44.493 Issues in Criminal Justice Technology & Security

home > unit 10: forensics

• What is forensics?
• How is technology changing the field
• Factors in development of forensic technology
• DNA testing
• Crime Scene Investigation technology

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What is forensics?
application of science to issues concerning the legal system.

How is technology changing the field?

Jeffreys' DNA "fingerprinting," introduced in 1985 to associate DNA found at a crime scene with an individual, was perhaps the most important single recent development in forensics. The science has benefited from advances in a number of fields, such as molecular biology. Major areas of forensics include:

• ballistics
• forensic pathology
• forensic anthropology
• crime scene investigation
• fingerprint evidence
• physical evidence
• demonstrative evidence
• digital evidence
• testimonial evidence
• behavioral evidence
• death investigation
• unsolved criimes
• expert witness

Factors in development of forensic technology:

• again, hampered by lack of research funding
• tends to benefit from advances in medicine and related sciences (such as Human Genome Project).
• as we saw in the historical section of the course, has also been driven by non-scientific factors, such as the court's decreasing reliance on confessions to prove guilt.

garbage collector arrested in Worthington murder based on DNA sample he gave two years ago.

"DNA evidence arguably has become the most well-known type of forensic evidence, probably because it can be uniquely identifying and because it is the genetic blueprint of the human body."

--"In the Spotlight: Forensic Science"

"DNA analysis is probably the most powerful investigative tool in law enforcement today. It is the perfect criminal justice system. Performed correctly, DNA analysis is impartial and infallible. It does not discriminate between good guys and bad. It ignores loopholes in the legal system, and persuasive arguments by the defense. It is exquisitely simple and unbelievably complicated. And in its brief tenure in the forensic sciences, it has incited more controversy, faced more legal challenges, and sparked more hope than any other technique in law enforcement history."

--"The Evolution and Development of Police Technology"

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