What is the primary goal of crime scene management?

The primary goal of crime scene management is to gather evidence without contamination. Crime scenes need to be protected and preserved to ensure that all potential evidence can be collected accurately and reliably. This involves establishing a secure perimeter, limiting access to authorized personnel, and employing proper techniques when collecting, handling, and storing evidence. Contamination can lead to misinterpretation of evidence, which can compromise the integrity of an investigation and potentially affect the outcome of a case in court.

Arresting suspects, questioning witnesses, and analyzing evidence in a lab are all important aspects of the investigative process, but they depend on effective crime scene management to ensure that the evidence collected is valid and reliable. If evidence is contaminated at the scene, it undermines subsequent efforts to solve the crime, making the preservation of that evidence the central focus of effective crime scene management.