Go here: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/164/crime-scene
click on play to listen to the episode (it is abouot an hour).
Summarize what you heard and learned. What was the most surprising thing to you? What aspects of psychology relate to any of the segments?
In the prologue of this it tells us a story of a medical examiner figures out that a suspected suicide was in fact a homicide because the gun shot wound and expains how he believes every crime scene is a novel. "How do we know" is talks about how different evidence can tell you different pieces of information and eventually lead to you finding the perpetrator. The next section is about Neal Smither who opens his own company cleaning up after crimes. He tells about some of the crimes he has cleaned. Act three is about Bobby who was a drug addict in his earlier years and how he comes back to where he stole and ends up starting a little league team for boys in the neighborhood. It ends up that not only does the baseball team keep the kids out of trouble it keeps Bobby out of trouble himself. This last part of the episode I found most interesting. Its about a boy whose parents die when he is very young and after then he was the ability to find lost items for people. He even finds a young boy who has been kidnapped. After listening to this I have learned that little pieces of evidence, like a piece of cheese, really can help solve crimes. I thought that CSI and other tv shows exaggerated that but I learned that it really can happen. I found the fact there there is such a career as cleaning up after crimes the most surprising part of this episode. Also that there are many codes that must be followed when cleaning up and disposing of dead bodies. Psychology can be related to the every crimes scene is a novel story because putting the story together can help you tell about how the crime was committed and what kind of person the perpetrator is. Social psychology can also be related to the story about Bobby coaching the little league team and how they influenced each other.
In this episode, they go over four different acts. The first act is about evidence at a crime scene, the second act is about the cleanup after a crime, the third act is about going back to where it all began for a criminal, and the fourth act is a short story being told.
In the first act, I learned that you can tell a lot about a crime based on what shape the blood stain is. If it is oval shaped than it is an arterial cut, if it is a tear drop shape than it is most likely getting hit with something like a baseball bat, and if it is mist like than it is most likely a gun shot. What I found very interesting about the first act was that you can determine where the crime was committed in a room based on where the blood is at. That is just amazing. He also went into details about how you should look at the food if there was any out for a meal and notice any unique smells like cigars. In this section of the episode it would deal with forensic psychology because of all the details relating to crime.
In the second act, they talked about who has to clean up after a victim has been killed or died. They interviewed a man whose has the dirty job. This man owns a company called Crime Scene Cleaners. I found it very interesting that it doesn’t bother him to see all the dead people. He talks in great detail about decomposed bodies. He said he mainly cleans up decomposed bodies, suicides, attempted suicides, meth labs, and kitty houses. The woman giving the interview says, “It’s not a hard job just depressing.” I also found it intriguing that the main thing this guy notices is how dirty people are. I would say thing act has a lot to do with cognitive psychology because of the fact that he is able to do it. In his mind he is able to understand his job and not think so much into it that it drives him mad.
In the third act, I learned about a man who was in a penitentiary and when he got out he came back to where he grew up as a child. When he got there he decided to coach a little league team. In his case he went back to the scene of his crimes to make sure that he didn’t do it again, while other criminals might go back to relive it. This act is all about development. When he starts the little league team all of the kids don’t like him. They spit at him, cuss, don’t listen, and basically control him. By the fourth practice, when the kids know he is there for good, it is like a switch was flipped and they started to call him coach and actually respected him. Later when he saw people that he had conned before he had a hard time dealing with it because he knew that he did wrong by them, but he didn’t know what to do about it. It made him believe that he was still nothing. At the end of this section he says how people say that he is keeping these kids from trouble, but truly he thinks that they are keeping him out of trouble. He says that because he doesn’t want to disappoint them so he tries hard to make them proud, and to give them someone to trust. This section to me has to do a lot with development because it’s not just him trying to get better, but the kids as well. They are young and still developing into adults.
The forth act, was confusing to me. I seemed to follow it till the end. I wasn’t sure who the young boy was asking for. This young boy has the ability to sense where objects are at. There are people in his neighborhood that believe him while others are skeptics. It doesn’t seem like he takes much offense to them not believing him because he has a hard time coping with it anyway. Throughout the story he finds small things like keys, but towards the end he is put into the position to find the boy that had been kidnapped. As he is trying to find the boy he has a really hard time because it is a person. Once he figures out what the boy was wearing he was able to find him and bring him home. Now, after that is where I got confused because the story is left open with him wondering where someone is, and why they haven’t come to find him. I would say this has to do with community psychology. I say that because of how his neighborhood treats him, and how it works as a whole.
Act one explains what the blood stains at a crime scene mean. An arterial cut is a low velocity wound that creates a circle shape of blood. When hit with a blunt shaped object, like a baseball bat, the blood stain will be in a tear drop shape. When hit at high velocity by an onject, like a bullet, it will create a splatter of blood. By using trigonometry, the investigators should approximately be able to figure out where the victim was injured in the room. The investigators should look to see if there is any food out or if there is any unique smells in the room. I found it surprising how they caught a burglar because he took a bite out of a piece of cheese in the fridge, and his bite mark was unique enough to match him to the crime.
Act two was about a man who ran a business that cleaned up crime scenes. Neil was very open about his occupation. He cleans up mostly decomposing bodies, suicides, or attempted suicides. He also cleans up meth labs and kitty labs. Neil is not phased by maggots moving around in the decomposing bodies. I find it interesting how he never gets emotional about his job. He is interested in making money and building his company. I think this act is both social and cognitive psychology. Social because Neil creates an accent to make himself more appealing to his customers. Cognitive psychology applys because Neil can mentally handle his job, which I don't believe many other people could. His mind is set that it is just a way to make money, I find that astonishing.
Act three is about criminals returning to the crime scene. Some believe criminals return to relive or undo what they have done. This isn't usually true. Katie Davis saw her old neighbor, Bobby, do this. He had returned to teach a Little League team in the neighborhood he is from. Even though Bobby was previously doing drugs, Katie knew he was clean when he came home because he was too rattled by the kids at Little League practice. At the first few practices the kids didn't like Bobby, they spit at him, didn't listen, and cussed at him. After awhile the kids started trusting him, and began calling him coach. Bobby finds it difficult to handle the emotions he gets when he comes across the people he has previously conned or stole from. Bobby and the kids are working together to keep each other out of trouble. The kids are keeping him from relapsing because he doesn't want them to be ashamed of him. These kids helped Bobby grow into a better person.
Act four is about a boy who is an orphan with an interesting talent. He is able to find things that others misplace. He found things like keys, or in his first scenario a hair brush. People in the community either really liked him or they were skeptical of him. Later the boy was asked to help find Leonard, a boy who had been kidnapped. The man found the kidnapped boy after he was told what the boy was wearing. I'm not sure how he did it, but the boy said the blue shirt was pulling him towards Leonard. This act was the most confusing to me. I think at the end when he is telling someone to come find him, he was trying to talk to his parents who had drowned when he was just a kid. I believe this section is dealing with social psychology. The boy has a difficult time fitting in because some think it is wierd how he can find things. At the end the boy is trying to connect with Leonard, but he is so shaken up from being kidnapped he doesn't respond to him. This section shows it's important to listen to others, and to not jump to conclusions.
The prologue takes us through the story of a medical examiner who is critical of the assessment of the cause of death of a woman who appeared to have killed herself. It explains why crime scenes are like a story. Following the prologue are four acts:
Act one, “How do we know?” talks about everything that can be learned from a crime scene, like blood splatter patterns. These patterns can indicate where people were standing and to confirm or reject the story an individual gives about the sequence of events. Simple things like placement and temperature of things like food on a table can also be indicative of the perpetrator and be used as evidence. This section deals a lot with forensic psychology because of how evidence and the crime scene can be used to profile the perpetrator and eventually prosecute someone while evaluating their psychological states and why they committed the crime.
Act two, “Grime Scene,” focuses of Neal Smither, a crime scene cleaner who specializes in homicides, suicides, and other gory crimes. He talks about the gross things that go on at crime scenes. He doesn’t try to soften up his job, he just takes it for what it is and does what he can to market to people. Most of the cleanup he does is from suicides and decomposing bodies. Meth labs are also common cleanup jobs for him leaving him to contract with many hotels. The cleanup can be fairly simple, but heavy cleaners, deodorizers, and towels are necessary for decontamination. Neal, constantly watching the shadow of death, says that he would like to die slowly and with his family’s knowledge so as to not be found in a state like some of the dead his company deals with.
What surprised me most about this was that the homeowner or resident is responsible for calling the cleanup crew or doing in themselves. I was also surprised that there are federal regulations that have to be followed for cleanup after the crime.
Act three, “A criminal returns to the scene of the crime,” talks about how some criminals return to the scene of their crimes and why they do it. In reality, very few criminals return to the scene of the crime, with the exception of arsons and cases where people return to get rid of something. The story told here is of a man, Bobby, who was a drug addict and was released from prison and then begins coaching Little League in the neighborhood of his childhood. At the beginning, none of the kids respect Bobby and they throw a lot of tantrums. Bobby can relate to the emotions and feelings of violence exhibited by the kids; it reminds him of himself as a tormented youth. Bobby has problems dealing with his emotions again when he is faced with people he formerly store from and conned. Eventually the kids begin to respect Bobby as a coach, and before long they are helping each other to be better people. While Bobby tries to be a good mentor from the kids and help them lead a good life. At the same time, while he is helping the boys stay out of trouble, they are also helping him to be a better person. This section deals a lot with social psychology because of the influence the boys have and Bobby, and vice versa. The social settings and presence of others had a big impact on Bobby’s psychological state.
Act four, “What police cannot do,” is a short story about a young boy whose parents were killed. It is soon discovered that he has a knack for finding lost things. He is simply drawn to the things that are lost and can sense where they are. Some of the people in his neighborhood were suspicious of what was going on. They suspected that he was in fact stealing the items and hiding them so he could find them. When a neighbor’s son was kidnapped, the boy was enlisted to find him. After finding out what the lost boy, Leonard, was wearing, the other is drawn to him, finds him, and takes him home. At the end it seems as though the main character is trying to find his parents, but it is empty and he feels no tug.
This recording is a radio broadcast that addresses four different particular situations that deal with different circumstances involving crime. The goal of the prologue and each subsequent act is to address the emotional and psychological state of the individuals involved. Some situations deal with coroners and body cleanup services, while others address criminal behavior and roads to rehabilitation. The broadcast begins with an interview of a coroner who is discussing a particularly odd autopsy. In this prologue the coroner is troubled by the wounds he finds on a supposed suicide victim. However, the two bullet holes on the tongues leads him to believe that the situation was a homicide. Indeed, after other evidence is discovered it is uncovered to be a homicide case.
