Words & Phrases 词汇与词组 - Body of evidence

One opening scene of a recent episode from the American television show Crime Scene Investigation (CSI) shows an art gallery wher an exhibition of garbage is apparently on show in dim lighting and with appropriate music. But the art show becomes part of the drama when it is revealed that the exhibits contain body parts.

 

While grisly murders are often embroidered for television, real life has many just as grisly scenes. Coroner Li Kai is a forensics expert in Shanghai with over 10 years of experience. He has personally experienced many crime scenes. He told the Global Times that the thing the cameras can never capture is the smell of death.

 

Admirable profession

 

Television police shows have put into the spotlight the way these investigators use their deductive skills and wisdom to collect physical evidence and from this track down offenders. It's an admirable profession (even if one of the most popular of these television investigators, Dexter, is also a serial killer), but their real work - which involves difficult working environments, long stressful working hours and occupational diseases - has often been neglected.

 

"I can see why we seem exciting on television. We deal with dead bodies and we are portrayed as part of a mystery. But at the end of the day, we are just doing our job and letting justice prevail," said Li Kai. He is the deputy head of the Forensic Science Department of the Hongkou District Public Security Bureau. The 38-year-old said that his job was keeping a vigil for the dead, and it's the pursuit of justice that keeps investigators like himself in the profession.

 

Li said that he had dreamed of becoming a policeman since childhood. He was lucky enough to be accepted by the Forensic Department of the China Criminal Police University in 1999 after he studied medicine at the Shanxi Medical University. Li considers himself more a policeman than a doctor.

 

"As coroners, our job is to investigate the cause of a death, find clues such as the time of death and what weapons or implements could have been used," he said.

 

This goes far beyond just examining the scene of a crime. "People often find the visual impact compelling, but our work involves a lot of serious scientific laboratory work, which can be monotonous and boring. We often have to spend hours looking at samples through microscopes," Li said.

 

In China coroners are attached to the police and have legal powers as well as medical training.

 

What often makes their work environment nearly unbearable is the stench of putrefying bodies, Li said. He recalled the time a body was discovered on the fifth floor of an apartment building, but it could be smelt from the ground floor. While others who arrived at the scene could disinfect and fumigate themselves with white wine, the forensics team had to get to and examine the body immediately with no relief.

 

Medical examiners can't wear face masks because, as part of their assessment of a scene or a body, they use their sense of smell. When Li started working, he found the smell unbearable. "The smelliest rotting food is nothing compared to the smell of decomposing bodies," he said. With years of experience he has grown accustomed to this aspect of his work.

 

Although they take safety measures, the nature of their investigations often means they are exposed to dangerous situations before they figure out the hidden dangers a crime scene might contain. One team of investigators examining the body of a suicide victim, who had drunk the very toxic insecticide Dichlorvos, noticed an overpowering smell in the air in the room. Later several had to be treated for over exposure to this dangerous chemical.

 

Because of their work, medical examiners are prone to diseases that do not affect other doctors or police. Medical examiners have a higher rate of hepatitis and tuberculosis than ordinary people, Li said.

 

Graveyard shifts

 

The job involves long and unsociable hours. Li said that it was common for medical examiners to be called out in the middle of the night. "On big cases we often have to work 15 to 20 hours without a break," he said.

 

But the long hours and the late nights are nothing compared to the sights that confront medical examiners regularly. Over the years Li has been involved with more than 2,000 cases. He has seen stories of deep tragedy, violence and remorse.

 

Li remembers vividly the first time he and some other students had to handle bodies at university. "Our university buildings were very old and surrounded by some bleak trees on the campus. For us students it was exciting to have to pair up and dissect a body together," he said. But the corpses at university morgues are usually new or corpses that have been soaked in formalin. The bodies he would be dealing with in the future would often be old, decomposing and unrecognizable.

 

Li said that although they were all well-trained, the job turned out to be much more challenging than they could possibly have imagined. Apart from learning to be calm and professional in their approach so that they can put their knowledge to work, most of the cases are very different from the way they are presented in textbooks. "It would probably take eight to 10 years for somebody to become a really proficient medical examiner," Li said.

