Title: Crime Scene Journal
Headings: A Philosophy of Crime Scene Reconstruction
A Philosophy of Crime Scene Reconstruction
by Michael A. Knox
June 6, 2012
References

Content: It is factual evidence. Physical evidence cannot be wrong; it cannot perjure itself; it cannot be wholly absent. Only in its interpretation can there be error. Only human failure to find, study, and understand it can diminish its value. While Locard's Exchange Principle is foundational to crime scene reconstruction, it must not be so construed as to mean that, if no evidence of an event was found, the event never happened. The oft-used phrase, "the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence," while hotly debated as a matter of science and philosophy, sums up conceptually how one should carefully approach the reconstruction of criminal events. Clearly, there is a difference between a lack of evidence after careful searching, study, and research and a lack of evidence due to a deficiency of research, insufficient study, or a poorly executed crime scene search. We must recognize that our ability to interpret evidence is necessarily limited by our ability to find evidence.