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Role of Physics in Forensic Science: Bridging Law and Science

Dive into the intersection of physics and forensic science, where the tiniest evidences meet the most fundamental laws of the universe to solve complex crimes and bring justice.

Cracking Cases with the Laws of Motion: The Forensic Physicist’s Toolkit

In the intricate dance of crime and investigation, the spotlight often falls on the dramatic— the chase, the capture, and the courtroom battles. But behind the scenes, a less visible yet crucial player weaves through the evidence with the precision of a ballet dancer: forensic physics. This field, a fascinating blend of motion, matter, and justice, is the backbone of forensic science, making the invisible visible and the impossible possible.

Dive into the intersection of physics and forensic science, where the tiniest evidences meet the most fundamental laws of the universe to solve complex crimes and bring justice. simplyforensics

Physics in Forensic Science: An Unseen Force Behind the Scenes

Introduction.

Forensic science, the beacon of truth in the murky waters of criminal investigations, has long captivated the public imagination. It’s a field where science and law converge to unravel mysteries, pinpoint culprits, and exonerate the innocent. Amidst the wide array of forensic science disciplines, physics is pivotal, wielding the laws of nature to dissect the minutiae of crime scenes and evidence.

At first glance, the connection between physics and forensic science may not be immediately apparent. Yet, upon closer examination, it becomes clear that the principles governing the physical world are integral to understanding the dynamics of a crime. Physics, with its exploration of matter, energy, motion, and force, is the foundation upon which forensic investigations build their analyses. From reconstructing crime scenes to examining the trajectory of a bullet or the origin of an explosive blast, applying physics principles allows forensic experts to piece together events with scientific precision.

Integrating physics into forensic science transforms seemingly insurmountable mysteries into solvable puzzles. By applying concepts such as optics to enhance latent fingerprints Fingerprint, impression made by the papillary ridges on the ends of the fingers and thumbs. Fingerprints afford an infallible means of personal identification, because the ridge arrangement on every finger of every human being is unique... , ballistics to trace firearms, or fluid dynamics to analyze blood spatter patterns, forensic physicists provide the insights needed to navigate the complex pathways of criminal investigations. These applications do not merely supplement the investigative process; they are often central to unlocking the truth hidden within the evidence.

Moreover, the role of physics in forensic science is not static; it evolves with technological advancements and new challenges within the criminal justice field. The relentless pace of innovation opens new frontiers for forensic physics, expanding its capabilities and refining its accuracy. As such, forensic physics stands as a testament to the power of applying fundamental scientific principles to serve the cause of justice.

As we delve deeper into the realms where law meets science, the significance of forensic physics becomes ever more apparent. It’s a discipline that underscores the importance of meticulous analysis, creative problem-solving, and the relentless pursuit of truth. Through the lens of physics, forensic scientists interpret the evidence before them and contribute to a broader understanding of the events that transpire within the tapestry of human actions and interactions. Thus, the fusion of physics and forensic science enriches our approach to solving crimes and reinforces our commitment to upholding justice with the rigor and precision that science affords.

The Pivotal Role of Physics in Forensic Investigations

Uncovering the invisible.

In the realm of forensic science, the invisible often holds the key to unlocking the mysteries of a crime. Forensic physicists harness physics principles to bring these invisible clues into the light. Through the application of ray optics and laser technology, for instance, they can detect and enhance latent fingerprints. This feat turns mere smudges into definitive evidence capable of linking suspects to crime scenes. Similarly, trace evidence such as hair, fibers, or skin cells—practically invisible to the naked eye—can be analyzed and compared with remarkable precision. This microscopic analysis, grounded in the fundamental principles of physics, enables forensic experts to weave together the narrative of a crime from the smallest strands of evidence.

