investigations Department (DIER).
In February 1960, the name of the Legal Chemistry Laboratory was changed to the Criminalistics Division and the first Fingerprinting courses were taught. When the Ministry of the Interior was created, on June 6, 1961, the National Identification Cabinet and the Criminalistics Division joined it, remaining in the premises of the old SIM: the Registries occupied the first and second floors, the DCRIM occupied the third.
On September 10, 1963, the GNI and the DCRIM separated, creating the National Identification Department (DNI) and the Central Laboratory of Criminalistics (LCC), respectively. In 1964 the LCC became part of the General Technical Directorate (DGT), until 1972 when it became an Independent Department, subordinate to the MININT Headquarters.
The LCC's expert work had a national scope until June 19, 1971, when the first Provincial Criminalistics Laboratory was created in the city of Santiago de Cuba. Later the Laboratories of the Matanzas, Las Villas, Camagüey, Pinar del Río and Havana provinces were founded, in that order.
Starting with the new political-administrative division, adopted in our country in 1976, Criminalistics Laboratories were created in the new eight provinces and in the Isla de la Juventud Special Municipality, which allowed the extension of criminal expertise to the entire country..
The Criminalistics Directorate ceased to exist in August 1997, becoming the Criminalistics Division (DCRIM), structured with the Expert Department (LCC) and the Operations Department. The National Identification Department became part of the Identification and Registration Directorate. The National Department of Canine Technique was subsequently subordinated to the MININT Headquarters.
At the national level, the Provincial Criminalistics Sections were created, which integrate the Provincial Criminalistics Laboratory and the Territorial Units, made up of criminal experts and canine technicians, thus verticalizing the Specialty at the provincial level.
For the clarification of the criminal acts in the criminal process, the preservation of the place plays a fundamental role, for the lifting of criminal traces.
This action is of vital importance, since failure to carry it out would practically imply a scientific failure in the criminal investigation.
Its objective is to: preserve the primitive shape of the scene after the event.
It follows that since there is a good conservation of the place, the expert, police and ministerial investigations will be timely and truthful on original evidence, complying with the three fundamental rules of protection.
They are:
- Get to the site quickly, dislodge bystanders and establish a cordon of protection Do not move or touch anything, or allow it, until the site has been examined and fixed Select the areas where you are going to walk, in order to do not alter or erase evidence.
By effectively complying with the above three rules, you will have gained a lot in pursuit of investigations. In the event that any preventive police or judicial police first had knowledge of the fact and arrived immediately at the place, they will enforce the three aforementioned rules while the Public Ministry and the experts arrive at the place.
Recommendations:
- If the act has been committed in a closed place (room, bedroom, warehouse, building, neighborhood), all access routes (doors and windows) will be guarded.If the act has been committed in an open place or isolated house, the Access to the area will be prohibited to the public at least 50 meters in diameter. Access to the closed or open place must be prohibited to all kinds of people outside the investigation.
The Cuban School of Criminalistics has developed the following definitions of footprint, evidence and sample.
Paw print:
Sign, mark, trace or material change present in a place, person or object, related to a criminal act that is investigated by Criminalistics, with a view to determining its origin or belonging to a person, an animal or an object.
Examples:
- Dermoscopy: Fingerprints, palmar, podoral and other dermal Traces: Traces of teeth, footwear, tires, braking, fracture instruments, animals Ballistics: Traces of the firing of firearms Documentation: Handwritten writings and typescript, signatures Biology: Blood macules, hairs, textile fibers, bone fragments, plant fragments, tissues, saliva and semen macules Drugs and Toxicology: Sting remains, drug residues or toxic substances Chemical-Physical: Traces of the shot on clothing, hands and firearms, stains of substances from Operational Chemical Applications, soil particles, glass, metals, plastics, paints AVEXI: Traces of breakdowns, explosions and fires Criminalistic Odorology: Traces smelly.