In Act I Criminologist Enrico Togneri explains the different dynamics of uncovering circumstances of a crime based on forensic evidence. Blood staining is one of the major components discussed. Togneri explains the differences between the appearance of low and high speed blood spattering, such as produced when a blunt object is used in contrast to a bullet. Togneri also describes how the angle of the blood spatter can determine the position of the perpatrator through the use of trigonometry. One case that is of particular interest involves a perpatrator being identified through a bite mark out of a block cheese left at the scene. Togneri offers an interesting view into the world of a forensic investigator.
In Act II Neal Smither, a body cleanup service worker, is interviewed about the different components of his job. Neal is a direct and crass individual who intentionally does not shy away from the details of his career. Oddly enough, Neal was actually inspired to go into this type of work after viewing the movie Pulp Fiction. During the reporter's time with Neal she learned of several grisly situations that Smithers has dealt with such as cleaning up a body that had been slowly being consumed by maggots, discovering a body that had left an outline on a couch from such prolonged decomposition, and coming into contact with so many putrid lifestyles. Smithers deals with suicides and meth labs most frequently in comparison to actual crime scenes. This has contributed to Smither's prevailing attitude towards morality and humanity. Smither's main revelation coming into this line of work was discovering how many people live disgusting lifestyles. Smithers hopes to die slowly so he can say goodbye to all his loved ones, and especially so he does not end up as one of the bodies he cleans up.
Act III is a heartwarming account about a man named Bobby who had been a junky and con man that spent some time in jail only to return to his community to coach little league in an act of retribution. Bobby had been thrown out of his house as an adolescent and spent most of his life on the streets where he became a frequent user of heroine. This lifestyle forced him to steal, con friends and neighbors, and eventually spend some time in prison. After serving his time, Bobby signed up through the recreational services to coach little league baseball to underprivilaged kids. This was extremely difficult for him at first, but as time progressed so did Bobby's influence in these kids life. Bobby knew he was becoming a positive influence in the community when his players finally started calling him coach. Bobby displays his recreational volunteer badge proudly to demonstrate his efforts toward reconciliation with the community. Bobby realizes that it is the kids that are keeping him in line, and give him positive purpose. Bobby plans to stay active in community events and remain a positive influence in kid's lives.
Act IV is excerpt from the book "The Girl in the Flammable Skirt:Stories" by Aimee Bender. This is a brief story about a young man who has an extroardinary ability to locate lost items. The young man can sense the direction and presence of lost items. When Leonard Allen is kidnapped for ransom of Mrs. Allen's valuable green star, the young man is enlisted to discover the whereabouts of the boy. At first the young man has trouble sensing any connection, but after Mrs. Leonard describes that her son was wearing a blue shirt the young man feels the tug of Leonard's presence. The young man finds the young man several blocks away and returns him to his mother. The young man carries Leaonard home in silence, all the while feeling a connection to Leonard. The young man realizes that had the boy been completely naked he would have never been able to discover Leonard's whereabouts.
The most interesting thing I learned after listening to the broadcast was the differences involved with blood spattering. I did not realize that blood spatter can help to determine what events took place during an assault. For instance, blood spatter shape can determine what weapon was used, where the perpatrator was standing, and whether self defense was actually involved in the assault. Furthermore, I thought it was very interesting how forensic investigators use trigonometry to triangulate the position of an assailant. This is done by using these processes based off the position of the blood spatter. The collection and examination of forensic evidence, particularly blood, is way more involved than I had realized.
There are many different instances in these segments that relate to psychology. Neal Smither has developed a unique perspective on morality and lifestyle because of his job as a body cleanup service worker. The influence of his job has developed Smither's attitude about morality to be direct and crass with little compassion. Another situation that sticks out is when Bobby encounters individuals he conned or wronged in the past. Bobby's emotions vary between his cocky personality and his moral empathetic new self. Additionally, Bobby feels a sense of purpose when he acts as a proactive influence in the community. Coaching and interacting with underprivileged kids provides him with a positivie purpose that helps to point these kids in a positve direction so they don't go through what he had to as an adolescent. Psychological aspects are always going to be prevalent in situations involving crime, despite whatever side of the spectrum they might fall on.
Act 1 is about crime scenes and how there are many things that can be evidence to what happened. Blood splatter can be used to see what kind of force was used and describe the events of a crime. It was surprising to me that they use trigonometry on the blood drops to help determine what happened. To further prove the point that you never know what might lead to solving a crime the recording talks about a case where a man was caught because he took a bite of cheese at the scene of the crime and it was determined to be his bite mark.
Act 2 tells the story of a man who cleans crime scenes for a living. First of all I had no idea that a job like this existed, I figured that law enforcement would clean it up or something. The man who runs this business mostly cleans decomposing bodies and suicides and he is always busy. He has seen all sorts of gruesome scenes and it has effected the way he thinks. He thinks that 80% of people are just disgusting dirt bags that don't clean up after themselves. He also has an interesting view on death. Most people would probably say they want to have a quick painless death but this man wants to die slowly and doesn't mind if it is painful. He says this because he wants to say good bye to his loved ones before he dies and doesn't want to die in a type of scene that he typically cleans up. This has to do a little bit with social psychology because the cleaning man said that he has a fake southern accent that he uses when doing business. He uses this accent because he thinks it's somewhat comforting to the people he's dealing with who have just lost someone in their life.
Act 3 tells the story of a man named Bobby with a criminal past who returns from prison to where he grew up to coach a little league baseball team. Bobby is not respected by the kids at first and they make fun of him after he tells them that he went to prison. Bobby sees himself in the kids and can relate to some of there disruptive behaviors. Slowly the kids start to listen to Bobby and start calling him coach. Bobby is staying off drugs because he doesn't want to let his players down and he's doing something that he never thought he'd be able to do. This story deals with social psychology because the interaction between Bobby and his players has benefited both of them.
Act 4 is a story of an orphan boy who has a special talent for finding lost items. He has some sort of weird sense of where missing items are. People in his neighborhood become aware of his talent and some are skeptical of it. The boy is then asked to help a women whose son has been kidnapped. The boy somehow gets a sense of where the blue shirt of the kidnapped kid (Leonard) is and walks to a house where he finds Leonard sitting on a couch with other people who just watch him pick up Leonard and walk out of the house. This story has to do with sensation and perception because the orphan clearly has a strong ability to detect stimulus.
Introduction Story:
A crime scene appears to show a woman who killed herself with boyfriend’s gun. Everyone assumed it was a suicide, but there wasn’t a note and she was not known to be depressed. When the body was examined, it was discovered that her tongue showed two holes. It was strange because usually when people shoot themselves, they shoot upward and the tongue isn’t harmed at all. Why would she cause additional pain by shooting her tongue? The case became a homicide. The examiner told the detectives this information, so they interviewed the boyfriend. Detectives said to the boyfriend that they know he killed her. They found out he had called the coroner’s office a couple weeks ago and was told that autopsies aren’t performed after suicides. Why would he have asked that unless he was planning to kill someone? He later confessed.
Forensic Criminologist, Enrico Togneri, discusses how blood spatter analysis can tell you a lot about the crime that was committed. Using basic trigonometry, you can potentially tell what kind of weapon was used and where the crime was committed, just based on the blood patterns.
ACT 2: “Crime Scene Cleaners”
Neil cleans up crime scenes for a living. He describes a giant ball of maggots at one crime scene. His business has franchises in multiple states. He fakes a southern accent to gain trust from his customers. Neil was inspired to become a crime scene cleanup man after watching Pulp Fiction. Murders are the least common type of clean-up jobs and decomposed bodies are the most common type. Suicides and attempted suicides are a large part of his job, as well. Meth labs and kitty houses require his cleaning, often. He claims that there’s no hotel in the country that hasn’t had a murder or suicide in one of its rooms. Neil’s business stays extremely busy. The property owners of the crime scenes are the ones help responsible for cleaning up after a crime, but often they don’t hold the correct permits or know how to correctly dispose of toxins.
ACT 3: “A Criminal Returns to the Scene of the Crime”
In real life, it isn’t very common for a criminal to return the scene of the crime. The only exception is arsonists; they like to see the work they’ve created. Katie Davis reports about her neighbor Bobby who is one of the people who does return to the scene of his crime. He robbed people and conned people out of their money and he has returned to help coach a little league team. When Bobby first starts coaching the children, the team doesn’t respect him. They argue and spit on him. Over time, and after gaining trust, they children begin to trust Bobby and begin calling him “coach”. Bobby talks about his childhood and explains how he can relate to the children. This story is an example of how social psychology can encourage and benefit people. With the mutual respect and trust, Bobby is teaching the young boys how to improve and at the same time I think they are helping him. Bobby struggles with internal voices that are telling him he hasn’t changed. He knows he’s still capable of being a thug, so it is an everyday struggle for him to stay on the right path. Eventually, Bobby’s little league team gets their first win. Bobby even says he’ll even hold try-outs for a basketball team in the future.
ACT 4: “What Police Cannot Do”
Act Four was a short story by Aimee Bender. It was from the book “The Girl in the Flammable Skirt: Stories”. The story was about an orphan whose parents died when he was 8 years old. His parents drowned in the ocean. This orphan had a knack for finding missing items. Some people were appreciative of his talents and would call him over to help them find things. Some people were just skeptical and thought he stole the things and hid them. A neighbor, Mrs. Allen, cannot find her son, Leonard. The young orphan man agrees to help find Leonard. He finds Leonard watching television in a house with other people. This section also relates well to social psychology. It could also possibly be connected with sensation & perception or biopsychology because of the orphan’s special ability to sense things.
The most surprising thing that I enjoyed learning about was the crime scene cleaner, Neil. I had never thought about who was responsible for cleaning up the messes of crimes before. I think that would be a pretty difficult job, but it would just take the right type of person. I think Neil was perfect for the job because he didn’t personalize anything or connect his emotions to his job. He was very objective.
