Forensics

Forensics Has Become A Vital Part Of Court Procedures

Forensics is a collection of sciences used in a legal context to attempt to determine what happened at a certain scene. This is usually, but not always, a crime scene. This scientific ability to prove what happened at scenes which were not witnessed has been made possible through technological advances, from the development of fingerprinting to the analysis of DNA. Many criminal cases have been solved by the use of one or more branches of this science, and new advances are continuing to happen. It is important to realize, though, that this is no magic bullet, and that evidence can still be manipulated for nefarious purposes.

The development of forensic science has been gradual but continuous since the early years of the twentieth century, although there had been isolated incidents of what could be described as forensic science used in trials in previous centuries. Examples of this include the matching of newspaper found in a pistol with newspaper found on a murder suspect, the imprint of corduroy material in damp earth near to a murder scene, and even the earliest examples of fingerprinting.

The use of forensic science in a legal setting is now firmly established, following the successes of those early examples, and the developments which have taken place ever since. Fingerprinting has become especially significant as a way of determining beyond doubt that someone was in a certain place at a certain time. There is no doubt that many infamous crimes from the years before fingerprinting became commonplace, including the Jack The Ripper murders, would have been solved had this technology been available at the time.

This is not to say that forensic science is automatically immune to controversy. The exhibits which are tested still need to be transported to the laboratory in such a way as to avoid contamination taking place, either deliberately or inadvertently. It is not enough to convince a jury that a certain substance is on a certain piece of material when it is tested, you need to convince them of how it got there in the first place. Any time a piece of evidence is stored by the police with no independent witnesses, it opens up the possibility of questioning as to what happens to it while it is in police care.

The science of forensics and all its related branches is expanding constantly due to new technology. This is not just technology used in the science itself, but technology in general. For example, there is now a branch of forensic science which deals with digital media and the extraction of data from stored files. A similar discipline exists in the analysis of cell phones, to try to extract information from erased call lists and stored numbers. All of these branches are contained within the overall science of forensics.

 

 

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