The Forensic Nurse

The Relief Fund for Sexual Assault Victims was established in 2005 to collect donations that will aid sexual assault victims and advocacy programs in the United States impacted by disasters. The Fund is designed to:

• Support the needs of sexual assault survivors
• Support the needs of sexual assault advocacy program staff
• Assist with expanded direct service capacity needs
• Assist with prevention initiatives to protect evacuees from sexual violence
• Support relocation/rebuilding efforts for damaged sexual assault advocacy programs

100% of the donations will go to victims in affected areas. Administrative costs are being donated by the NSVRC.

 Checks or money orders may be sent to:
Relief Fund for Sexual Assault Victims
c/o National Sexual Violence Resource Center
123 North Enola Drive
Enola, PA 17025

Visit: http://www.nsvrc.org/relief-fund

In part three of our online training guide for free online education opportunities available, is an online forensics course produced by dna.gov  This course is called “What Every Law Enforcement Officer Should Know About DNA Evidence” .

The website describes the course as:

“self-paced training courses are intended to provide interactive training that covers basic information about the identification, preservation, and collection of DNA evidence at a crime scene. Recommended practices covered may not be applicable to all situations or crime scenes. You should apply local department or agency procedures or applicable laws that govern the use, collection, and processing of DNA evidence.”

 This information is gives a very nice understanding of the process of evidence preservation at a crime scene.
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The National Institute of Justice (NIJ) is offering a FREE online basic forensic DNA testing course geared specifically toward law enforcement, court officials and other forensic professionals.

The main goal of this course is to provide students with an understanding of the important role DNA plays in forensic science; introduce the steps involved in forensic DNA testing using the latest methods and technologies; and provide a basic understanding of the National DNA database system.

Funded under NIJ Award Number 2009-DN-BX-K175

Click to Enroll:

https://www.forensic-training-network.com/cgi-bin/DJlinks.cgi?T=st-enroll.html&LANG=EN&ID=00019

The NIJ is offeringThe goal of this training is provide a basic understanding of fingerprints and their role in forensic science. After completing this training, you will have gained a basic understanding of the anatomy and development of friction ridge skin. You will understand why fingerprints are permanent and unique. You will be able to recognize various levels and types of details used for fingerprint classification and comparison. You will understand why and how fingerprints are used in criminal investigations. You will have gained a basic understanding of biometric fingerprint recognition and the method used to manually compare fingerprints and draw conclusions. Finally, you will be aware of existing quality assurance guidelines and related resources.

Funded under NIJ Award Number 2009-DN-BX-K175

The law named after 17-year-old Chelsea King, increases penalties for those who commit forcible sexual acts against minors in the state of California becomes law today . Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s signed the bill after it unanimously passed the Senate and Assembly in a rare display of bipartisanship of the california legistlature. Officially named AB 1844,  The bill has an urgency clause meaning that it will take effect immediately after being signed.  

The bill creates a new penalty of life without the possibility of parole for commiting forcible sex crimes against minors that include certain aggravating factors, such as the age of the victim or whether the victim was restrained or drugged.

The law also sets out to more clearly define criteria that assess the risk for recidivism, or the likelyhood of commiting a similar crime again, and then placing those with greater risk under more careful supervision.

The law was spawned by the parents of the murdered children after a previous registered sex offender John Gardner III admitted to killing her in March of this year. Within days of finding the chelsea’s body, the body of Amber Dubois was found, who had been missing for over a year. Gardner was sentenced to three consecutive terms of life without parole for the murders and an attack on a jogger.

Gardner was previously paroled on September 26, 2005 after serving 5 years for two counts of lewd and lascivious acts on a child younger than 14 and a single count of false imprisonment for attacking a 13-year-old neighbor. Under the new Chelsea’s Law the lewd and lascivious acts on a minor will carry a mandatory sentence of life without parole. The “one strike” provision (in reference to California’s 3 strike law) raises the bar on these types of sexual crimes.

 Read Full details of AB 1844 (Chelsea’s Law):

http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/09-10/bill/asm/ab_1801-1850/ab_1844_bill_20100831_enrolled.pdf �

We have dramatically redesigned theforensicnurse.com website to better deliver the most up to date new information and training guidelines for our readers. Our new membership area offers targeted content to users directly affected by their geographic region. This includes statistics, training information, legal resources, local news headlines, local job opportunities for nurses, and so much more.

 come check us out. http://www.theforensicnurse.com/members/login.cfm

If you test positive for HIV, the sooner you take steps to protect your health, the better. Early medical treatment and a healthy lifestyle can help you stay well. Prompt medical care may delay the onset of AIDS and prevent some life-threatening conditions. There are a number of important steps you can take immediately to protect your health:

• See a licensed health care provider, even if you do not feel sick. Try to find a health care provider who has experience treating HIV. There are now many medications to treat HIV infection and help you maintain your health. It is never too early to start thinking about treatment possibilities.
• Have a TB (tuberculosis) test. You may be infected with TB and not know it. Undetected TB can cause serious illness, but it can be successfully treated if caught early.
• Smoking cigarettes, drinking too much alcohol, or using illegal drugs (such as methamphetamines) can weaken your immune system. There are programs available that can help you stop or reduce your use of these substances.
• Get screened for other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Undetected STDs can cause serious health problems. It is also important to practice safe-sex behaviors so you can avoid getting STDs.