This recording starts off with saying that each crime scene is a novel, and you have to look at everything to reconstruct what happened. This was shown with a suicide that they found out was a murder. Act one is about all the things in a crime scene. For example blood, fibers, smells, and how things are set up. The forensic investigator starts to tell us that everything means something. After he tells us this he gives us examples with blood at a crime scene. You can tell the difference between certain types of blood spatter. This can tell you a lot about the crime scene, like where the killer was standing, how he cut the person opposed to blunt force. Act two is about Neil and he cleans up crime scenes for a living. This guy cleans up crime scenes and when talking about it talks kinda vulgor about what he says. The only time that he doesnt is when talking to someone on a call to clean up a crime scene. The bulk of his work is suicides, but from time to time he has to work at meth houses and kittie houses. He talks about his job not being hard, but very depressing. Act three is about a man named Bobby and he has a criminal record. He gets outta of prison to return where he grew up to coach a little league baseball team. At first none of the kids respect him, and they make jokes and fun of him. Slowly he sees himself in the kids and trys to help them. After this the kids start calling him coach and respecting him. Bobby stays off drugs because he doesnt want to set a bad example for his team. The connection between the kids helped him out and even helped the kids. This is because when they respected him they didnt want to let him down, and it work with bobby because he didnt want to let the kids down. Act four is about a boy who can find any lost item. People especially in his neighborhood know of him and his gift, but many are skeptical of it. Then it goes into a story where a woman asked the kid to find her kid who has been kidnapped. To make a long story short the boy found the kidnapped kid and brings him back to his mother. The kid in my opinion has a extreme ability to pick up and register outside stimulus in a crime scene, and his sensation and perception is very strong.
I was most surprized with the orphan boy who can find anything because his talent borders on concept that some believe not to be real, like ESP. Social psyc can be put with bobby and his little league team because that relationship changed him and the kids.
The American Life episode I watched was very interesting. It was broken up into four acts and each with a different story. The audio started off with a story told by Dr. Drakovic in the prologue. Dr. Drakovic is a medical examiner who said every crime is a story. He had a victim who was thought to have committed suicide by putting the gun in her mouth and shooting, but he thought differently after examining the wounds. He states that there were gun wounds to the tongue and usually this doesn’t occur in a suicide. People usually put the gun in their mouth and point it up towards their brain. Also there was no note which most people who commit suicide leave notes. He concluded that it was a homicide and police questioned the husband and said I thought it was a homicide. Police said that’s not what the medical examiner said. He husband went on to say that he called to coroner’s office and they said they don’t do medical examinations on suicide victims. Why would he call the coroner’s office for this? Eventually he confessed to the murder.
Act one answered the question, how do we know? Criminologist Enrico Togneri described how you can find a lot out from the blood patterns at a crime scene. You will be able to tell different velocities and angles of impact that may have come from objects that killed the victim. If someone is killed by an object such as a baseball bat you will often find tear drop shaped blood patterns if they are hit at a low angle. With very high velocity weapons, such as a gun, you will see sort of a mist of blood. He described a situation where a man said he and his roommate got into a fight and he hit him in self defense while standing and he dropped to the floor and died. Investigators found this not to be true. They looked and the blood patterns and found that his roommate was on the ground when most of the impacts took place. So it turned into a murder.
Act two was about a man named Neil Smither who has a very interesting business. Smither’s business cleans up crimes scenes, meth labs and “kitty houses.” Kitty houses are those houses that are filled with dirty newspapers, cats and just lots of junk. He treats these gory situations just likes cleaning up a milk spill. With the crime scenes he mops up the blood and sprays it down with disinfectant. He says that this job has really changed him and he is witnessing firsthand how people are living and dying. He concludes that people in general are dirty and live like animals. This would be a different job to be involved in and would take a special person to do it.
Act three was about criminals who come back to the crime scene either to relive it or undo it. It is relatively rare that criminals come back to the crime scene though as I have learned from this section. In this case, bobby, a man who robbed and conned people to maintain his drug addiction came back to coach baseball. He came back when he got out of prison to try to do some good in the community and be mentors to younger kids. When he first started coaching the team it was tough. They would not listen to what he had to say. But over time and by later practices they started listening to him and stated calling him coach. This really has to do with social psychology as Bobby and the kids are communicating with each other and forming a bond and knowing where they are coming from. It’s interesting because as Bobby is trying to help keep these kids out of trouble they are keeping him out of trouble as well. He doesn’t want them to go through the things that he has in his life.
Act four was a story told by Matt Mallory from the book “The Girl in the Flammable Skirt: Stories.” It was able an Orphan boy who has a power that most people don’t. The boy is able to find lost objects just as keys and glasses. He was at a neighbor’s house and he found her hair brush for her. His ability came to be very important when another neighbor had came home and her son was no where to be seen. She had got in contact with the orphan boy and asked if he could find her son. He didn’t think he would be able to because he had never had to find people before. He had a hard time with it until a police officer asked the woman what color shirt he was wear and she told him it was blue. This was important because he was now able to search for an object. He eventually found the boy and brought him back to his mother. The very end of the story was confusing as he was lying in but searching for someone and was asking why don’t you come get me. My take from this was that he was searching for his parents who he and lost when they drowned. It some aspects I think cognitive psychology fits in this story. The boy uses much of his brain and thoughts to help him find lost things.
What I found to be most surprising and interesting was act two about Bobby and his cleaning service. Before hearing this I never knew or really gave any thought to who would or did clean up crime scenes. I never knew there were businesses out there that do it for you. I feel like it takes a special person who doesn’t have a weak stomach to do this job. I’m sure being involved in this occupation would give you a different perspective on life.
The broadcast begins with a case of a woman being shot in her mouth and whether or not she committed suicide or was murdered. Small details seem to really help here, such as the placement of her tongue. In suicides the tongue is untouched because of the angle the gun is placed. In this particular case, the woman's tongue was mangled, suggesting a struggle of sorts.
Act one also talks about 'the details'. They discuss how just from a simple blood stain, one can tell what kind of weapon, where the perpatrator was in regards to the victim, as well as the angle the blunt occurred. The shape of the blood drop shows if it was a bat-like object, or gun, or anything. I found it absolutely mind-blowing that with one miniscule detail so much can be discovered, or overlooked. Its the details that can make or break the truth in any case. Even one drop of blood makes a difference.
Act two deals with the cleanup of a crime scene and follows Neil Smither in his process of the cleaning as well as his own psyche during his job. he seems as though, throughout the cleaning of the crime, Neil is constantly being changed, numbed almost to violence. This is especially apparent when he wishes for a slow death, that hes waiting for it, even welcoming of death for himself. He even wouldnt mind cancer...wow. After hearing Neil's take on such a task I can gaurantee you wont be seeing me doing the same in the future. He seems almost disturbed; he has seen so much filth, what angers him most is the dirtiness of people's homes, not of the crimes and loved ones lost. Neil seems almost heartless in that sense.
Act three talks about criminals returning to the scene of their crime. At first glance I figured it was about a criminal viewing where he committed the crime, before he was apprehended, only to cause more chaos and havoc. However, once I started listening it was the exact obvious. Bobby returned to his scene after rehabilition, after he had transformed from his old criminalized self. I thought this was a very interesting and orignal take on the subject. This certainly gave me a different perspective. The story showed how Bobby changed from not caring about a thing in the world to finally caring about the opinion children have towards him. He states he sometimes wants to revert to being a thug but he couldnt stand disappointing the kids he now coaches baseball, the ones that look up to him so much. Being a role model, at least for Bobby, gave him something to continue fighting for sobriety. In this case, the criminal returned to his scene to make ammends for the crime he committed.
Act four talks about a boy who can seemingly find anything lost. This is put to the test when people start questioning as to whether or not he is actually stealing them then coming and acting like he found the items. It then comes to him trying to find a lost boy, something that he cannot steal, at least not so discretely. During the entire process the boy seems numb to the world. It becomes an almost poetic tale. I do not know quite what to make out of it...but I feel as if the boy is lost within himself after having lost his parents. I dont know, it seems very confusing and too poetic for my taking too.
It starts of by telling us how every crime scene tells a story. The story might be unclear at first and each little thing is important. In the first case that they go through they talk about a case who was first seen as a suicide. But from further investigation they found evidence that this was indeed a homicide. They used information on how the brain works in order to determine that the way this girl was shot was not typical of a suicide. They were then able to use that information against the boyfriend to get a confession.
Now when looking at evidence involved in the crime scene is very important. One example is the blood splatter that might be at a crime scene. You can tell what type of weapon may have been used and even where the person could have been when the crime could have taken place. One example was a case where two friends were fighting and one stated that he punched his friend in self-defense and the friend died. Upon further investigation of the blood splatter they were able to conclude that the man lied and actually beat his friend when they lay on the ground. Another way they examine the crime scene is to look at what event is being taken place. One example was dinner time. You can observe certain things to tell you about the smell or certain characteristics.
They also go into how they clean up the crime scenes. You learn that each and every crime scene’s cleanup is the responsibility of the land owner who has to hire someone to clean it. Most crime scenes are biohazards so specialized people come and clean it so you get it cleaned properly. These people also clean up meth labs and other places. I found this very interesting that the government doesn’t have some organization that does this for them. Now for these people something in the brain is obviously different where they can handle the sights and smells of the crime scene that they were describing.
The one part I was most interested in was what the police can’t do because although it might be a fictional story it makes you think of how the brain processes certain information about certain objects. And how we learned in class is that you use your senses to transfer what is being seen or felt to send a code to the brain. With that information you are able to somewhat problem solve. Know the boy in act 4 was problem solving about a boy he has never seen. Someone like me might use that information in where I might be able to find something that is lost like a pair of shoes.
I thought this episode from This American Life was interested. I didn't feel as if the pieces went very well together but all the stories had interesting aspects to them. The Prologue has two speakers Dr. L.j. Drakovic and the host Ira Glass. The prologue uses the simile that a photo of a crime scene is like a story. Little details left unnoticed can make the entire story seem like another event happened. I thought the details about the holes in a tongue were remarkable, something I would have left unnoticed.
Act One is tilted "How Do We Know" and features the host Ira Glass and Enrico Togneri, a former forensic criminologist. Mr Togneri begins by explaining what a blood spatter can tell about a crime scene. Different types of hits create different blood patterns on the floor. I also thought the other detail he mentioned were interesting. I hadn't really though about looking at the way a table is set up to know if a victim is right or left handed. I hadn't really though about a smell as being something a csi would think about.
Act Two was titled "Grime Scene", this section contained the story of Neal Smither, an rather interesting man with and even more interesting company. He owns "Crime Scene Cleaners, specializing in homicides, suicides, and accidental deaths" a company that specializes in clean up after a crime. I was shocked when I learned about this job. I had no idea this type of job existed. I thought it was disgusting when he was talking about decomposing bodies filled with maggots that he would take care of. I always thought that paramedics took care of dead bodies. It was also really different how cool he was handling these types of messes. I know some people such as morticians and funeral directors are use to dead bodies but personally the thought makes me squeamish.
Act Three, "A Criminal Returns To The Scene Of The Crime" tells the turnaround story of Bobby. Bobby was once a drug addict who had spent time in jail for various crimes. He decides to return to his home town and teach kids baseball. While Bobby is not your average mentor and coach he does good for these kids, and in turn the kids and Bobby become better people.