Beyond the Microscope

The contributions of physics to forensic science extend well beyond the microscopic scale. The field employs an array of sophisticated technologies, each relying on physics principles to function effectively. For instance, mass spectrometry, a technique used to identify the chemical composition of a substance, operates on the principles of ionization and magnetic field separation. This technology can reveal the composition of unknown substances, from drugs to explosive residues, offering invaluable insights into the materials involved in a crime. Additionally, the electron microscope provides a window into the ultra-structural details of materials, allowing forensic experts to identify the origins of evidence with astonishing accuracy. Through these advanced instruments, forensic physics provides a deeper understanding of evidence, enabling precise and conclusive analyses that underpin the investigative process.

Diving Deeper: Specialized Applications of Physics in Forensics

The mechanics of crime scene reconstruction.

Crime scene reconstruction is a complex puzzle that forensic physicists help to solve by applying the laws of motion and mechanics. When a crime involves a moving vehicle, for example, principles of kinematics and dynamics are employed to estimate speeds, directions, and points of impact. This analysis can be critical in cases of hit-and-run incidents or when determining the dynamics of a crime scene involving multiple moving elements. Similarly, in cases involving firearms, ballistic physics is used to determine the trajectory of bullets, the angle of shots, and the potential origins of gunfire. These reconstructions rely heavily on projectile motion and momentum principles, offering clarity and insight into the events that transpired at the crime scene.

The Chemistry of Fire and Explosion Investigation

Forensic physicists collaborate closely with chemists in incidents involving fires or explosions to decipher the sequence of events leading to the incident. Investigating such cases often requires an understanding of thermodynamics and the combustion process. By analyzing burn patterns, residue compositions, and the distribution of debris, forensic experts can hypothesize the origin and cause of a fire or explosion. This interplay between physics and chemistry is pivotal in uncovering the nature of the incident, whether it was accidental or deliberate, thereby guiding the direction of the criminal investigation.

The Instruments of Justice: Tools and Technologies

Forensic physics is synonymous with precision, relying on various scientific instruments to analyze evidence. Optical spectrometers, for instance, allow forensic experts to determine the elemental composition of materials by analyzing the light spectrum emitted or absorbed by a substance. This technique can identify trace elements present in evidence, offering clues about its origin. X-ray fluorescence (XRF) provides another non-destructive means to examine the elemental makeup of evidence, crucial for preserving the integrity of samples. Through these and other sophisticated tools, forensic physics bridges the gap between abstract scientific principles and their practical application in solving crimes.

Forensic Physics in Action: Case Studies

Delving into case studies illuminates the transformative power of forensic physics in unraveling complex criminal puzzles. Consider, for instance, a scenario where forensic experts employ ballistic physics to solve a crime involving a shooting. By analyzing the bullet trajectory, impact angles, and the type of firearm used, experts can piece together a narrative that points to the shooter’s location, the number of shots fired, and potentially the shooter’s identity. Such analysis not only hinges on understanding projectile motion and impact dynamics but also requires a meticulous application of forensic principles to ensure accuracy and reliability in court.

Another compelling application of forensic physics is the analysis of accident scenes. By reconstructing vehicular collisions, forensic physicists can determine factors such as speed, direction, and the sequence of events leading up to the accident. This is achieved by applying principles of momentum, energy conservation, and material science to interpret skid marks, vehicle deformations, and the distribution of debris. These reconstructions are pivotal in legal proceedings, offering objective insights to ascertain liability and intent.

Building a Career in Forensic Physics

Education and skills.

Pursuing a career in forensic physics entails a rigorous academic journey underscored by a strong foundation in the physical sciences. Prospective forensic physicists typically embark on this path by obtaining a degree in physics or a related field, followed by specialized training in forensic science. This education equips them with a deep understanding of scientific principles and their practical applications in forensic contexts.

Beyond academic qualifications, a forensic physicist must possess a keen analytical mind, exceptional problem-solving skills, and meticulous attention to detail. Communicating complex scientific concepts in a clear and understandable manner is also crucial, as forensic physicists often present their findings to audiences without a scientific background, including law enforcement personnel, legal professionals, and jurors.

