Search Strategy
Definition
A structured plan for covering ground systematically so that the probability of detection is known and the absence of a find means something.
- Purpose
- Systematic ground coverage plan
- Key output
- Known probability of detection
- Value of a negative
- Absence of a find becomes meaningful evidence
- Domain
- Forensic archaeology and search management
Common questions
Why does an unstructured search fail to produce meaningful evidence when nothing is found?+
Without a systematic method, no one can say how thoroughly the ground was actually covered, so a negative result could mean the target genuinely is not there or simply that the searchers missed it, and a court cannot distinguish between those two possibilities.
How does terrain or vegetation change which search strategy is chosen?+
Dense vegetation, difficult terrain, or water bodies reduce the reliable detection distance for visual search, pushing practitioners toward tighter grid spacing, specialist tools such as ground-penetrating radar or cadaver dogs, or a combination of methods to keep the probability of detection acceptable.
What role does probability of detection play once a search strategy has been executed?+
The calculated or estimated probability of detection for the method used quantifies how confident the investigator can be in a negative result, and that figure, not just the fact that a search happened, is what gets reported and can be tested in court.
Related terms
- Geophysical Survey
- Non-invasive subsurface imaging using physical contrasts such as radar reflection, magnetic variation, or electrical resistance.
- Remote Sensing
- Locating features from a distance using aerial imagery, satellite data, or airborne LiDAR, before anyone sets foot on the ground.
- Single-Context Recording
- Recording and removing each deposit as its own discrete unit, so the formation sequence of the scene can be reconstructed afterwards.
- Stratigraphy
- The layered record of deposits. In a grave, the cut, the fill, and the body each form contexts that must be read...
- Total Station
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