Act four, "What Police Cannot Do" Matt Malloy tells a story about an orphan who has a special ability to find things that are lost. He faces both skepticism amazement by people in his neighborhood. One day a little boy is kidnapped on his way from school and the orphan with the special ability is called upon to help locate the little boy. He successfully does in a vary short amount of time, the police haven't even finished interviewing the mother about details concerning the little boy.
The most surprising to me was just the whole picture of "Grime Scene". I had no idea there were people who's jobs revolved around that type of rather gruesome work.
I found psychology to be most relevant to Neal Smithers. Every day he must use impression management because of the stigma our society places with death. He and his workers must also use different techniques to separate their emotions from the bodies so they can properly do their jobs.
The audio recording that we listened to was a public radio broadcast that covered four sections involving crime. The recording begins in the office of Dr. L.J. Drakovic where Ira Glass looks at a very graphic slideshow of dead bodies found at crime scenes. The particular crime that is noted is a woman who was thought to have killed herself by shooting herself in the mouth. It turns out that it was actually a homicide. The recording then shifts to the topic of blood splatter. Sometimes you can tell the way the victim was murdered by the way the blood has splattered.
Act Two focuses on a man by the name of Neal Smither, who cleans crime scenes for a living. The name of his company is called Crime Scene Cleaners. I think that this would be a terrible job. I think it would really take a unique person to be able to do this. Smither goes into great detail about the bodies that he has cleaned up and the scenes he has encountered. The one thing about this job would be that it would never get old. They also describe in this act that he walked into a crime scene and cleaned it up within minutes, like it was no big deal.
Act Three discusses a ex-drug user named Bobby who gets out of prison and starts coaching a baseball team. Bobby is forced to face people in the community who have no hope in him. No one respects him at first, but after time, the kids finally start calling him coach again. He didn't start using drugs again, and he set a good example for the kids. My favorite part about this act is when Katie Davis asks him what he does when he sees someone who he has ripped off in the past and he answers, "It depends. It depends on how I feel. And there's times when I might be feeling real insecure and I'll put that macho thing up. There's a part of me that still wants to be a thug. There's a part of me still very capable of being a thug. I just wouldn't be able to be a real good thug with my hands because I'm older. I'd have to get a weapon now."
Act Four tells the story of a boy who has the extraordinary ability to find lost items. It tells how he struggles with neighbors claiming that he would steal their things and then "find them." Some people believed it was a rip off. When a lady in the neighborhood loses her son, shes asks the boy to help her. Of course, he finds her son watching TV.
The most surprising part of this audio recording was that there are actual services that come and clean crime scenes. I guess that I always assumed that the police or the crime scene investigators were the ones who cleaned up crime scenes. I think it would be a very difficult job to do. You would have to have a very strong stomach at times. There are a few different forms of psychology that can be picked out from this audio recording. Social Psychology can be seen in the Bobby story, because he is a authority figure for the baseball team. Authority figures have a strong influence on people; as seen in many psychological studies. Bobby obviously had to go through some rehab, where he learned to be clean. This would also relate to psychology. I also think that the orphan boy with the ability to find missing things had something to do with sensation and perception.
This was an interesting episode of This American Life. The Prologue was a short interview with a medical Examiner from Pontiac, Michigan. D.J. Drakovic, the medical examiner explains that every crime scene is like a novel. In particular his interview is centered on one particular case, which at first is seen as a homicide. However, by following his philosophy he Mr. Drakovic find a hidden story through the facts of the case. He discovers that the victim did not commit suicide but was actually killed by her boyfriend. His interview furthers the point that not everything is what it seems. If you dig a little further you may find something that will surprise you.
Act One was another short interview but this time with a Forensic Criminologist. Enrico Togneri talked a lot about blood splatter and emphasized the fact that a crime scene can tell you a lot about a crime. It was funny when he said he had once discovered the idea of the perpetrator by matching dental records from a piece of cheese. It amazes me that somebody would be so careless when they are committing a murder. I was also interested to hear how they use blood splatters. I have seen blood splatter analysts on TV such as Dexter, but I was never sure how accurate the TV show was. Sounds like they were pretty close.
Act Two was probably the most gruesome of the five segments. Neal Smither is one of those guys that cleans up crime scenes for a living. He doesn’t seem bothered by his job at all but it has changed his outlook on live, which shows the psychological impacts of this job. Because of what he has seen he has decided he would rather die slowly such as cancer. This is not something you would hear most people saying. He talks about his job with others in a very laid back way and he is not very sensitive unless he is talking to the family of the deceased. He also fakes a southern accent because he thinks it sounds inviting and welcome. I thought it was interesting that he got his motivation for starting in this business from pulp fiction. I never would have thought of that. I am kind of curious how much he charges for his services especially sense he is planning on retiring at the age of 40.
Act Three changes gears and follows a story about a man who returns to the neighborhoods where he committed his own crimes. Bobby had a tough life growing up. He eventually turned to alcohol, and other drugs to ease his pain. He was notorious for conning people out of money and robbing them. He was eventually charged and held in a penitentiary. The story picks up after he is released. He returns to his old neighborhood and coaches a Little League team. The psychology of this story comes when he is faced with everyday challenges of having to face people he had previous stolen money from. He is fighting his urge to return to his old habits but it seems his time spent with the little boys on the baseball team is helping him through it. He sees in these boys the same spirit he had. I think that his reasons for returning to the neighborhood are to give something back to it by helping these boys.
Act Four reads a short story from the book The Girl in the Flammable Skirt: Stories. This is a deep story about a teenage boy who has the gift to find anything that is lost. Many people are skeptical of his gift while others embrace it and often call for his help. He is usually asked to find small objects such as lost keys or hairbrushes. Towards the end he is asked to find a small boy who has not come home from school. From here I get a little confused. I’m not exactly sure what he is looking for or talking about at the end. It seems kind of mind mending and I’m sure there is some psychological aspect to it, it’s just hard for me to pin point it exactly.
The assigned episode was very interesting to listen to. I found it sometimes difficult to concentrate on the audio without anything to look at. It made me wonder how older generations lived with just the radio and no television! The prologue was very interesting. I always find stories like the one the medical examiner told very fascinating. This episode was broken down into four acts, each one dealing with a different aspect of crime.
The first act was about the evidence at a crime scene. I learned a lot about what investigators look for at a crime scene. They can tell a lot just by the blood stains. This reminds me of one of my favorite crime shows, Dexter. The main character is a blood splatter analyst. I watch the show a lot, so I knew already knew a little about the directions and shapes of blood stains. They can also be used to determine what type of weapon was used. I was surprised that they actually look at the food at a crime scene and check the temperature. I couldn’t believe the story about catching a robber just by the bite-mark he left in a piece of cheese. I didn’t think things like that actually happened. I was shocked to find out that if a crime or murder happens on your property, you are the one responsible for cleaning it after the investigators are finished. Psychology is definitely involved in this aspect of crime. Analysts and investigators use sensation and perception to thoroughly investigate and put all the puzzle pieces of a crime together.
Act two was about a guy who cleans crimes scenes for a living. I had no idea such a job existed. This part of the episode was the most disturbing in terms of gory details. I couldn’t imagine cleaning up blood and decomposing bodies for a living. I’m not even sure any amount of money could make me even consider it. I thought it kind of funny that Mr. Smither uses a fake Southern accent because it “opens up a trusting vein.” Overall, the whole idea of his business is out there and maybe even a little insensitive, but like he said, there isn’t really a good way to approach the topic of death. The decision made by Mr. Smither to start his business involved perception psychology because of how he perceived a scene from the movie Pulp Fiction. I found his claim about all hotels in the country having experienced a murder or suicide unsettling. I was also shocked at the materials he uses to clean the crime scenes, like heavy duty paper towels. Paper towel could be found in a common household. It makes sense that Mr. Smither thinks about his own death quite a bit considering his job. He said he wants a slow death and one that wouldn’t require a company like his to clean him up. He even went as far as to mention he wouldn’t mind getting cancer.
Act three was probably my favorite story of the whole episode. There is just something about success stories that is bittersweet, especially this one. Bobby returned to the very place he went to when he got kicked out of his house, a changed man. Biopsychology definitely plays a part in this story because Bobby was a drug user, and drugs have an effect on the way the brain functions. At the beginning of the story, I could not believe the way some of the kids were acting and some of the comments they made. This made me think about their socioeconomic statuses and the area they were growing up in. The narrator described the city as poor and even the finest baseball field in town was rundown. This made me feel bad for the kids because they were probably headed down the same road as Bobby just because of where they grew up. However, it also made me happy for Bobby because he got to be the positive influence in these kids’ lives. Bobby’s childhood was not very good. His mother rarely made dinner and he was kicked out at age 13. Most nights he stole wine and sardines and that was his meal. I would be scared stiff if I had to spend my nights in an abandoned old car. Bobby used the alcohol as a way to numb that fear. This was when his substance abuse started, and it spiraled from there. I loved the fact that the kids actually started calling him “Coach.” I think it gave him a sense of responsibility and pride. Those kids were probably the reason Bobby didn’t relapse. I really liked one of the kids’ comments about how we “grow” into people and acquire more patience for them. I think it takes a really strong person to go through what Bobby went through, and come out on top. He even said there is a part of him that still wants to be a thug, but he knows that that is wrong, bringing into play behavioral psychology.
From act three, I also learned that it is actually a myth that most criminals return to the crime scene, except for fire starters. But, in case they do return, it is always a good idea to take pictures of everyone at the crime scene. I found it surprising that some criminals have actually been caught this way. Cognitive psychology definitely plays a role here because the reason some criminals return to the scene is to undo the past or try to make it right. They could even attempt to suppress a memory or change one.
Act four was about a young man who had the remarkable ability to find lost things. His parent died when he was just 8 years old and he was raised by the community. He started noticing he had a sense of where objects were. Some people in his community appreciated his talent and called on him for help whenever they needed it. Others thought he didn’t have the ability at all and he was actually stealing their things and hiding them. It wasn’t until a little boy went missing that his gift was given the deserved amount of gratitude. The mother of the missing boy called on the young man to find her son, but he had a hard time sensing him. He had only worked with objects that were lost, not people that were stolen. He asked for a photo, but that didn’t help. It wasn’t until he learned the type of shirt the boy was wearing that he really started feeling the tug of which direction to go. I thought it was pretty amazing that he could sense the shirt even though it was 14 miles away. I’m not really sure what this has to do with crime scenes, or psychology, but it was a very interesting story.
I found this broadcast to be very interesting. The part that I found most surprising was that there is an occupation for cleaning up crime scenes. I was not aware that if someone dies in your house, it is your responsibility to get it cleaned up.
