Entry requirements

Upper secondary school chemistry A or Natural Sciences for Teaching in Primary School, 20 credit points/30 credits, or equivalent

Learning outcomes

On completion of the course, the student should be able to report for:

• the most common methods for determination of fingerprints
• the most common explosives
• methods for identification of explosives
• how one can bind chemical traces to a crime scene through determination of elemental composition
• different groups of poisons and drugs with examples from all of them
• how different drugs, poisons can be analysed
• how biological samples should be handled and used in connection with criminal cases
• how DNA can be used as evidence in criminal cases
• how a DNA analysis is performed

Content

Fingerprints, chemical traces as glass, inks and explosives, biological traces, doping and drugs of abuse. Overview of methods that are used to analyse these within criminal investigation both historical e g march test to reveal arsenic poisoning and in modern times for e g doping and DNA analysis. Laboratory work enlighten the course content. In the course, a shorter literature project is included.

Instruction

The teaching take place in the form of lectures, demonstrations, laboratory work and possible study visit.

Assessment

Examination is organised at the end of the course (3 credits). For the course to be graded, it is required that the laboratory work and the literature project have been presented and accepted. The laboratory work is marked to 3 credits and the literature project to 1.5 credits.