Explaining Forensics

Britteney C. Duncan CJS/215: Introduction To Forensics Prof. Jim Anderson November 26, 2019 Explaining Forensics Describe the evolution of forensic sciences over time, including the role of key pioneers. Some of the earliest reports of forensics being utilized comes from a case in China that happened within the third century. Information and knowledge about the human anatomy and body weren’t really something that was actually explored until a few centuries down the road. In the late 1700’s is when scientists and chemists began taking more steps towards finding ways to look further into deaths of individuals. For example, Carl Wilhelm Scheele did the first successful testing to detect poison arsenic within dead bodies. This was considered a major breakthrough within chemistry at the time as this was something that was not looked into or explored before. During the mid-1850’s is when photography became introduced into the forensics to be able to document and keep photos of any crime scenes that may have been needed to be kept for investigation purposes. There was a key pioneer in the early 1900s but the name of Albert S. Osborn who worked in examining documents and eventually ended up writing an extremely important book by the name of Questioned Documents, which is still to this day used as a vital resource for examiners. Differentiate 2-3 of the 11 forensic science disciplines outlined in this weeks reading used to aid law enforcement officials in conducting their investigations. (Provide examples of their scope of work and the role it plays in criminal investigations). One of the disciplines is Odontology which is the study of teeth. The study of teeth is incredibly important when it comes to things like identifying remains of human bodies but also assist with identifying bites on individuals left behind by victims of assaults or murders where the victim may have been biting to fight for their life. For example, if there were a body that were badly decomposed that were found and there was no way to be able to tell the victim by their face or other identifiers of any missing persons, these individuals that work in this area are there to use dental records and comparisons of x-rays to assist in identifying the badly decomposed person to hopefully identify the person. Another important discipline within the forensic science area is the Toxicology area. This particular area is there to essentially determine whether or not an induvial had ingested or taken something that is poisonous and harmful to their bodies. For example, if someone is found deceased and there is for some reason suspect of foul play, it is very possibly they could do a toxicology report which could result in finding that the body may have been poisoned by a substance resulting in finding the cause of death for the individual. Explain how forensic science is used in the criminal justice system. Forensic Science in the criminal justice system plays an incredibly vital role. Within the criminal justice system there are many times that crimes and cases cannot be solved unless there is scientific research done to get further analysis. The criminal justice system would struggle daily if they weren’t able to test crime scenes for fingerprints, test bodies for poisonings, examine weapons and bullet casings for blood and many more things. These things aren’t there to just assist with finding out more information about crimes or to link an individual to a crime, but it is also utilized as evidence to be sure that someone serves and does time for whatever hanus crime may have been committed that there happened to have been DNA left behind at or even just there to help identify a persons body that had gone missing and possibly decomposed. If forensic science weren’t within the criminal justice system, it would be difficult to be able to prove any case or identify any body. Without the utilization of this, we would have millions of unsolved criminal cases all across the world and people getting away with vicious crimes. References Forensic Science Plays a Pivotal Role in the Legal System(n.d.). Retrieved from https://ifflab.org/the-importance-of-forensic-science-in-criminal-investigations-and-justice/ Forensic Odontology(n.d.). Retrieved from http://aboutforensics.co.uk/forensic-odontology/ Smith, Y. (2018). What is Toxicology. Retrieved from https://www.news-medical.net/health/What-is-Toxicology.aspx