Many of the segments can be related to social psychology. In terms of act II and act IV, the key people in the stories commonly interacted with various people. The man who cleaned up crime scenes dealt with customers and was approached by a woman who had used his services in her family. Act IV involved a bunch of people who did not believe in the young man’s abilities, but utilized them often anyway. Another aspect is developmental psychology. I relate this to the little league team that Bobby was coaching. An additional aspect I think of is cognitive psychology in regards to the man who cleans up crime scenes. He’s job involved a lot of cognition in terms of being able to handle gruesome scenes, thinking about his own life death, and the way others lead their lives.
The prologue explains how the medical examiner feels that every crime scene is a story. It reviews an assumed suicide, and how the medical examiner suspected it was a homicide instead.
In Act I, a criminologist says that there is a lot of information that is contained in evidence, such as blood stains. He explains how the shape of the blood stain can describe the angle, which leads to where the perpetrator was located, or where the impact originated. He describes other evidence, such as food and scent. For example, a piece of cheese was found at a burglary scene. The bite mark led to the perpetrator. The person who owns the property is generally in charge of having the scene cleaned up.
Act II describes the occupation of a man who cleans up crime scenes. I also had no idea that this was an actual occupation! He was very descriptive regarding his job. He cleans up scenes, many of which involve decomposing bodies. He also handles suicides. The job is described as “not being hard, just depressing.” His job has changed his views on both life and death. He thinks that many people are disgusting because of the way they do not clean up after themselves. He says that he wants his death to happen slowly so that he can say good-bye to loved ones. He doesn’t want a crime scene to clean up after his death.
Act III discusses perpetrators returning to the scene of the crime. It is said that perpetrators rarely return to the scene (aside from arsonists). An exception to this is when people try to change something. It tells the story of a man named Bobby. He is a drug addict who attempts to “get clean” by coaching little league. The field that he is coaching is the same location where he went when he was kicked out of the house. He lived in a car, and stole from a store and from neighbors. Substances helped him to feel comfort at night. Because this is the neighborhood he was in as a rebellious child, there are people around that know of his past. His position has helped to change his life in a different way. He feels as though he is doing something with his life that he can be proud of.
In Act IV, it is discussed what police can’t do. The beginning of the act describes a boy whose parents were killed. It describes a skill he had, finding lost items. The neighbor were very skeptical of his abilities, but continuously called him to help find missing things. It leads to a story of a boy, who had been kidnapped. The young man was able to find the kidnapped boy, without the police officers assistant.
Summarize what you heard and learned. What was the most surprising thing to you? What aspects of psychology relate to any of the segments?
This is an episode of "This American Life". The beginning was an interview with a medical examiner D.J. Drakovic, in Michigan. He explains how in his opinion, every crime is like novel. He talks about a case wehere a woman was shot, and her boyfriend said she shot herself, when instead, after Dr. Drakovic performed an autopsy on her, concluded she was killed. Her boyfriend finally confessed to her murder.
Act One:
Act one is about looking at crime scenes and using the evidence to put together what happened. This being explained by Enrico Togneri. He talks about blood spatters and how there are different types of velocity that go along with a different kind of object used to kill the person. So by looking at the blood spatter and using basic trigonometry you can determine where the blood originated and what may have been used. He goes on to talk about other things that you can find out by looking at other things in the crime scene, such as if there is food on the table, where the utensils are placed, which could determine a left or right handed person, or a certain smell that might mean a smoker or a woman's perfume. In one case, a bite mark in a piece of cheese that was left in the fridge ended up being the perpetrator they were looking for.
Act Two:
Act two discusses Neal Smither, who spends his days cleaning up crime scenes. He talks about some of his cases and what he runs into during his jobs. He also confesses to his fake Southern accent, which he says seems to comfort people more. Most of Neal's jobs are decomps, bodies that have been sitting for periods of time, and suicides that must be cleaned up. He also cleans up meth houses and houses with multiple cats tearing the place up. On the second day the reporter is with him, he gets a call for a jail cell job on a woman who attempted suicide. While there, a woman there recognizes Neal from a job he did at her home. He cleans the whole cell in as little as 10 minutes, and then leaves. He was incredibly interesting to listen to.
Act Three:
Act three is about criminals that return to the scene of their crime to try and make it right and undo what they did. A man named Bobby is the main focus of this act. Bobby tells his neighbors he is going to coach little league, he has been a heroin user for most of his life. He talks about the struggles that it took to get the kids to respect him but it was difficult with his reputation as a drug dealer. The interview goes back and forth between one of the young boys and him, it talks about the practices and the struggles they went through during, fighting for power. The boys vs. him. Eventually, he comes to be seen as a coach, not a recovering heroin addict, which boosts his self-esteem. The boy being interviewed talks about how he started to respect and understand his coach throughout their practices, that he didn't want any problems, just to move on with his life. At the end of the interview, Bobby is more accepted with everyone, and his life seems to be finally going in the right direction.
Act Four:
Act four is a short story that Aimee Bender wrote in her book The Girl in the Flammable Skirt: Stories. It is about a boy who can find absolutely any missing item. The first example is a hairbrush he "sniffs" out that is in the silverware drawer. Not quite everyone is appreciative of his sleuth skills, some wonder if he steals the items and hides them so he can "find" them. The boy described it as a pull he feels towards the object that leads him to find it. The second item missing is actually a boy that goes missing on his walk home from school. Although the mother of the lost boy is a skeptic of the boy who is able to find things, she feels she has no other choice. The boy is skeptic of himself, since he has never found a person before, only objects. He tries anyway. When he hears the mother say the boy is wearing a blue shirt, he focuses his attention on the shirt, he starts walking and when he gets a few blocks away he feels the "tug" of the blue shirt, and goes in the house to find the boy sitting there eating a candy bar. He takes the boy home, goes home himself, and lays in bed trying to find himself.
I thought this show was very intriguing. I really enjoyed listening to it. The one thing I was most surprised about was hearing about Neal Smither. I had no idea that there are companies there are hired to clean up crime scenes, although it makes sense. Most especially the part about the bodies being there however shocked me the most, I always assumed the medical examiner and/or paramedics would take care of the bodies.
The use of psychology is evident in many ways here. The medical examiner has to use a bit of it to determine how people died, and although it was evidence that ultimately proved it, he had to think too about the girls life and how she had no history of depression, and that her tongue injury simply didn't add up to a person who was suicidal. Enrico Togneri has to use psychology to put together with his blood spatters and tell a story. Neal must use it when dealing with victims families and clients, Bobby had to use it when dealing with the kids he coached and their parents, along with his other neighbors, and even the little boy in the story used it. That probably helped him feel that "tug" towards lost things he described feeling. Therefore, I think psychology can be used in any situation to help determine how something may have happened or how someone should go about a situation they are facing.
In this episode there were four different acts. The prologue was about an interview with a medical examiner. The first thing that really stood out to me was when he said that every crime is like a novel. The crime he specifically talked about first seen as a suicide, but in a closer look it turned out to be a homicide. The holes in the tongue were also not the right kind of marks to be looking for. He said that the gun was positioned wrong in the persons' mouth and there was no suicide note which most people leave one. In his interview he talks about how not everything seems to be what it is at first glance.
In act one a forensic criminologist was talking about blood spatter. The blood spatter can determine the way the person was hit because each spatter has a different pattern. It talks about different weapons also because each hit shows a different blood spatter pattern. In one case that was talked about two roommates got in a fight and one said that he hit his roommate while standing up and he fell to the ground and died. When the investigators came to take a look they realized that the roommate was lying by the pattern of the blood spatter because most of the hits took place while the victim was on the ground. Evidence such as blood spatter is very important and can determine the way the victim is hit.
Act two interviews a man who cleans up crime scenes for a living. He talks about how he cleans up the scene by disenfecting it getting everything out of the room that is contaminated. He does not mind his job and says that people are disgusting and live like animals. I don't think I could handle this job because he pretty much witnesses gruesome crimes. I would not be able to go on with my everyday life thinking about each one of the scenes that he sees on a daily basis.
Act three talks about a man named Bobby who returns to his neighborhood where he committed crimes when he was younger. He had a rough childhood because he was into alcohol and drugs. He used to rob people and get money in all sorts of illegal ways. It's hard for people to trust him and respect him when he returns but eventually people start to come around and respect him again. I could never imagine doing this because I would feel too guilty returning to my old scene even if he had served his time.
In act four it talks about an orphan who can find lost things. The orphan is very good at it and is used for a kidnapping. There was a little boy who was kidnapped when he was on his way home from school and the orphan was asked to locate him. The orphan did it and everyone was really amazed. I think this would be a very lucky trait to have. It could help many people out.
I really liked listening to each one of these episodes because they were very interesting. I didn't know that there were so many different jobs that took place in an investigation. It was cool to see how each person talked about their personal feelings and how they felt about the job. Not all of the jobs are the same but they have something in common and are all very important jobs.
I thought this was going to be a boring broadcast, but I quickly learned that it was very interesting. The prologue told us that all crime scenes are like novels. Dr. Drakovic is a medical examiner who tells us about what was originally thought of as a suicide. A woman supposedly shot herself in the mouth. The ruling was that it was a suicide, but after Dr. Drakovic examined the body, he noticed that something was not right. The woman's tongue was in an unusual position and there were two holes in the tongue. That is not usually what happens when someone puts the gun in their mouth. The new ruling was a homicide. After this discovery, they questioned the boyfriend and told him it was a homicide. The recording stated that the boyfriend had called the coroner's office two weeks earlier to see if they performed autopsy reports on suicides.
The first act dealt with patterns of blood stains. Investigators can sometimes tell how a crime occurred by looking for how the blood is. They gave an example of a boy who got in a fight with some other boys. The boys said that they hit the kid and that he fell down, dead. However, after examining the dead boy and the scene, they found that the blood stains were different than they should have been had it just been one hit. They figured out that the boy was already on the ground and the others kept kicking him until he died. That is one of the parts of this whole recording that I found very interesting. It is amazing that you can get a good idea about how a crime was committed just by looking at patterns of blood stains. The forensic psychologist who was being interviewed in this act was Enrico Togneri. He gave the example of looking at food that is left on the kitchen table to see if it is warm, and also how the utensils are set up. By looking at that, you can tell whether the person who was last there is left-handed or right-handed. He then told the story of a crime where burglar took a bite of cheese and left the cheese in the refridgerator. Investigators were then able to fit the bite marks to the person who did the burglary.
