Investigating the use of enatomology in criminal investigations Essay

Investigating the use of enatomology in criminal investigations - Essay Example an insect’s development can be affected by a number of factors such as heat, water, fire etc. Also the time necessary before eggs are deposited will vary according to the species and may also be affected by the fact that groups are genetically and geographically different e.g. results in an English winter will be very different from those in a Florida swamp even if the species concerned is the same. Certain species of fly prefer urban, rather than rural environments, so for instance a body found invaded by such fly larvae in a rural situation may well mean that the person was killed in the city and the body subsequently dumped. Jerry Butler, an American forensic entomologist, reports that he uses mainly evidence from five species of flies, in his investigations. Taxonomy originally referred to the identifying and naming of living organisms, and the system of doing this in a scientific way was originally devised by Linnaeus though the system has been much expanded since . Butler claims that if particular flies are found and identified correctly and the ambient temperature is known then the time of death can be determined fairly exactly if the body is found quickly enough. The successful investigation may depend upon the correct analysis of material evidence found and in a case where a body has been undiscovered for some time this will include entomological evidence e.g. have fly eggs been laid and had time to hatch? In case II ( see appendix)the forensic entomologist was able to work backwards from the time that adult flies emerged in order to discover when the first eggs were laid. In Case I ( see appendix ) the instars were at stage 3 i.e they had at least 1517 accumulated degree hours. In the case of the child behind the stove the creatures were fully developed Knowing the times that takes may lead to being able to pinpoint the time the body was