Dermal Footprints: It is searched with magnifying glasses on smooth surfaces, in the access roads of the authors or objects that may have touched, when found they are revealed with revealing powders, they are fixed photographically and then extracted with escortey and placed on the base of white color, the fingerprint is discarded with the people at home, it is packed and labeled, and later sent to the Provincial Criminalistics Laboratory (LPC) and entered into the system.
Odor Footprint: It is raised in the place where the author penetrated or where the stolen was located, the odorous cloth is extracted with the metal clamp from the glass bottle and placed in the selected place, a paper is placed on top for protection and It is left for 40 minutes, then it is extracted with the metal forceps, introducing it into the glass bottle. It is covered, labeled and then sent to the Provincial Criminalistics Laboratory (LPC)
Biological fingerprint of blood: Scraping is used when the blood is dry, packed and labeled, then sent to the Provincial Laboratory of Criminalistics (LPC)
A swab or damp gauze with sodium chloride solution (common salt) or distilled water is used and when it dries it is packed and labeled, sent to the Provincial Laboratory of Criminalistics (LPC)
Biological hair fingerprint: It is searched with a magnifying glass or with the naked eye in the places of access of the authors, it is photographically fixed, it is lifted with the forceps and packed and labeled, it is sent to the Provincial Laboratory of Criminalistics (LPC).
In this expert report, animal hairs are not assessed.
Textile Microfiber Footprints: It is searched with a magnifying glass or the naked eye for the places of access of the authors, it is photographically fixed and extracted with escortey, then it is fixed in the fingerprint holder, it is packed and labeled for shipment to the Provincial Laboratory of Criminalistics (LPC)
Trazological Cutting Footprint: It is searched in the entrance or exit route, it is fixed photographically, it is lifted, it is preserved with grease and it is packed and labeled to send to the Provincial Laboratory of Criminalistics (LPC)
Trazological Footprint of Footwear: It is searched in the entrance or exit route, it is fixed photographically with the use of the scale. The grid is placed, placed on top of the footprint, the plaster is prepared and poured on top of the grid. Until it dries, it is extracted, put to dry at room temperature, cleaned and labeled on top of the fingerprint, for transfer to the Provincial Criminalistics Laboratory (LPC)
Trazological Footprint of Barefoot Feet: It is searched in the entrance or exit way, it is fixed photographically with the use of the scale. The grid is placed, placed on top of the footprint, the plaster is prepared and poured onto the grid. Until it dries, it is extracted, it is put to dry at room temperature, it is cleaned and it is marked on the upper part of the print. Moves to the Provincial Criminalistics Laboratory (LPC)
Trazological Tooth Footprint: It is searched for in food remains marked by the authors, it is photographically fixed and can be extracted with silicone, it is packed and labeled, it is transferred to the Provincial Laboratory of Criminalistics (LPC)
Trazological Footprint of Transportation Footprint: On the land surface, the plaster is proceeded, otherwise it is fixed photographically, it is transferred to the Provincial Laboratory of Criminalistics (LPC)
Physical Footprint of Soil: Remains of soil (earth) are extracted from the scene, packed and labeled, and transferred to the Provincial Criminalistics Laboratory (LPC)
Plant Biological Footprint: The vegetable coal is extracted, packed and labeled, and sent to the Provincial Laboratory of Criminalistics (LPC)
Chemical Fingerprint of Paint: It is scraped where it is, packed and labeled, sent to the Provincial Laboratory of Criminalistics (LPC)
Chemical Smell of Oil: It is extracted with a gauze in the oil remains, it is packed in nylon and labeled, it is sent to the Provincial Laboratory of Criminalistics (LPC)
Evidence:
Object related to a criminal act, occupied at the scene of the event or during an investigation action that, generally, bears fingerprints and that is sent to the criminal laboratories for investigation.