The second act dealt with talking to Neal Smither who cleans up crime scenes for a living. This was not always his career. Originally, he was a mortgage broker but then saw Pulp Fiction. After seeing a certain part of the movie where someone was needed to clean up a crime, he thought to himself that that is what he wants to do for a living. He wants his company to be the first ones to clean up the crime scenes and even goes to 6 different states to do the clean-up. This whole act was very disturbing, but at the same time very interesting. He has dealt with anything you can imagine in crime scenes and seems numb to what he sees. It was interesting that he made up a southern accent. He said people seem to be more trusting when someone has a southern accent, so he uses that for business. One thing that really surprised me was that the owners of the property are responsible for the clean-up. That is something that I have never even thought of. I would have just assumed that the police or investigators cleaned up after they were done. Now after hearing this, it does make sense that there is a profession for this. Most people do not have the proper license for this kind of thing and you also have to make sure you are following government regulations when disposing of bodies. Another thing that really surprised me was when Neal says that he wants to die a slow death. He wants this so he can say goodbye to everyone. In a weird way, that kind of makes sense. It would be nice to say goodbye to the people you love, but I personally would not want it to be slow. He said that he wouldn't mind cancer. That was shocking to me. I even got upset when he said that. I don't understand how anyone could "take" cancer. My father died from cancer a few years ago, and it was slow and extremely painful for him. When it is slow like that, the people that love you are hurting extremely bad. I hated seeing my father in so much pain, and knowing that there was nothing I could do to help the pain.
The third act dealt with people returning to their crime scene. Many people think that criminals return to where they committed their crime to make things right. However, this is not the case. Most people do not return to the scene. Arson criminals do like to return to watch their crime take place. They are often caught in pictures of the crowds. We learn about Bobby in this act. As a kid, he conned people and stole from them. He was even in jail for it. Once he is older, he returns to where his crimes take place and starts to coach Little League. At first the kids do not like him, but they start to come around. He was asked by the interviewer what he feels like when he sees those people who he has conned. He stated that it is a "roller coaster" of emotions. One concept of psychology that was discussed in this act was that of development. Even though he did those criminal things when he was younger, Bobby was still able to grow and do something with his life.
The fourth act was just weird. It was a short story about a boy who has a talent to find things that are lost. A mother calls him and tells him that her son is kidnapped and she wants him to find her boy. He ends up finding the little boy and he knows that if the little boy was naked, he would not have been able to find him. It was because he could sense the clothing, shoes, etc. that he was able to find him. I do not understand the end of the story when he's telling someone to come find him, perhaps his parents? I just think this whole act was strange.
The first act talked about different types of evidence. We first started off by discussing blood spatters. High velocity, such as gun shot, looks different than a low velocity blood stain, arterial cut. Low velocity level large stains, whereas, high velocity stains. Blood can also tell direction of movement and where the blood is coming from. The objects around the house can give clues to the crime. Simple things such as food can give evidence such as if the food is warm, or where the silverware is placed.
In the second section, crime scene cleanup was described. There are a lot of requirements to be a crime scene clean up person such as permits and special chemicals to kill any diseases and germs. I was surprised to learn about Neal’s jobs. He cleans up mostly meth labs. One story described was a jail cell clean up. I expect his jobs to be murders and crimes. I was also surprised to learn that he was an entrepreneur and it isn’t a company or something of that nature. It is also a life changing job. The outlook on the world changes after you see dead people, dirty places, and the crimes every day.
The third part of the movie discussed criminals and their lives after the get out of prison. In this case, Bobby returns to the world is a little league coach. At first, they didn’t respect him. The kids thought that he was just blowing smoke at them. After time, they start to call him coach and really relate to Bobby. The kids start to listen to his stories and grow with him. Bobby’s patience and security in himself flourish as time goes on. He finds it difficult to fight the desire to go back to his old life.
The last segment consisted of a story from Aimee Benders book. It told a story about a boy who could find lost things. The boy could sense the presence of the missing item and smell it. Many of the people were skeptical to his abilities. One lady contacted him in desperation to find her son. He used the green star to find the boy by feeling the scent of him. In the end, the boy was discovered at another house.
I think behavior psychology could be used with Bobby. He was released from prison and allowed to work with children by coaching their little league team. His behavior dictates his actions and choices he makes. His chance of regressing into his old ways is a large factor in capable to reinter society. Without previous stable behavioral patterns, his chances of regressing are great. I think it also affects his ability to lead young, impressionable children.
This episode of This American Life proved very interesting. They begin with an interesting story of one crime thought to be an obvious suicide. It turns out that because of two holes in the tongue, they had doubt and pursued it. This made sense to me because a bullet wound to the tongue seems like the woman was pushing against the barrel to get it out of her mouth instead of willingly accepting it in order to take her own life. They next dive into blood spatter forensics. One man says it is like basic trigonometry in which one finds the measurements of the blood droplet and then the angle can be determined. Funny how when I was in trigonometry in high school I never connected that what I was learning could be applied to blood at crime scene investigations. I learned that the harder the impact, the more mist like blood will be present instead of drops.
One of the most surprising things that I heard was that a person committing a crime would help himself to food in the fridge, take a bite of cheese, and put it back. I guess I was surprised at the utter idiocy of the perpetrator. The thing that interested me the most was one man purposely making his voice have a southern accent because he believes it opens up a “trusting vein”. To some extent I find this to be true because even I am a sucker for it; however, it makes me partially disappointed that adults in such prestigious positions succumb to a trick like this.
All the talk about the dead bodies and maggots making noise within them and other decomposing bodies was repulsive. It made me extremely sad because we’d all like to think that most people get a respectful burial. People who do these jobs do them like it is nothing, or like cleaning up spilt milk, as the recording puts it. I understand that the bottom line is a pay check but it makes me wonder what is truly going on in the minds of people who desire to clean up such gruesome messes. I find it hard to believe that someone can just remain emotionally distant and keep their home and work life entirely separate. The guy even says at one point, “Most people are dirty mother….but I’m a neat freak…” I wonder if there are psychological evaluations of these employees, or if hardly anyone applies that they just take everyone…
The part where Bobby is a recovering addict and becomes a coach is very touching and the part about the young man, aka the “finding guy”, is interesting though I am not sure exactly how much I am able to believe. Psychology is involved in every case presented. Social psychology and the way everyone interacts at the different levels plays a major role. Behavior modification is present when Bobby deals with the kids he is coaching. And obviously forensic psychology is evident. Over all this was a rather depressing listen…but…
“How do ya sugar-coat death, ya know? Ya can’t.”
In this episode there was a prologue and four different acts. In the prologue there was a medical examiner talking about how crimes are like novels, which I thought was an interesting comparison. He described a crime that was once pinned as a suicide but after examination it was actually a homicide which is kind of like a twist in a novel.
In act one, a criminologist talks about how important evidence at a scene of the crime is. I thought it was really interesting when they were talking about blood splatter and how they can tell by the size of the droplets how far away from the ground the blood came from due to the velocity and where the person was hit. They talked about a crime where a man said him and a roommate were getting into an argument and he hit him in self defense and he felled to the ground and died when in reality after the investigators examined the scene they found out that the blood spatter came from very low to the ground meaning that the guy was kicking the other guy while he was already on the ground which throws out the whole self defense claim. It's pretty amazing the type of things medical examiners and crime scene investigators can find out just from little things like blood spatter.
Act two is about a man named Neil Smither and he cleans up crime scenes for a living. While he was describing how he made money in high school he said that he would sell blow pops and lunch tickets and he never did anything illegal and that's how he made his way through high school. What made him want to start cleaning up crime scenes was when after watching the movie Pulp Fiction. He saw the scene where they were cleaning it up and wanted to do exactly that. I think it's really interesting that someone would want to do something like that because he has to go in and pick up decomposing bodies that have been sitting there for weeks and have magets all over them. I don't know why anyone would want to do something like that. I also thought it was really interesting when he was saying that he talks with a fake southern accent because people feel a friendliness towards people with southern accents, which I find to be oddly true.
Act three is about a man named Bobby who used to be and con-artist and committed robberies when he was younger and he returned back to his neighborhood to coach Little League baseball. I think he has a lot of guts to go back to his neighborhood after he did all those things when he was younger because I would never want to return to the scene of a crime I feel like it would be too risky. I also am kind of undecided when it comes to how the neighbors treat Bobby. I think it's really cool that they, over time, end up trusting him again however I don't know if I would want someone who did something like that to be coaching Little League and be living near me again.
Act four is about an orphaned boy who finds objects that are missing. Some people are really skeptic of him because they think that he might be hiding the things just so he can find them. One day a boy went missing and the orphan was asked to help locate the boy. Although a little skeptical of himself he actually wound up finding the kidnapped boy. I think this is so cool that he is able to do something like that. However it is one of those things that you would have to see it to believe it and the way he describes how he finds these things is also really weird. He says he feels a "pull" towards these objects, and now humans, and that's how he finds them.
Psychology plays a big role in this episode. For instance, with the orphan who was finding all these missing objects and the missing boy, there was probably a little bit of psychology going on there. Also I think there was something psychological going on with Bobby because he must of felt some sort of need psychologically to go back to his neighborhood where he used to con people all the time.
I learned a lot while reading this blog. I was one of those squeamish wusses that are warned before listening to this content. But, I still enjoyed it. It was one of those gruesome things where you just can’t look away (or in this case, you just can’t quit listening). I learned a great deal specifically during part II. During part I I was more distracted by the vivid imagery. However, it did offer a lot of information. I think this part in particular relates to psychology. When the audio mentions that four years ago this man had never seen a dead body it made me think about desensitization. He also had an odd or unexpected opinion or thoughts about death. He said that would prefer a slow death, he does not mind how painful as long as he get to say his goodbyes. He has also been able to be a strong observer of human life/behavior/death. He witnesses these people live during their most intimate, emotional, trying times. He sees people at their lowest, saddest, etc. He also mentions how messy people really are “slobs” (generalizing) and he himself is very neat and clean. Maybe he has always been like this but he may be over compensating for these slobs and living a very clean and neat lifestyle.
During part III I was very interested in but, I did not learn a whole lot. There just seemed to be a lot of mystery and a lack of knowing – that was why I found it interesting. He got these strong urges or tugs from missing objects and he could then track them down. This is crazy! I mean the skeptics seem to be off in this case. This guy seems legit. But how does he have these abilities. After taking four years of college level psychology courses I cannot remember any symptoms sounding like what this guy is capable of.
In part II I think I learned the most. I, like many/most Americans, have seen plenty of crime shows on television. As the audio said I have heard of the criminal returning the scene of the crime. But, I had not considered doing it in order to correct the wrong they had done. I have seen episodes where they go back to watch the crime. Like the example of arson from the audio, returning to the scene of the crime to witness it. I have seen episodes where people return to the scene in order to make sure they didn’t cause/hurt to unintended victims. Or they go back to try and cleanup/get and evidence that may suggest them. But, I have never heard of returning the scene/area of the crime in order to correct your wrongs.
