Collecting as much evidence as possible

Collect as much evidence from patients as possible, guided by the scope of informed consent, the medical forensic history, exam findings, and instructions in the evidence collection kit.  Evidence collected during the exam mainly includes biological and trace evidence. To reconstruct the events in question, evidence collected is used in two potential ways in sexual assault cases: 
  • Transfer or associative evidence can provide information about contact between patients and suspects, patients and crime scenes, and suspects and crime scenes. The type of evidence recovered and its location can provide details about the nature of the contact.
  • Identification evidence can give scientific data about the source of a specific piece of evidence. 


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