The Decision-Making Process of Crime Scene Investigation From Scene Attendance to On-Site Traces Collection: Process Analysis, Traces Utility, and Contribution in the Judicial Process

In the context of the intervention at the scene of a crime, crime scene investigators (CSIs) are expected to deliver quick and useful results with limited resources (time and money). Forensic science is strongly affected by these constraints, as it often entails costly and (sometimes) time-consuming analysis steps. The reasoning at the crime scene for the search, detection, collection and analysis of traces is rarely explicit, and scarcely studied. As initial step in the criminal justice process, it is however of utmost importance for the production of evidence for court. By analyzing relevant literature through a systematic review, this study aims at examining the different steps of crime scene examination (intervention request, attendance, examination, traces identification, triaging, selection and collection) and the different factors and policies that have relevant impact on this process. Furthermore, the reasoning scheme, the hypothetico-deductive reasoning model, will be assessed in order to examine the use and understanding of the utility dimensions of forensic science by CSIs when processing a crime scene. Through a case study of judicial decision and cases, based on corpus from 2021 to 2023 where forensic analysis was requested or supplied, the reasoning and traces’ contribution to case processing through the judicial process will be evaluated. This research aims to provide a deeper understanding of the reasoning and decision-making processes at crime scenes, highlighting their critical role in shaping the effectiveness of forensic contributions throughout the judicial process.