Monday, May 28. 2018

Today's schedule is A-B-C-D

A Block Law 12 - Today I have the library/learning commons booked for you to continue your work on the major civil law project that is due in just a month from now. You have ten library blocks left to finish this assignment...no pressure really. And don't forget if you're choosing to do three cases with a video for your law firm...you had better start script writing and planning your production dates ASAP.

B Block Introduction to Law 10 - The following are some great web pages to help understand crime scene searches:
Crime Scene Search study guide
U.S. Department of Justice Crime Scene Investigation guide
Crime Scene Examination (National Institute of Justice)
Crime Scene Procedures (Indiana State Police)
How to collect, preserve and submit evidence to the RCMP's National Forensic Laboratory Services (NFLS)

Today we will begin our work on our case study project. An excellent on line resource that you can use is Forensic Magazine - Check out the "Tips" tab (it's a pull down menu and the select "Crime Scene Tips"). Click on the magazine logo below to go to the website.



You will need to imagine that you are a constable in the Comox Valley R.C.M.P. detachment specializing in criminalistics and crime scene analysis. You are going to create a crime scene dossier file that you would normally put together for the Crown Counsel. You have been called out to a crime scene here in the Comox Valley and when you arrive at the scene you need to begin your narrative report. What do you need to do?

•Create a crime (ex: murder, arson, kidnapping, assault)
•Choose eight pieces of evidence (from the list below) that you would find at the crime scene and either help you solve the crime or mislead the investigators
•Create a victim, a perpetrator, two other potential subjects, & witnesses (not necessary)
•Create a dossier file that contains the following: a walk through narrative; pictures of the eight pieces of evidence (with a description, a tag number, and an explanation of where it was found); a detailed crime scene diagram/sketch with pictures of what the crime scene looked like and the identification of evidence; forensics lab sheets for each piece of evidence that describes the evidence and explains what the evidence tells you; transcripts of any interviews conducted by investigators (including potential eyewitnesses or suspects); a narrative of how you "solved" the crime so that the Crown Counsel can move forward with laying charges and proceed to trial.

Evidence to choose from: human hair, synthetic hair, carpet fibres, cotton fibres, bullet cartridges, bullet holes, finger prints, foot/shoe prints, blood stains (drip, splatter, pool), bodily fluids, skin epithelials, tube of lipstick, can of coke, apple core, piece of rope, body, accelerants, matches, money (wallet), poisons, bugs or larvae (blowflies), cigar or cigarette but, mug, tire treads, or any other trace evidence but you must approve the other evidence with me.

C Block Criminology 12 - Today you have two blog entries to complete for me in the learning commons/library. I asked you to track your media consumption for a 24-hour period last week. Could you please do two things for me on your blog:

 1. Answer yes or no to the following..."Did you accurately predict your daily media consumption"?

 2.  In your response to the yes or no question explain how much you thought you'd consume, then identify the actual amount. Next, identify what surprised you about your findings and explain how you consume it (do you multi-task - streaming video with listening to music while gaming and commenting about it via social networking? Do you single-task or immerse yourself in one format/content - watch one webisode or episode of something with no other media? Do you binge - save your media consumption for one dedicated time-period? Do you nibble or graze - watch little bits sporadically throughout the day?). Do you mostly consume "user created" media product (You Tube, Tumblr, Facebook, SnapChat, Sound Cloud) or do you consume "mainstream" media products (cable television, Internet websites, radio, or online radio like XM or Songza, magazines or newspapers)? Finally, are you always "on" or do you "unplug" (in other words are you continually checking, reading, creating, consuming

Your second blog entry pertains to this...In North America we are fascinated with crime and justice; often through movies, novels, comic books, newspapers, magazines, television, everyday conversations, games we play and this class. The mass media play a hugely important role in how we citizens (consumers of media) create our views on crime, criminals, deviants, law enforcement officers, the courts and criminal behaviour. How they are portrayed in the mass media often becomes our view of them. Remember that all media are constructions and as such media is not real, nor does it necessarily reflect reality.  It builds an image of a particular reality for a purpose, usually marketing.  Media is responsible for most of our understanding of how the world works and where we fit into the world.  Our views of reality can be manipulated or twisted based on the type of media we consume. So deconstructing media, or taking it apart to see how it is made, helps us think critically about media rather than just mindlessly consuming it whole.

So my question to you is Why is it important to study crime media?

D Block Human Geography 11 - Today we'll watch the movie FOOD, INC.
We won't get through all of the movie today so we'll pick it up again tomorrow.