Bobby (I think this was his name) was a great example of going back to the ‘scene’ of his crime. He went back to the place he retreated to when his mother kicked him out. He stay in an abandoned car in the same area that he later became a little league coach. He kept himself accountable to the kids. He said that once he betrays someone that it is hard to face them – he would avoid them, duck them. He said that he did not want to let these kids down and then have to start ducking them in his own neighborhood. It was very interesting. This man also did not try and make amends with everyone he had crossed. He found his own way of keeping himself on track. This was interesting and I learned a lot.
This radio broadcast is about crime scenes and the stories they tell. There are four acts in the broadcast. Act one was about a case that seemed to be a suicide but turned out not to be and interpreting blood stains and patterns. With the case of the alleged suicide the story did not add up to the medical examiner because of the damadge to her tounge. He said that normally with suicides people tend to point the gun up therefore completely avoiding the tounge whatsoever. Because of the significant damadge to her tounge this may have been done defensively to push the gun out of her mouth. Also this act touched on blood drops and what they tell us. For example, a completely circular blood drop means that the shot was straight on. Simple little things like this can mean so much to a crime scene.
The second act was about crime scene clean up and the man that chose that as his career. This was one of the more interesting segments for me. I wouldn't say that I have the same amount of fascination about crime scenes as he but it sefinately is interesting. He described some pretty graphic things but the most interesting thing about this story is that he was inspired by the movie pulp fiction to go into the crime scene cleanup field.
The third act was a very sureal story about a man named Bobby, a career criminal, who had been released from prison and returned to his old neighborhood where many of his indescretions haunted him. He had somehow become a little league coach of a local team. This segment highlighted his struggles with being a coach and the person that he used to be. I think in this segment psychology is prevalent because this man is struggling to coap with the things he has done in the past while the people that he hurt were all around him. That has to have some type of psychological affect on Bobby. He even talks about the guilt that he would fel if he let those kids down.
The fourth act was honestly a little bizzare. It was about a kid that could feel and sense things, so people would ask him to find lost objects for them until one day a woman called him and asked to find her son. It was kinda creept cause he actually found him.
This episode explained different stories about crime scenes whether it was a criminal moving back to the scene, a person who could evaluate a crime scene or a person who cleaned up the scene. The beginning prologue story explained a crime scene as a novel. The girl looked like she had committed suicide but she put her tongue in front of the gun and had two gunshots through her tongue. The medical examiner found it interesting if it were suicide to inflict more pain than to just go straight to the brain. They then pursued this case. The detectives questioned the boyfriend and found out he had called the Coroner's office to see if autopsies were performed on suicides two weeks before the crime. The boyfriend later confessed to the crime.
"How Do We Know" went into explaining how evidence can explain what may have happened at the crime. Different blood stains or patterns can determine how the person was wounded or killed. Low velocity cut produces large stains but high velocity wounds creates a teardrop shape. The lower the angle, the more of a teardrop shape it produces. A straight on wound creates a round droplet. A gun shot creates a mist due to the explosion of blood. Togneri explains these findings as basic trigonometry. He will measure the length and width of the blood stains and find the angle. He will then take a string to wall and find where drops bunch up that will be where the crime originated. This proved very interesting to me.
The next part, the Grime Scene, was very interesting. Neal Smither cleans up crime scenes for a living. It describes how watching a movie, Pulp Fiction, inspired him to create his own franchise and make a living out of cleaning crime scenes. He takes it all very seriously and tries to make a joke of the situation of death and make light of the situation. What I learned from this as well as found very interesting was the fact the person who owns the property must clean up the crime scene. I figured the police would have to do it, but apparently I was wrong. I guess I had never thought about after the crime of how it was all cleaned up. Not only does that person have to take care of it, the owner must also have permits and licensing to clean up the dead body.
"A Criminal Returns to the Scene of the Crime" is a story of a man named Bobby who returned to his old neighborhood where he would rob stores and con people. He returned to his neighborhood after prison and decided to coach Little League as a way to stay clean from drugs and robbing people and stores. The children reminded him a lot of himself in the way he would react and treat other people when he would get angry or disagree with others. He wanted to impact that part of them. He also learned a lot about himself through the kids and wanted to better himself not only for himself but also for the children. He couldn't go off the deep end because he knew he had those kids who depended on him. It was a very touching story and it proved to me people can get clean after growing up in a bad predicament and getting into the wrong things. It also showed me every person is sent here for a reason, no matter their journey on getting there.
"What Police Cannot Do" amazed me. If something like this were true that would be incredible. It was about a boy who could find objects in his presence even if it were not his belonging. There was a little boy missing and he found him based upon his blue shirt he was wearing. He had a feeling and it took him to where the young man was taken to. There are some things people can do that a police officer may not have the ability to do and I think that was what this story was trying to show. Every person has his or her own talents that could help in a crime scene.
The most surprising part of this segment, like I stated earlier, is the fact the owner of where the crime occurred has to clean it up. Whether that person wanted the crime to happen, he or she must clean it up and be licensed and certified to do it. I had no idea there were actual businesses who cleaned up crime scenes. Thank goodness for that so it is performed correctly and safely, but I had no idea. I also found the blood stain explanation to be very interesting. Who knew you could tell what more than likely happened in a crime by the stained blood and where the person was when it all happened. It's weird to think I could apply my trigonometry class to a death scene using blood. It's a very weird thought.
I believe cognitive psychology and social psychology were very evident in this segment. I think cognitive psychology was used in the story of when Bobby returned to his old neighborhood and coached little league to change his ways. He would also walk around with his badge showing he was clean and working on it. I believe he may have went back to his scene of the crime to change his memories in the setting or make them right. Social psychology is shown in Bobby's case as well because he is influencing the children who may be in the same predicament he was growing up to have a better life and someone to look up to. Personality psychology is shown in the case of Neal because he has a very unique personality to actually want to work with blood and cleaning up crime scenes. I do not know many people who after watching a movie of someone cleaning up a crime would want to do it for the rest of his or her life.
First off I better get to measure some blood spots! I couldn’t agree more with him when he stated that crimes have their own story. It is so true and his way of looking at a crime is more unique than other people or the murder would have gotten away with it. The first crime when the guy claimed his wife supposed suicide. The officer tricked him into telling vital information about calling the corners office. Right there he knew the man was guilty. It all started when he knew something wasn’t right when he noticed the tongue was damaged by the bullet. The story could have been over before his discovery and the police would have thought the woman really committed suicide. But his unique mind set prevented the man from getting away and finding out the true story. The second case where the roommate claimed him and his roommate were fighting and he struck his roommate and he dropped to the floor dead. However the measurement of the blood stains proved that the roommate was on the ground and that’s when he knew the roommate that was still alive couldn’t use self-defense because they also found kicking marks. The criminal presents an initial story while the detective fines out the true story. I think the detectives’ story is more interesting if you ask me.
I love the movie Pulp Fiction. Therefore it was really interesting to find out that a person actually got the idea to pick up after crime scenes because the one scene with Mr. Wolf, Jimmy, Vincent, and Jules. Where Mr. Wolf helps them dispose of a body after Vincent accidentally blows a hole through a hostages head. The guy who came up with the cleaning idea started a business that turned into because an idea he got from a story. He is creative because he came up with the idea and created a fake accident in order to sound like a more comforting voice in order to bring in more business. When he describes his work he is very detailed. You can tell that he has a creative side which is the reason he has the job in the first place but like the lady says you don’t have to be smart to clean up after a mess. But to come up with the idea to create the business is what makes people like him and the examiner from the first prologue segment stand out from others in order to notice and act on things that others normally wouldn’t.
The story with bobby where he was a heroin addict and he went to jail and when he got out he wanted to change his life around was very interesting. He thought he would give coaching a try. At first he had a hard time and the kids were out of control so he almost gave up. But he showed that he changed and continued to try and be a coach. Eventually the kids started to realize that what he just wanted them to do was play ball and listen to him. He wasn’t called bobby anymore and people including the kids started calling him coach. The organization cancelled games randomly and never rescheduled rained out games. Even though the kids only had one game they still went to practice. I think it’s terrible that the organization that set up the little league did a horrible job. I think they had a negative effect on the kids. And that showed when after baseball they continued to be delinquents. However after basketball the coach didn’t want to go back to his old life so he decided to create basketball team in which they could continue to use each other to change and become better people. However the kids are too young to understand that by being a part of this team is making them more likely to become more successful by changing their ways. Also that there coach is staying clean with the help of the kids because he wants to be a role model for the kids.
The young man with the amazing skills was a great story. He was so good at finding things that people actually believe that he stole the missing objects and gave them back in order to make people believe that he found it. When the lady called the boy and asked him to find her missing son I knew he was going to find him. When he found the boy he just walked in and grabbed the boy from the strangers. The strangers not reacting to the boy coming into the house didn’t sound very realistic but I’d be pretty shocked to if someone randomly walked in and when straight for the boy and walked out. He returned the boy to the mother and the boy was still in shock when he left. But when he went home his thought processes were still unique. He was gifted obviously and very unique. He was able to deeply focus and put together a story in order to find the missing objects and boy. Each of these people in this broad cast they describe has unique and interesting traits that make them good at what they do.
The most surprising was probably the young boy who could find the objects. Because the others had explanations for how they solved their cases and how they thought of their job. The boy was able to find objects which was kind of impressive but by finding a missing boy 14 houses down with no idea where he could be was unbelievable.
In the prologue it tells us how the medical examiner believes every crime scene is a novel. Then it goes into explaining the four acts that go into different circumstances of crimes.
Act one, “How do we know?” Mentions a lot of high and low amount of blood stains. You can take the width and length of the blood stain and find the angle and determine where the attack was impacted at. After the crime scene is done being looked at for evidence Enrico Togneri says that usually the homeowner is the one that will clean it up. This segment uses a lot of forensic psychology because of all the evidence that is used to catch the perpetrator and sooner or later bring them in to prosecute their psychological states and why the crime was committed.
Act two, “Grime Scene.” Neal Smithers is a crime scene cleaner who talks about all the gore he goes through when he cleans up a crime scene. He deals with a lot of the cleanups with decomposing bodies, suicides, and attempted suicides, lots of meth labs, and kiddy houses with filthy living situations. There is a lot of business that he does in hotels. The cleanup is decently easy to do, with paper towels and scrubs it down, it can be very depressing. The job is changing Neal, he is a complete neat freak at home and believes that everyone is turning into complete pigs, especially with all the cat poo and pee stains he finds at houses he cleans up. His wish is to die slowly, so he can spend some of his last moments with his family, he would take fining out he had cancer, so that it would give him a little more time. To me that would be a crazy way to go, but considering he deals with a death on a daily basis, that would be an interesting way to go.