Challenges and Rewards

The path of a forensic physicist is fraught with challenges, from the pressure of solving high-stakes cases to the complexities of translating scientific evidence into legal testimony. Yet, the rewards of this profession are profound. Forensic physicists play an instrumental role in the pursuit of justice, using their expertise to uncover the truth behind criminal acts and to resolve cases that impact individuals and communities. The satisfaction of solving intricate puzzles and making a tangible difference in the legal system offers a unique and fulfilling career experience.

This section addresses some frequently asked questions about forensic physics, shedding light on common queries and misconceptions:

When applied correctly, forensic physics offers a high degree of accuracy. However, the certainty of conclusions drawn from forensic analysis can vary depending on the quality and quantity of evidence available.

Forensic physicists analyze various physical evidence, including ballistic trajectories, blood spatter patterns, materials (such as glass or soil), and electronic devices.

While forensic physics can provide insights into the timing of certain events (e.g., the sequence of shots fired), determining the exact time of a crime often requires a combination of evidence and scientific disciplines.

Wrap-Up: The Future of Forensic Physics

The field of forensic physics is on the cusp of a new era, propelled by advancements in technology and a growing recognition of the value of scientific analysis in legal contexts. As research continues to refine the tools and techniques at the disposal of forensic physicists, the potential for solving crimes and administering justice grows ever more profound. Looking ahead, the integration of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning promises to enhance the precision and efficiency of forensic investigations, opening new frontiers in the quest to uncover the truth.

With its unique blend of scientific rigor and investigative acumen, forensic physics is a cornerstone of modern forensic science. Its contributions illuminate the facts of individual cases and reinforce the foundations of justice, ensuring that the scales are balanced with the weight of empirical evidence and scientific insight.

Innovating for the Future: The Next Frontier in Forensic Physics

The relentless pace of technological advancement heralds a new chapter in forensic physics, promising tools and techniques that are more sophisticated, accurate, and faster than ever before. Innovations in imaging and sensor technology, for example, are set to revolutionize how forensic experts visualize and analyze crime scenes, enabling the reconstruction of events with unprecedented clarity and detail. Similarly, molecular and materials science advancements could further refine the trace evidence analysis, making it possible to draw more definitive conclusions from smaller samples.

Moreover, integrating artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning into forensic physics presents exciting possibilities. These technologies can assist in pattern recognition, predictive modeling, and the analysis of vast datasets, streamlining the investigative process and uncovering insights that might otherwise remain hidden. As these digital tools evolve, they will not only augment the capabilities of forensic physicists but also enhance the overall efficiency and effectiveness of forensic investigations.

Ethical Considerations and the Path Forward

As we venture into this new era of forensic science, it’s imperative to navigate the ethical implications of these advancements. Integrating AI and other emerging technologies into forensic physics raises important questions about privacy, data security, and the potential for bias in automated analyses. Ensuring that these tools are used responsibly and transparently is crucial to maintaining public trust in the forensic science community and the criminal justice system at large.

Furthermore, the increasing complexity of forensic technologies underscores the need for ongoing education and training within the forensic community. As forensic physics continues to evolve, practitioners must stay abreast of the latest developments to apply these innovations effectively and ethically in their work.

The Enduring Legacy of Physics in Forensic Science

At its core, forensic physics embodies the confluence of scientific inquiry and the quest for justice. The discipline’s contributions to forensic science extend beyond the technicalities of evidence analysis, reflecting a deeper commitment to uncovering the truth and upholding the principles of fairness and accountability. As we look to the future, the legacy of forensic physics will undoubtedly be characterized by its adaptability, innovation, and unwavering dedication to serving the cause of justice.

In conclusion, the journey of forensic physics from its foundational principles to the cutting-edge technologies of today represents the relentless pursuit of truth through science. As we embrace tomorrow’s advancements, forensic physics will continue to stand as a beacon of integrity and precision in the complex landscape of criminal investigation. The path forward is one of promise and potential, guided by the light of scientific discovery and the enduring quest for justice.

