WRITING ABOUT CRIME SCENES

CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION IS A FASCINATING AREA IN CRIME FICTION. BUT YOU HAVE TO KNOW YOUR STUFF BEFORE YOU PUT PEN TO PAPER. YOU CAN'T FAKE IT TILL YOU MAKE IT IN YOUR FICTION

I love good police procedural fiction. Gritty noir set in foreign lands. Legal dramas in the south. Thrillers in big cities. These and other crime fiction subgenres pull you in. They captivate you with the whodunit, the dramatic, the unthinkable. And they educate you on the things that lead the police or private investigators or, often, the neighbors and family members and curious folks trying to solve what happened, be it a murder, a kidnapping, or some other unthinkable tragedy. But as writers, there’s the old adage, write what you know. When it comes to understanding how to write realistic crime fiction, in particular the scenes where the evidence (and clues) must be plucked from the crime scenes navigated by our heroes, it’s critical that we get it right. Readers will know when you’re faking it. They’re experienced. They know how forensic experts determine a murder victim’s time of death. Everyone’s heard of rigor mortis. But have you heard of algor mortis? Well, it’s the cooling of the body rather than the stiffening of the body. They know when (and how) blood settles. The technical term for that is livor mortis. And then we have environmental factors like insects invading the body, the temperature of where the body is located, the potassium levels in the eye fluid, and on and on. And you, dear crime fiction writer, need to know these things. There’s no faking it until you make it here. You try, you fail. So, here’s a primer on the things you should be aware of (and know intimately) when writing about crime scenes and crime scene investigations.

WRITING ABOUT CRIME SCENES

Writing about crime scenes isn’t easy. Or, it’s not easy if you want to do it correctly. As a writer, it’s your job to bring the information to the reader without giving them an information dump. You may have watched a million Forensic Files on TV. Or Unsolved Mysteries. Or CSI. Or maybe you’re addicted to the First 48 and Dateline, like I am. Unless there’s some critically acclaimed fantastic new movie out there, one of those shows is always playing on my flat screen. After thousands of hours watching shows like the ones I mentioned, and reading and writing crime fiction, and researching procedures and considerations by reading nonfiction, I’ve come to know a little about crime scenes. When I first started college a million years ago, I was also a criminal justice major. Plus I’ve ridden countless times with police officers and have had the opportunity to see things I would not have normally seen. So, here are a few key things to consider when writing about the world of crime and crime scene investigations. This isn’t meant to be comprehensive; you should do your own research. But it’s a good start.

Crime Scene Investigation Procedures/Steps

Secure the Scene: First responders like EMTs, firefighters, the police, and other law enforcement entities, must establish perimeters. They must control access to the crime scene. They must log everyone and anyone entering and exiting (or denying entrance to said folks) so as to prevent contamination of the scene or loss of critical evidence.

Separate Witnesses: Crimes don’t always have witnesses, but when they do, homicide detectives and police officers and others must keep them separated as soon as they arrive on scene. Witnesses to crimes don’t always turn out to be witnesses; sometimes they’re suspects. Witnesses also see things differently, even when they witness the same crime at the same time. It’s just how it is. It’s like the telephone game: I tell you something, you tell someone else what I said, and when it gets back to me, it’s completely different than what was originally said. It’s human nature. And if the witnesses aren’t witnesses, you want to make sure they don’t have time to coordinate their stories.

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Examine and Survey the Crime Scene: Investigators follow certain steps when they arrive on a scene. If you’ve ever watched the First 48, you’ll notice that there will be numerous police/patrol officers, homicide detectives, crime scene investigators or CSIs, a supervising officer, and so on. If you’re writing about someone getting shot to death, you need to have these people on scene. If you put Bill and Sally the homicide detectives walking around with pens and pads and smoking cigarettes while they trample all over the decedent’s living room carpet, that isn’t going to fly with savvy readers. They’ll just laugh, toss your novel into the trash, and move on to a serious crime author’s novel. Well, maybe not that bad, but you get my point.

Documenting the Scene in Full:

Detectives and their colleagues must complete thorough investigations of the crime scene, and while technologies in the past were limited, these days advances in DNA, in gunshot residue, in 3D scanning, in chemical analysis, make those investigations that more powerful and important to the subsequent steps of an investigation as well as the end result of the investigation.

Some of the elements of documenting an investigation:

Notes. Detailed notes outlining and specifically addressing the evidence, any actions taken by law enforcement personnel, any observations (was a door frame split? A suitcase packed? A restraining order on the table?) Anything that will add to and supplement the visual evidence and interviews will act as a substantiating reference to all of the evidence collected.