What surprised me most about these segments is how when the cleanup is done, the homeowner usually has to make the arrangements of doing the cleanup of the place. For some reason that never crossed my mind they would be the ones responsible for the cleanup duties, I always thought it would be the police, once they finished their evaluation of the crime scene.
Act three, “A Criminal Returns To The Scene Of The Crime.” Arsonists like to see what they have created in their crime, they are usually the only ones that return the scene of the crime. Whereas the others who commit the crime most likely won’t return in reality, but usually do in books. Then it goes into telling a story about this guy named, Bobby. It mentions how he was thrown out of his house when he was young and how he’s been basically living on the streets for most of his life being involved with heroin. But he has found coaching little kids in a league that has helped him rebuild his reputation and self-esteem. In this segment we see the social psychology because the kids are helping Bobby become a better person and Bobby is helping them go towards a happier direction of a possibility of having a successful life by working together as a team.
Act four, “What Police Cannot Do.” This is a short story about how a young boy lost his parents because they were killed. He has an interesting kick for finding things that are lost. Things that are lost, he seems to be drawn to. People were divided when they came across him, if they appreciated him they would make more conversation with him and call him over to find their lost things. While the more skeptical half would call him, but keep their distance when he found the lost things for them. Some of the neighborhood believed he had been stealing and then hiding the lost items, more than just magically find the items. A boy Leonard, was lost, and the Mother was one of the skeptics around the neighborhood, asked the boy for help. He heard the policemen ask what was he was wearing and the mother said a blue shirt. He walked 14 blocks down the street and felt the boy wearing that shirt and took him home. The moral of this story is you should never judge someone just because they’re different, we are only human, and each have our own way of expressing our feelings.
In the prologue it tells us how the medical examiner believes every crime scene is a novel. Then it goes into explaining the four acts that go into different circumstances of crimes.
Act one, “How do we know?” Mentions a lot of high and low amount of blood stains. You can take the width and length of the blood stain and find the angle and determine where the attack was impacted at. After the crime scene is done being looked at for evidence Enrico Togneri says that usually the homeowner is the one that will clean it up. This segment uses a lot of forensic psychology because of all the evidence that is used to catch the perpetrator and sooner or later bring them in to prosecute their psychological states and why the crime was committed.
Act two, “Grime Scene.” Neal Smithers is a crime scene cleaner who talks about all the gore he goes through when he cleans up a crime scene. He deals with a lot of the cleanups with decomposing bodies, suicides, and attempted suicides, lots of meth labs, and kiddy houses with filthy living situations. There is a lot of business that he does in hotels. The cleanup is decently easy to do, with paper towels and scrubs it down, it can be very depressing. The job is changing Neal, he is a complete neat freak at home and believes that everyone is turning into complete pigs, especially with all the cat poo and pee stains he finds at houses he cleans up. His wish is to die slowly, so he can spend some of his last moments with his family, he would take fining out he had cancer, so that it would give him a little more time. To me that would be a crazy way to go, but considering he deals with a death on a daily basis, that would be an interesting way to go.
What surprised me most about these segments is how when the cleanup is done, the homeowner usually has to make the arrangements to doing the cleanup of the place. For some reason that never crossed my mind they would do the cleanup, I always thought it would be the police once they finished evaluating their evidence for the crime scene.
Act three, “A Criminal Returns To The Scene Of The Crime.” Arsonists like to see what they have created in their crime, they are usually the only ones that return the scene of the crime. Whereas the others who commit the crime most likely won’t return in reality, but usually do in books. Then it goes into telling a story about this guy named, Bobby. It mentions how he was thrown out of his house when he was young and how he’s been basically living on the streets for most of his life being involved with heroin. But he has found coaching little kids in a league that has helped him rebuild his reputation and self-esteem. In this segment we see the social psychology because the kids are helping Bobby become a better person and Bobby is helping them go towards a happier direction of a possibility of having a successful life by working together as a team.
Act four, “What Police Cannot Do.” This is a short story about how a young boy lost his parents because they were killed. He has an interesting kick for finding things that are lost. Things that are lost, he seems to be drawn to. People were divided when they came across him, if they appreciated him they would make more conversation with him and call him over to find their lost things. While the more skeptical half would call him, but keep their distance when he found the lost things for them. Some of the neighborhood believed he had been stealing and then hiding the lost items, more than just magically find the items. A boy Leonard, was lost, and the Mother was one of the skeptics around the neighborhood, asked the boy for help. He heard the policemen ask what was he was wearing and the mother said a blue shirt. He walked 14 blocks down the street and felt the boy wearing that shirt and took him home. The moral of this story is you should never judge someone just because they’re different, we are only human, and have our own way of expressing our own feelings.
In the introduction of this recording, we are given an example of a case where it's assumed that a young lady has committed suicide. A later detail is revealed showing that the girl had two holes in her tongue, when in fact most suicide "victims" normally shove the gun to the roof of their mouth and shoot pointing towards the brain. In this case, it was evident that the young lady's tongue was forced backwards towards her throat changing the cause of death to homicide. Turns out her boyfriend committed the crime.
In Act One, we're learning what exactly we can learn from evidence from the crime scene. We are told that there is much information we can learn from a crime scene just in the shape of a blood stain alone. Using trigonometry we can determine the position of the victim and the point of attack. In the example they give we're told that a young man gets in a fight with his roommate and the plea of self defense is erradicated because of the discovery that the young man was kicking his roommate to death while he was helpless on the floor. The expert also explains how low velocity abrasions that produce just a cut make large blood splats while high velocity damage, like from a batt or even higher velocity such as a gun shot can produce a sort of spraying blood splatter. From Act One we learn to observe everything in the crime scene from smells to special room setups and even the way the silverware is arranged. All these things could help point out the perp.
In Act two, called grime scene, Neil Smither drives around as the "cleaner upper" of crime scenes in various places all around Utah, Kansas, Las Vegas, and California. Smither doesnt usually deal with the recently dead. It's more like situations with a lot of gore and decoposition and mainly suicides. One example of a job he's taken was with an old man dropping dead in his own home. Whoever was responsible for the old man called and arranged for his clean up. Smithers described the sounds and smells that smacked him in the face as he stepped foot into the old mans home. He talked of the maggots all over the dead body and how the noise, a very distinct and violent humming was almost unbearable. Smithers could be considered a semi-genius business man, making up southern accent to comfort folks as a marketing strategy. He's very up front and personal not being too "flowery" about his job seeing a death isnt a flowery thing: "How do you sugar coat death, yah kno? Yah can't". Neil started off as a laid off mortage broker. Smithers got started because he was inspired by the movie Pulp Fiction. Neil says he wants to die slowly, not cleaned up, but slow or painful but as long as it's slow.
In Act Three we learn that in detective fiction, ALL criminals return to their crime season. Arsonist do always return to see their fire burn. It's actually very uncommon that a criminal returns to the crime scene. In the story of Bobby, a retired criminal and a user, he tries to tie loose ends and get back into the regular lifestyle. Bobby returned to the scene where he robbed people and conned people to coach Little League Baseball. Criminals in this position loose respect and in this example he's lost it from these neighborhood kids and is trying to regain something by coming back. He sees himself in one of the kids, Benjamin, an emotional kid and whenever he feels cheated, he reacts just like Bobby would. When the kids finally call him coach, it doesnt hit him right away, but at a picnic it makes him feel extremely good.
Act four is about the things police themselves cannot do. The Story of a boy who can find lost evidence and items in crime scenes. People are skeptical about his talents. Actor Matt Malloy reads this short story by Aimee Bender, from her book The Girl in the Flammable Skirt: Stories.
I think the thing that surprised me the most from this episode was the fact that even though it's very rare, criminals, convicted or not, have the audacity to return to the past crime scene of their old habits. You would think they would never want to go back to a place like that. Another thing that surprised me was how there's actually a career field in cleaning up dead bodies after crimes and accidental deaths. Who woulda thunk! I never really took it into consideration that someone could actually make money off of it. I figured after CSI got done with disecting the crime scene they would clean up and take the "trash" with them.
This episode was broken down into 4 acts. The first act talked about the kinds of evidence investigators find at a crime scene and what it tells them. I thought the first segment about blood splatter was really interesting, seeing how they could determine the type of weapon used or where the person was standing based upon the blood stains they found. I was curious when the investigator mentioned identifying a burglar based on his bite marks in some cheese since our textbook mentioned that bite marks weren't really an accurate way of identifying people. I was also kind of shocked to hear that the people who own the property are actually responsible for cleaning up the crime scene. It seems like that is something they should be forced to do.
The second act spoke with a man, Neal Smither, who actually has a business dedicated specifically to cleaning up crime scenes. To be completely honest, that whole interview segment just disturbed me. I felt like she was talking to a serial killer based upon the things he was saying. He he spoke about how he wanted to die of cancer, I had chills. I don't know why, but something about that man just seriously rubbed me the wrong way.
The third act started talking about the myth that criminals always return to the scene of the crime, which I wasn't too surprised turned out to be false. Then they launched into a story about a former heroin addict who coached a little league team. The little league team helped him find sort of a purpose in life, so it was kind of a cute story, but also sad because the boys on the team continued to show some signs of deviance, even after being on the team.
The last act started by talking about what cops couldn't do, mostly speaking about cases that go unsolved. They told a story about a young man that was good at finding lost things. The young man seems to be outcast in a way because people don't understand how he is able to find things. In the end, however, it seemed like the young man who was so good at finding things was lost himself. I really like the story and enjoyed the little irony at the end, but it also ended on a very sad note. I think a moral of the story, relating it back to the title of the section, is that even the most skilled people aren't infallible, just like not every case can be solved, not every thing or person can be found. Investigators aren't perfect or all-knowing, just like the young man wasn't at the end of the story.
The psychology you could relate to the episode was mostly from social psychology. Not much psychology was used in the first part, but in the second act, Neal used some ideas of social psychology to help his business. For example, he made up a Southern accent to make people more comfortable and open with him. It's a principle of attraction and persuasion. People are more likely to trust someone who is similar to them, and by creating a Southern accent, Neal is making himself the epitome of "the American citizen" since a US Southern accent doesn't exist anywhere else. In the story about Bobby and the little league team, social psychology came into play with imitation as a learning style since both Bobby and the boys started learning from and acting like one another. Also, the idea of labeling could be seen in this story because just by calling him Coach instead of Bobby, the boys on the team gave Bobby as sense of purpose and helped raise his self-esteem. It seems like psychology can be a powerful thing.