There is much you can do to stay healthy. Learn all that you can about maintaining good health.

Not having (abstaining from) sex is the most effective way to avoid transmitting HIV to others. If you choose to have sex, use a latex condom to help protect your partner from HIV and other STDs. Studies have shown that latex condoms are very effective, though not 100%, in preventing HIV transmission when used correctly and consistently. If either partner is allergic to latex, plastic (polyurethane) condoms for either the male or female can be used.

In most cases the EIA (enzyme immunoassay), used on blood drawn from a vein, is the most common screening test used to look for antibodies to HIV. A positive (reactive) EIA must be used with a follow-up (confirmatory) test such as the Western blot to make a positive diagnosis. There are EIA tests that use other body fluids to look for antibodies to HIV. These include:

• Oral Fluid Tests – use oral fluid (not saliva) that is collected from the mouth using a special collection device. This is an EIA antibody test similar to the standard blood EIA test. A follow-up confirmatory Western Blot uses the same oral fluid sample.
• Urine Tests – use urine instead of blood. The sensitivity and specificity (accuracy) are somewhat less than that of the blood and oral fluid tests. This is also an EIA antibody test similar to blood EIA tests and requires a follow-up confirmatory Western Blot using the same urine sample.

Rapid Tests:

A rapid test is a screening test that produces very quick results, in approximately 20 minutes. Rapid tests use blood from a vein or from a finger stick, or oral fluid to look for the presence of antibodies to HIV. As is true for all screening tests, a reactive rapid HIV test result must be confirmed with a follow-up confirmatory test before a final diagnosis of infection can be made. These tests have similar accuracy rates as traditional EIA screening tests. Please visit the rapid HIV testing section for details.

children’s author K.P. Bath  was sentanced to six years in prison for possession of child pornography. The author has written books such as “The Secret of Castle Cant” and “Escape from Castle Cant”.

Authorities found Bath’s collection included images depicting sadistic conduct, rape, sodomy and bestiality.  Prosecutors were originally seeking more serious charges of distribution and transporting child pornography as well, but were later dropped as part of a plea agreement in exchange for the guilty plea.

A man who has been unofficially known as the “grim Sleeper” for the past twenty years has finally been arrested. The suspect, Lonnie David Franklin Jr., a 57 year old man from Los Angeles is alledged to have committed at least 11 unsolved murders dating back to 1985.

A judge has denied mr. Franklin bail. He will be arrained in a Los Angeles court in August 2010 on ten counts of murder and one count of attempted murder as of today.

The case has been very long and drawn out process spanning multiple decades. The break in the case finally came using DNA evidence. The DNA match was found using what is sometimes viewed a controverial tactic known as familial DNA Searching.

Everyone has their own unique DNA signature that specificly can be used to identify an individual, family members share enough common DNA markers to help identify family members as potential matches as well. 

In this case one of Mr. Franklins family has a previous unrelated conviction on a felony weapons charge. It has become standard procedure in many jurisdictions now to collect DNA samples on felony offenders.  Investigators were able to run a DNA sample found at a murder scene against the DNA database. a Partial hit was found on Mr. Franklins family member DNA sample.  Because it was only a partial match it ruled that individual out, but also was able to conclusively prove that a very close relative may have been involved in the murder, which drastically narrowed down the search.

The Grim Sleeper is suspected in at least 11 murders . He like most serial killers chose victims within his own ethnic profile, in this case targeting black women, some of which who worked as prostitutes. Prostitutes are often targets of serial killers because of the lower social profile. Friends and Families often don’t report the victim missing for longer periods of time allowing for more evidence to be lost during the critical hours after the murder.

Serveral years ago another arrest was made by police who claimed they had ballistic evidence for the murders, but that case did not lead to a conviction. Margaret Prescod, who founded the Black Coalition Fighting Back Serial Murders and worked with the families of victims in the case said that she is “cautiously optomistic” regarding this latest arrest.

Aerial footage was taken on Wednesday showing police searching cars in the garage of the suspect’s home in south Los Angeles.  The garage was not far from the corridor where the victims’ bodies were dumped.

The close proximity to the body dumping ground is another tell tale sign that the murderer may have personal and intimate knowledge of the area allowing him to elude detection for so many years. Serial killers often tend to be invisible to nearly everyone. Because they do not raise suspision they can lull people into trusting them, and allowing them to get victims to let their guard down, or be placed into vulnerable positions that they may not do with a person they feel uncomfortable with.