Forensic Analyst by Profession. With Simplyforensic.com striving to provide a one-stop-all-in-one platform with accessible, reliable, and media-rich content related to forensic science. Education background in B.Sc.Biotechnology and Master of Science in forensic science.

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Essentials of Forensic Physics

• First Online: 29 October 2023

Cite this chapter

• Abhimanyu Harshey 6 ,
• Tanurup Das 7 ,
• Vindresh Mishra 8 ,
• Ritesh K. Shukla 9 &
• Ankit Srivastava 7  

453 Accesses

Forensic Physics is the branch of Criminalistics that utilizes the principles of physics and lays the foundation for the analysis of physical evidences. Scientific examination of physical evidence provides the information of investigative significance. Glass, soil, paint, fiber, tool marks, serial numbers, etc., are the most common types of physical evidences that are often encountered at various types of scenes of occurrence. Investigation and adequate interpretation of the analytical results ensure the way fair justice. In the connection with the interpretation of results, the role of statistics and standards has been discussed also. This chapter is dedicated to the forensic analytical perspective of the different physical evidence, namely, glass, soil, paint, fiber, tool marks, and serial numbers. For the ease of understanding and complexities of the subject, scientific fundamentals and principles have also been discussed. Analytical procedures for the forensic examination of physical evidence are discussed in consonance with the current research trends.

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Department of Anthropology, Lucknow University, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India

Abhimanyu Harshey

School of Forensic Sciences, The West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata, West Bengal, India

Tanurup Das & Ankit Srivastava

Central Forensic Science Laboratory, Kolkata, India

Vindresh Mishra

Department of Biological and Life Sciences, Ahmedabad University, Ahmedabad, India

Ritesh K. Shukla

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Harshey, A., Das, T., Mishra, V., Shukla, R.K., Srivastava, A. (2023). Essentials of Forensic Physics. In: Shrivastava, P., Lorente, J.A., Srivastava, A., Badiye, A., Kapoor, N. (eds) Textbook of Forensic Science . Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-1377-0_14

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Forensic Physics : A Complete Overview

What is forensic physics.

Forensic Physics Deals With The Examination Of :

• Computer & Mobile Forensics (Digital Forensics),
• Audio & Video Processing,
• Image Processing,
• And Physical Evidences Etc.

What does Forensic Physics examine?

• Resistivity
• Refractive Index
• Temperature
• Luminescence
• Composition Of Various Physical Evidences.

What does Forensic Physics Include?

The Forensic Physics Comprises Of :

• Basic Physics,
• Electronics,
• Ballistics ,
• Trace Analysis,
• Accident Reconstruction,
• Elements Of Photography,
• And Study Of Various Instruments Used In Investigation And Analysis Of Evidences.

Which Type Of Physical Evidences Are Examined In Forensic Physics?

• Glass – For example: Any window, Glass door, Glass bottle, Watch, Spectacles
• Fibers- These are mainly divided into two types: Natural fibers, Artificial fibers
• Metallic Pieces
• Obliterated Marks, etc.

What is the Major Part of Forensic Physics?

Another major part of Forensic Physics is Forensic Ballistics in which is study of the flight path of projectiles and firearms.

What does a Forensic Physicist Do?

Forensic Physicists examine the physical evidence gathered at crime scenes to help determine the nature of a crime and if there is any evidence indicating who committed it.

How is Physics used in Forensics?

This scientific technique involves using infrared photons to determine a particle’s vibrational mode. Since different substances have unique vibrations, forensic scientists can use this information to analyze crime scene evidence.

What is the Purpose of Forensic Physics in Crime Scene Investigation?

• The Measurement Of Density (Soil And Glass Examination)
• Index Of Refraction, and Birefringence (Fiber Analysis, Glass Examination)
• Restoration of Vehicle Identification Number.
• Building Material Analysis.
• The Analog And Digital Electronics (Cyber Crime).

