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Importance of Forensic Science in Personal Identification and Criminal Investigation

Forensic science plays an important role in criminal investigations and the legal system. It involves applying scientific knowledge from multiple disciplines like physics, chemistry, biology, and engineering to analyze evidence. Some key developments in forensic science history include the establishment of fingerprint analysis and DNA fingerprinting. Forensic analysis can identify individuals, establish connections between suspects and crimes, and determine the composition of substances like drugs, fibers, glass, and documents. Proper collection and analysis of evidence at crime scenes is crucial for reconstructing events and interpreting the facts of what occurred.

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Anna Marie Ventayen Miranda
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159 views

Importance of Forensic Science in Personal Identification and Criminal Investigation

Forensic science plays an important role in criminal investigations and the legal system. It involves applying scientific knowledge from multiple disciplines like physics, chemistry, biology, and engineering to analyze evidence. Some key developments in forensic science history include the establishment of fingerprint analysis and DNA fingerprinting. Forensic analysis can identify individuals, establish connections between suspects and crimes, and determine the composition of substances like drugs, fibers, glass, and documents. Proper collection and analysis of evidence at crime scenes is crucial for reconstructing events and interpreting the facts of what occurred.

Uploaded by

Anna Marie Ventayen Miranda
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Module 1

IMPORTANCE OF FORENSIC SCIENCE IN PERSONAL IDENTIFICATION AND CRIMINAL


INVESTIGATION

Introduction
In most countries the detection of crime is the responsibility of the police, though special
law enforcement agencies may be responsible for the discovery of particular types of crime.
Crime detection falls into three distinguishable phases: the discovery that a crime has been
committed, the identification of a suspect, and the collection of sufficient evidence to indict the
suspect before a court. Certain crimes in particular thus not have any witness, or those in which
there may be no identifiable victim, such as obscenity are often not discovered unless the police
take active steps to determine whether they have been committed. To detect such crimes,
therefore, special methods are sometimes required.
Learning Objectives
At the end of this module the students should be able to:
1. Define forensic science
2. Identify the history of forensic science
3. Describe the role of forensic science
4. Identify the scope of forensic science
5. Explain the importance of forensic science

Forensic science
Forensic Science defines it as “The application of science to those criminal and civil laws
that are enforced by the police agencies in a criminal justice system”. Forensic Science deals
with the application of the knowledge and methodology of various disciplines of science to legal
matters. It involves the use of multiple disciplines such as physics, chemistry, biology, computer
science and engineering for evidence analysis. For instance, physics is used to understand the
pattern of a blood spatter, biology to establish the source of an unidentified suspect and
chemistry to determine the composition of drugs. Thus, the role of forensic science in criminal
justice and the legal system is highly critical but is often underrated.
History of Forensic Science
 Mathieu Orfila (1787 – 1853): Considered as the Father of Toxicology.

 Alphonse Bertillon (1853 – 1914): Established the first scientific system of personal
identification by a series of bodily measurements. It was later replaced by fingerprints in
the early 1900s.

 Francis Galton (1833 – 1911): First to study fingerprints and classify them for filing.

 Leone Lattes (1887 – 1954): Discovered that blood can be categorized into four groups.
 Calvin Goddard (1891 – 1955): Determined the comparison of bullets in guns –
Ballistics.

 Albert S. Osborn (1858 – 1946): Developed principles of document examination.

 Walter C. McCrone (1916 – 2002): Developed advances in microscopic techniques to


solve crimes and analyze evidence.

 Hans Gross (1847 – 1915): Studied and developed principles of criminal investigation.

 Edmond Locard (1877 – 1966): Had a background in medicine and law, and was the first
one to use scientific methods for criminal investigation.

The Role of Forensic Science


Forensic science plays an important role in the investigation of serious crimes. One of
the first significant achievements in the field was the development of techniques for identifying
individuals by their fingerprints. In the 19th century, it was discovered that almost any contact
between a finger and a fixed surface left a latent mark that could be made visible by a variety of
procedures (e.g., the use of a fine powder). In 1894 in England the Troup Committee, a group
established by the Home Secretary to determine the best means of personal identification,
accepted that no two individuals had the same fingerprints a proposition that has never been
seriously refuted. In 1900 another committee recommended the use of fingerprints for criminal
identification. Fingerprint evidence was first accepted in an Argentine court in the 1890s and in
an English court in 1902. Many other countries soon adopted systems of fingerprint
identification as well.

A broad range of other scientific techniques are available to law enforcement agencies
attempting to identify suspects or establish beyond doubt the connection between a suspect and
a crime. Since becoming reliably available in the late 1980s, DNA fingerprinting of biological
evidence (e.g., hair, sperm, and blood) can exclude a suspect absolutely or establish guilt with a
very high degree of probability. Many other substances, such as fibres, paper, glass, and paint,
can yield considerable information under microscopic or chemical analysis. Fibres discovered
on the victim or at the scene of the crime can be tested to determine whether they are similar to
those in the clothing of the suspect. Documents can be revealed as forgeries on the evidence
that the paper on which they were written was manufactured by a technique not available at the
time to which it allegedly dates. The refractive index of even small particles of glass may be
measured to show that a given item or fragment of glass was part of a particular batch
manufactured at a particular time and place. Computer networks allow investigators to search
increasingly large bodies of data on material samples, though the creation of such databases is
time-consuming and costly.

The role of forensic science services starts at the crime scene with the recognition and
recovery of physical evidence. It proceeds with its analysis and the evaluation of the results in a
laboratory, and the presentation of the findings to judges, prosecutors, lawyers and others in
need of the factual information. From the first responders to the end-users of the information, all
personnel involved should have an adequate understanding of the forensic process, the
scientific disciplines and the specialized services provided by forensic laboratories.

Every incident, be it a crime, accident, natural disaster, armed conflict, or other, leaves
traces at the scene. The goal of the subsequent investigation is to correctly interpret the facts,
reconstruct the events and understand what happened.

Due to the transient and fragile nature of those traces, their reliability and the
preservation of their physical integrity depend to a very large extent on initial actions at the
scene of the incident. Evidence integrity can be achieved with very limited means by observing
a key set of guiding principles. Acting with care and professionalism throughout the crime scene
investigation process is critical for the admissibility of evidence for court purposes as well as for
human rights inquiries and humanitarian action.

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