Sketches and diagrams. How crimes come to be, meaning the physical details and what’s possible given certain scenarios is often critical to proving in court (and to the investigators) not only what happened but what didn’t (or couldn’t) happen. Taking measurements and drawing sketches of the scene help give a more accurate picture of where things were, what the distances were from this to that (from a body, for instance, to where a bullet entered a house), what areas patrolmen and investigators searched (did they search a hundred yards from the crime scene for shell casings? Two blocks? More? Less?). Did they set up a grid and walk it with enough people? What did they find? Any obvious fingerprints? Footprints? Clothing or other fibers? It’s important to make sure you’re giving your readers a clear picture of what’s been done and why it’s important.

EVERYONE LOVES A GOOD MYSTERY, A WHODUNIT, A THRILLER. EVER THOUGHT OF WRITING ONE?

Pictures. Whenever you watch a reality crime TV show, there’s always a photographer there, documenting the scene through pictures. Many of the investigators pull out their phones and snap away as well. Long shots. Zoomed-in shots. Pictures are often the aha moment for certain things. Look, the couch has been moved frequently: the indentations in the carpet are off an inch. All the windows are locked except the kitchen window. Is that a spot of blood on the ceiling? You get the point.

Evidence Collection. And then, after all of that (and more) is done, comes the collection (and preservation) of the evidence. Plastic bags and paper bags and disposable, powder-free nitrile gloves make their appearance. Weapons are dropped into bags and labeled. Blood spots are cut from loveseats and preserved for testing. A chain of custody for that evidence is strictly followed so there’s no contamination but also so there’s no chance that defense attorneys will be able to poke holes in a prosecutor’s case. After all of that has been completed, the investigation team does a final walkthrough to ensure nothing’s been missed. I’ve highlighted some of the steps, but there’s a lot more that happens, and you should know everything about it before setting pen to paper.

Now, the above isn’t meant to be a comprehensive set of procedural steps taken by investigators during a crime scene investigation. You may not be necessarily focusing on every step I’ve listed. You don’t have to be. Your scope may be different. What you’re trying to accomplish in your writing may have nothing to do with any of the above, but rather higher level interests such as how warrants are obtained, what’s the minimum caliber of a round that will be able to accomplish a certain level of damage, how long fingerprints last on certain surfaces, the different ways one may go about identifying a body (dental records, fingerprints, identification on the body, interviews, and so on), the type of firearm found at a scene and if ballistics proves it’s the weapon used in the crime, the bloodstain evidence (is it human? Animal? Where was the blood found? Was it in a suspect’s vehicle? How did it splatter?), what does the autopsy say? Is it inconclusive? Ruled a suicide? Have the investigators or prosecutors or defense (assuming someone has been arrested for the crime) recreated the scene exactly as it was found and documented? Depending on what you’re focusing on, you’ll want to know the ins and outs of what actually happens, rather than what you think happens during a crime scene investigation.  

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A lot of what I’ve pointed out above was referenced from an old book I have called Scene of the Crime: a writer’s guide to crime-scene investigations, by Anne Wingate PhD. But there are plenty of websites that will help you compile the information you’ll need for modern day crime scene investigations. Technology arises almost daily to help solve crimes. Make sure you’re staying up to date if you’re writing contemporary crime fiction. If you’re writing fiction that took place in the 1980s, make sure you know what was available to investigators at that time (and what wasn’t). Below, I’ve provided links to some books I find helpful, as well as links to various online resources, including crime scene procedural videos you might check out as you do your research.

Happy Writing.

CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION BOOKS

1. FBI Handbook of Crime Scene Forensics: The Authoritative Guide to Navigating Crime Scenes

2. All That Remains: A Renowned Forensic Scientist on Death, Mortality, and Solving Crimes

3. Dead Men Do Tell Tales: The Strange and Fascinating Cases of a Forensic Anthropologist

4. Handbook of Forensic Anthropology and Archaeology (WAC Research Handbooks in Archaeology) (Volume 2)

5. Adelson's the Pathology of Homicide: A Guide for Forensic Pathologists and Homicide Investigators

6. Crime Scene Staging: Investigating Suspect Misdirection of the Crime Scene (American Series in Law Enforcement Investigations)

WEBSITES

1. Crime Scene Investigator Network

2. 7 Steps of a Crime Scene Investigation (Campbellsville University)

3. Crime Scene Investigation: A Guide for Law Enforcement (Federal Bureau of Investigation)

4. A Simplified Guide to Crime Scene Investigation

5. The Criminal Investigation Process: An In-Depth Overview (American Military University)

VIDEOS:

1. Protecting the Crime Scene, Recognizing and Searching for Evidence

2. Processing the Crime Scene

3. How to Photograph a Crime Scene – Forensic Education

4. Forensics Expert Explains how to Lift Fingerprints

Cully Perlman is author of a novel, THE LOSSES. He can be reached at Cully@novelmasterclass.com

Cully Perlman, Author of THE LOSSES, a novel

Short story writer Perlman debuts his first novel, a beautifully written, complex intergenerational drama that examines the ways family relationships shift when trust is broken - Kirkus Reviews

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