In What Type of Crime is Forensic Physics Used?

• Cases of Accidents,
• Firearm and Bullets Profile Analysis (Projectile Motion of a Firearm),
• Glass Penetration of Speedy Stone,
• Bullet or Tool Case Be Analyzed Using Physics,
• Fire, Arson and Explosion Investigation,
• Materials Identification (Fake Jewellery Etc.).
• Software-based Imaging Methods For Facial Reconstruction , Etc.
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Easy physics, subtle applications

Event reconstruction, reliable testimony, science out the window, physicists in forensics.

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Toni Feder; Physicists in forensics. Physics Today 1 March 2009; 62 (3): 20–22. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3099569

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A young woman was found at the bottom of a cliff in Sydney, Australia, in June 1995. The site was a popular suicide spot, and the police assumed she had killed herself. But last November the woman’s boyfriend was convicted of murder. “It took 10 years to figure out that the woman was thrown off the cliff; she did not jump,” says Rod Cross, a physicist at the University of Sydney who served as a consultant for the case. It took that long, he adds, “mainly because the police did not understand that physics could help solve the problem.”

Cross got into forensics by chance—he volunteered when the coroner called his department with a question. The same was true for Mark Semon of Bates College in Maine: As a new hire in that campus’s physics department in the 1970s, he often answered the phone. “There were four of us in the department, and we had no secretary. All of us were on the same phone line—someone picked up and then buzzed whoever [the call] was for. One day it was a district attorney who asked if something [specific] could happen in an accident where the cars were traveling in adjoining lanes. I said, ‘No, it violates conservation of momentum,’ and she asked if I could come in to testify.”

Since then, Semon has consulted on collision cases ranging from a car hitting a bull (claiming damages for his prize animal, the farmer sued and won) to a train plowing into a car (relatives of the car’s driver sued the train company, claiming the train had been speeding; they won). “The main thing I’ve discovered,” says Semon, “is that I can’t use words like ‘uncertainty’ because the attorney on the other side says, ‘Oh, you are uncertain.’ So I settled on ‘margin of error.’”

Consulting in forensics has enriched his teaching, Semon says. “I have found these cases to be great things to use in class. For example, it’s fascinating to learn how a train brakes—each car brakes sequentially, it’s a step function. I see students’ interest click when I bring in real-life cases.” Adds Thomas Bohan, founder and CEO of MTC Forensics, a technical forensics consulting business based in Maine, “Basically, we are trying to find out what happened in a crime or accident and why, which often comes down to determining who was responsible for someone’s injury. We look in much more detail than you ever would if you were just teaching an elementary physics course.” After earning a PhD in physics, Bohan went back for a law degree, and in 1982 he started his consulting business, through which he handles cases involving everything from auto accidents and gun crimes—including bullet trajectories and firing mechanisms—to fires, oil spills, and product liability.

The physics tends to be straightforward—Newton’s laws, thermodynamics, friction, and the like—although, says Bohan, “sometimes the application of these requires some subtlety.” Involvement in a civil or criminal case typically starts with a phone call from a lawyer, police officer, coroner, insurance agent, or local or state government representative. Less often, calls come from a plaintiff or from a relative who believes a death was not an accident.

Consultants get police reports, witness statements, medical records, and photos, among other data. Another data source is the black boxes in cars. “Event data recorder information can be crucial to the forensic analysis,” says Peter Alexander, a physicist at Raymond P. Smith and Associates, an accident forensics analysis company near Denver, Colorado, “but the EDR data can lie.” As examples, he notes that EDRs have given impossible impact speeds, and have been known to report that the seatbelt was not buckled, yet photos show a dead victim with the seatbelt on.