Examples:
- Objects bearing dermal prints. Fruits or foods with dental prints, objects with trazological marks. Firearms, casings, projectiles. Document or any object that preserves the image of conventional letters, figures or signs. Objects bearing biological prints. Carrier objects from remains of sting or residues of drugs or toxic substances. Clothing, firearms and other objects bearing chemical-physical traces, objects with stains of substances from Operational Chemical Applications. Objects bearing odorous traces.
Shows:
Undoubted elements (of known origin) that contain, or allow to obtain with them, impressions to make comparisons in the identifying criminalistic expert opinions.
Examples:
- Digitopalmar models with dermal impressions Experimental firearms shots Free or experimental comparative models of handwritten and typed writings, signatures, stamp prints, as well as paper or ink samples Blood, saliva, hair, vegetation, tissue samples Textile Samples of soil, glass, metals, plastics, paints, explosives, fuels Odorous prints.
The process for obtaining the fingerprints must go through certain steps:
- Search and discovery: it is the tracking or exploration that is carried out in the different places when practicing the inspection of the scene of the events and other instructional actions regulated by law. Disclosure: Make them visible by marking them with the naked eye by drawing a circle around, putting them Fixation: It consists of the task that is carried out in order to leave an informative record of the characteristics and symptoms of the test, tending to preserve this information is carried out for further investigation.Extraction: It is the one that includes the occupation of the tests and It is carried out by various methods and with the use of special means in each case. Conservation: After the evidence has been extracted, it is necessary to preserve them from certain situations that may affect or destroy them.
This issue is covered by articles 125 and 126 of the current Cuban Criminal Procedure Law, which state:
ARTICLE 125. The Instructor, when he has knowledge of a crime, will immediately proceed to inspect the scene of the events and fix, collect and preserve the vestiges and material evidence that the crime has left and that may be related to the existence and nature of the crime. done. To this end, he will record in the proceedings the description of the place of the crime in which his evidence is discovered, the place and state in which the objects that are found in the accidents of the land or situation of the rooms and all other details that could serve for the prosecution and defense.
ARTICLE 126: When it is absolutely essential to demonstrate the essential facts or circumstances of the act that is the object of the process, a sufficiently detailed plan of the place will be drawn up, photographs will be taken, both of this and where appropriate, of the people who have been the object of the crime and of the effects or instruments thereof; Traces of any kind that have been found will be photographed and raised and, if useful, the appropriate designs of the aforementioned effects or instruments will be made, adopting, when necessary, any other means of preserving or fixing said elements of judgment..
Conclusions
The lifting of the criminalistic fingerprints in the clarification of the criminal acts in the criminal process is the most important stage of the entire investigative process of a fact since it has characteristics of a crime, it shows the importance of each of the fingerprints in the investigation, which is at this stage where it is possible to accumulate all the probative material that serves as the basis for the punitive claim made by the Public Prosecutor's Office before the Court where the responsibility for a fact is attributed or not to certain or certain persons.
This work contributes to the understanding of the importance of the different fingerprints obtained at the scene of the event to determine the criminal participation of each of those involved in the event, highlighting as the most important the dermal fingerprints as they constitute irrefutable evidence to incriminate to those involved. The expert is the one who plays a fundamental role because he is the subject who collects all the traces to support the subsequent accusation.
recommendations
- Raise the culture of the population on the need to preserve the scene of the events. Coordinate with the National Revolutionary Police, to win over the attendance of the operational guard at the scene.
Bibliography
- Cuban Criminal Procedure Law, editorial Félix Varela La Habana year 2009. Criminalistics topics, groups of authors, Dr. De la Torre Hernández Rafael, Dr. Febles Brito Osualdo, Ms Remigio Martínez Zareska, Es Pereira Fernández A Julio, Lic Jústiz Dustet Carlos, Editorial Félix Varela La Habana year 2004. General Theory, Techniques, Tactics and Criminalistic Methodology, author Pereira Fernández Julio, editorial Félix Varela La Habana year 2006.