 

In China coroners often have to deal with the families of the victims they have to examine. One time at a traffic accident Li and his team were chased away by the family of the dead man. "Families often find it intolerable seeing a dead person being taken away for further examination," Li said. Coroners have to explain the importance of forensic investigations and try to talk the family round. "I certainly understand their pain, but I also hope they understand that what we do is for the benefit of the dead," he told the Global Times.

 

There were also times when families wouldn't accept the results of their investigations. Li said he has handled several cases wher a person was drunk when they were killed in an accident but this was too painful for the family to accept. "Police work requires a person-to-person approach and it is part of our job to help people understand what we do," he said.

 

Blood brothers

 

The work requires more than just medical and legal skills and knowledge. Coroners and forensic specialists have to know, for example, how blood sprays form in different conditions. Knowledge like this comes from studying engineering principles. They also have to be able to think clearly and sometimes put themselves into the minds of the criminals they are pursuing.

 

"Nobody has a good enough memory to be a perfect liar. And evidence doesn't lie," Li said. He recalled cases wher the killers had thoroughly cleaned the scenes of the crimes, trying to make it look as if the deaths were accidental. But the trained investigators, who examined the sites carefully, always ruled out these deaths as accidents or suicides.

 

"We find clues from the most insignificant things," Li said. He pointedata paper cup on his desk. "Take this cup for example. How much does it weigh? How much strength is needed to squash it? What would make it fall over? These are the sort of things that might help us form a picture of what could have happened."

 

With modern technology, the coroner's job has been made a lot easier. But machinery cannot replac a real postmortem examination. After an autopsy has been completed, the coroner's team always shows respect for the body and they replac all the organs they can and try to make it as presentable as possible.

 

"This is our way of honoring the dead. Although the work can be tiring and demanding, the thought of righting wrongs and giving the dead peace of mind was a comfort," Li said. This sense of correcting wrongs has attracted many to the profession and kept them working there. "I have seen crime scenes that made me shudder. But there's no time for fear or retreating. I have to prove myself worthy of my uniform," Li said.

 

China's 800-year-old forensic hero

 

American television shows like Dexter, CSI and Lie to Me may give the impression that forensic investigation is a modern invention but this is not so. Song Ci, who lived from 1186 to 1249, was a Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279) judge, who is hailed as the founding father of China's forensic science.

 

Born in Fujian Province, Song followed in his father's footsteps and became a highly regarded judge. Espousing a more empirical philosophy as opposed to the idealistic beliefs that prevailed at the time, Song insisted on collecting solid evidence before making a ruling on a case. He would often go and examine a crime scene himself - while many of his counterparts were too aloof to confront homicide scenes that were often dirty and smelly.

 

Also pioneering was his attitude towards dead bodies. In an era when examining a dead body was widely considered obscene and disrespectful, Song encouraged medical examiners to scrutinize bodies for clues. Even when it was a woman's body, he would ask the examiners to check thoroughly as he believed that was the best way to honor the deceased.

 

Song's book Collected Cases of Injustice Rectified is a trailblazing masterpiece of forensic science, possibly one of the first ever textbooks on forensic investigation.

 

Chinese you need:

 

Crime：犯罪 (fàn zuì)

Coroner：验尸官 (yàn shī guān)

Evidence：证据 (zhèng jù)

Occupational disease：职业病 (zhí yè bìng)

Justice：正义 (zhèng yì)

Forensic：法医的 (fǎ yī de)

Tragedy：悲剧 (bēi jù)

Dissect：解剖 (jiě pōu)

Corpse：尸体 (shī tǐ)

Engineering：工程学 (gōng chéng xué)

Accidental：意外的 (yì wài de)

Postmortem：死后的 (sǐ hòu de)

Invention：发明 (fā míng)

Crime scene：犯罪现场 (fàn zuì xiàn chǎng)

Aloof：疏远的 (shū yuǎn de)