In motor vehicle crashes, says Bohan, “you look at coefficients of friction, how tires slide on the road when a car goes around a corner too fast. If there was an abrupt large acceleration at impact, the filaments of the lights—brake lights, tail lights, or turn-signal lights—may deform.” If a light is on at impact, the filament may stretch, which is known as “hot shock.” If the light is off, the filament may break—“cold shock.” Filaments can provide crucial information, says Bohan.

“I look at the situation and see what the data is telling me,” adds Dale Syphers, a physicist at Bowdoin College in Maine. “Sometimes I go straight to the site. I look at the debris fields, marks on the road, gouges in the road. There are all kinds of little things you pick up.” In one case, he says, “a sheriff got a call about a four-year-old who was out of control. [The sheriff] sped to the house at something like 80 miles per hour. Another car made a left-hand turn, and the sheriff impacted the side in a T-bone and two young adults died. There was a very public trial, and eventually she was acquitted of negligent homicide.” Syphers was asked by the attorney general’s office to estimate the sheriff’s speed. “It turned out that after the collision, [the sheriff’s car] bounced up and down, leaving a series of brief skid marks. The bouncing is related to springs in the front suspension. As a physicist, I could look at [the data] and get more out of it.” More, that is, than the state police or others who are trained in accident reconstruction but don’t have a physics background, he adds. “They can only deal with a narrow range of situations. They can’t look at something and figure out, using dynamics, kinematics, and Newton’s laws, what exactly was going on.” Syphers consults on around seven cases a year. “On a technical level they are fascinating, but one reason I don’t do more is that I find them draining.”

Bohan, author of Crashes and Collapses: Essentials of Forensic Science (Facts on File, due out this month), says, “My strongest interest is in establishing greater reliability for testimony in court and in the forensic conclusions on which litigation and prosecution are based. I’ve heard testimony from people who have fine credentials, whose statements don’t pass the laugh test and yet have prolonged litigation for years. There is no way you can correct the damage that does.” Adds Alexander, “Experts sometimes bring junk science into court with regards to auto reconstruction. The opposition gets ‘expert testimony’ to say the forces in a collision were benign—like flopping on an easy chair.”

Bohan, Alexander, and others want the Supreme Court’s 1993 Daubert ruling—that evidence be reliable—to be rigorously applied at trial. “That means the analysis procedure used is generally accepted in the field, testable, and has a quantifiable error,” says Alexander. That aim may get a boost from the National Academy of Sciences, which at press time was planning a mid-February release of its report on the assessment of forensic techniques used in court proceedings. “I think the NAS report will constitute the dynamite needed to break down the wall preventing long-needed inquiries into the validity and error rates of a number of forensic techniques,” says Bohan, listing infanticide inferred from retinal hemorrhages, fingerprinting, handwriting analysis, and aspects of arson investigations as examples. The reason for the wall, he adds, “is that people who practice the techniques don’t want them to be examined.”

Still, the NAS report is broad, says Bohan, and as this year’s president of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, “I will push hard to have specific forensics techniques reviewed for reliability by an objective body such as the NAS so we can expel incompetent theories early in the legal process. One approach is to require expert witnesses to provide detailed written reports that can be peer reviewed.”

“What I’ve learned,” says Boise State University physicist Richard Reimann, “is that when you talk about injuries to children, science goes out the window, and emotions take over.” He adds that “equations mean nothing to the general public, so now I am at the stage where it’s got to be graphs or demonstrations.” Typically, Reimann gets called to determine whether a baby was shaken or hit, or whether an injury or death might have been from a fall. He recalls his first case, about a decade ago, when “a lawyer came walking into our offices looking for someone who could help him with head injuries. I reluctantly agreed to take a look.” In that case a man reportedly woke up when he heard some thuds. He found the 11-month-old son of his girlfriend at the bottom of the stairway with a serious head injury. “The prosecutor’s case was that the boyfriend hadn’t been as quick [to call 911] as he said and that the injury couldn’t have occurred by falling down the stairs—it had to have been some violent act like holding him by his ankles and swinging him against the bathtub.”

