What is chain of custody?

Answer 1

Chain of custody refers to the list of people who have had access to evidence or samples of evidence.

Answer 2

This is a simple concept relating to evidence in a crime.

Some technician at the crime scene finds some evidence, documents where it was found, bags it, labels the bag. It is handed to another person, there is a signing ceremony, who has custody of it. It goes to another another & ends up in the lab to be examined. All along the way it is in the custody of humans who have signed for it. It is never left unguarded, unattended.

This way each of the people who transported the evidence can testify that it was never out of their possession, that no unauthorized person had an opportunity to contaminate or falsify the evidence.

Answer 3

Chain of custody refers to physical evidence. It tracks each person who had control of that physical evidence from the crime scene to the court room, and what that person did with the evidence. In most counties there is a form that follows a piece of evidence from when it is logged in to the court room. That form requires each person who gets custody of the evidence to sign the form and indicate date and time when they got custody.

Answer 4

It is the documented proof that evidence was under control from the time it was taken.
Also who handle it and when.
So that when it goes to court and a lawyer ask what proof do you have the evidence was not tamper with the state can show the paper trail of who and when it was handled.

Answer 5

When evidence at a crime scene has been collected every time it transfers hands it has to be signed for who has it to ensure that it has been properly handled & not tampered with. There is a log that has to be signed in each transfer.

Answer 6

It's a paper trail showing that something was not tampered with. You will see it used with test samples and legal evidence most often.