Foundational Concepts
Chain of Custody
Also Known As Chain of Evidence
Citation Formats
General Reference
APA Style
BibTeX
The documented, unbroken record of who collected, handled, transferred and stored a piece of evidence from the moment it is recovered until it is presented in court, required to establish that evidence has not been altered or contaminated.
Facts
Cross-Tradition Connections
Exemplified By Cases
Informed By
Locard's exchange principle, that every contact leaves a trace, is the reason chain of custody and contamination prevention matter for trace evidence.
Sources
1. Saferstein, Criminalistics: An Introduction to Forensic Science
Richard Saferstein, Pearson
StatPearls: Chain of Custody
StatPearls Publishing / National Center for Biotechnology InformationIntroduction sectionQuote, Introduction section
The continuity of possession of evidence is known as the chain of custody or chain of evidence.
EBSCO Research Starters: Locard's Exchange Principle
EBSCO Information ServicesInformed By: Edmond Locard, paragraph 4Quote, Informed By: Edmond Locard, paragraph 4
Because evidentiary use of exchanged materials depends on there being no acceptable alternative explanation for the materials being where they are, issues of chain of custody and prevention of contamination are extremely important.
Wikipedia: O. J. Simpson murder case
Exemplified By Cases: O. J. Simpson Murder Case, evidence-collection discussionQuote, Exemplified By Cases: O. J. Simpson Murder Case, evidence-collection discussion
Fung and Mazzola did admit to making several mistakes during evidence collection, which included not always changing gloves between handling evidence items.
Frequently Asked Questions
What happens if the chain of custody is broken?
If the prosecution cannot establish who had possession of an item of evidence at every point between its collection and its presentation in court, the chain is considered broken, and defense counsel may seek to have the resulting evidence excluded.Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.
View At A Past Year
The atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.