Answer to Question 1
Answer should include points such as the following:
Each article of victim's clothing must be separately wrapped and placed in a well-ventilated container. Other items suspected of containing semen must be packaged in a similar manner. Refrigerate the containers or store them in a cool location out of direct sunlight until delivery to the laboratory.
The evidence collector must handle the clothing with a minimal amount of personal contact. All body fluids must be assumed to be infectious; hence, wearing disposable latex gloves while handling the evidence is required. Latex gloves will also significantly reduce the possibility that the evidence collector will contaminate the evidence through perspiration.
Care must be taken so as not to fold an article of clothing through a suspect seminal stain or to allow the stain to rub against the surface of the packaging material.
Have a physician or nurse collect a minimum of 7 cc of blood from the victim and all suspects in a vacuum tube containing the anticoagulant EDTA. This blood will be used for DNA and possible toxicological testing. Alternatively, a buccal swab can be obtained from each individual.
Collect approximately 15 to 20 cut pubic hairs and 50 full-length cut head hairs from both the victim and the suspect(s).
Label all evidence containers with the evidence collector's name or initials, the date, and the sampling locations. All items collected are to be described in the evidence collector's field notes.
Answer to Question 2
Answer should include points such as the following:
CODIS (Combined DNA Index System) is a computer software program developed by the FBI that maintains local, state, and national databases of DNA profiles from convicted offenders, unsolved crime-scene evidence, and profiles of missing people.
CODIS allows forensic scientists to compare DNA profiles recovered from crime-scene evidence to those of convicted sex offenders, other convicted criminals, missing persons, and unsolved crimes.