But by Reimann’s calculations, “even if a child were to topple over and hit his head on the floor, a skull fracture or brain injury was possible.” And what really stuck with him, Reimann adds, “was the idea that the child had a low temperature when they took him to the hospital. I was able to get a couple of data points and to extrapolate back with Newton’s law of cooling. It looked right spot on that the event could have happened five minutes before his call, whereas the prosecutor had it maybe an hour before.” The judge threw Reimann’s testimony out “because I was not a medical doctor,” Reimann says. The man was convicted of murder in the first degree and sentenced to life without parole.

On other occasions, Reimann’s testimony has helped the accused. In one case, “apparently one child was trying to take candy from an older child. He grabbed at it and fell over backwards. It didn’t kill him, but he was injured. Authorities assumed the father did something violent, in spite of the fact that other adults were there.” Reimann wrote to a local public defender explaining how to distinguish between injuries from shaking a baby and injuries from a head impact. Shaking is generally assumed when the retina has hemorrhaged, “but the medical community needs to look beyond that. If it was shaking, other organs would also be damaged,” he says. “Ultimately, it’s a physics or engineering issue,” adds Bohan. “Is it possible to kill a baby just by shaking, without any evidence other than hemorrhages and subdural hematomas? No.” Based partly on his letter, says Reimann, the father was let out of jail.

As for the cliff death in Australia, Cross determined that given the short run-up distance available, the victim could not have propelled herself as far from the cliff as she landed. The cliff is 30 meters high, and she was found almost 12 meters out. Cross did experiments with volunteers from a police academy, in which he measured how fast an average woman could run, jump, and dive. He also measured launch speeds by having men throw women into a swimming pool. “I tested a bunch of females, on flat surfaces, running uphill…. I spent a couple of years doing experiments—I did about 20 different experiments with 13 women,” says Cross. “I worked out that she had to have been thrown.”

With strobe images of a rake handle hitting ordinary and safety glasses, forensics consultant Tom Bohan measured the speed at impact and showed that “the same significant whack” that broke a non-safety lens left a safety lens intact. That finding led to a settlement for a man who lost his eye when he stepped on a rake’s tines wearing ordinary glasses that were sold to him as safety glasses.

This cliff in Sydney, Australia, was the site of model Carolyn Byrne’s 1995 death. A physicist’s measurements and calculations helped convict Byrne’s boyfriend of murder.

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How is physics involved in forensic science?

Reconstruction of crime scene is a vital application of Physics in forensic science as the cases are belongs to accidents, suicide or homicide, fall of a body from height, projectile motion of a firearm, glass penetration of speedy stone, bullet or tool case be analyzed using physics [3].

How is physics used in crime investigations?

In conclusion, physics has a wide range of applications within CSI. Two of the major areas in which it is used extensively are blood spatter and bullet trajectory analysis, both of which play a crucial role in gathering information and solving crimes. Blood samples often play a critical role in forensic science.

What 3 main sciences are used in forensic science?

Forensic toxicologists focus on one of three main areas: Post-mortem toxicology: helping to identify the cause or manner of death. Human performance toxicology: to determine impairment during a crime. Forensic drug testing: used in the workplace, athletics, and probation/parole.

What are the 3 most important tools in forensic sciences?

• AUTOMATED FINGERPRINT IDENTIFICATION.
• LINK ANALYSIS SOFTWARE.
• DRUG TESTING.
• FIRE TECHNOLOGY.
• 3D SCANNER.
• HIGH-POWERED MICROSCOPES.
• HIGH-SPEED BALLISTICS PHOTOGRAPHY.

Do you need physics for forensic science?

Courses such as Electricity and Magnetism, and Forensic Physics will help you understand forensic materials analysis as well as the mechanics of bloodstain patterns and vehicle collision investigations.

What is used extensively in forensic science?

Forensic science is a broad field that includes; DNA analysis, fingerprint analysis, blood stain pattern analysis, firearms examination and ballistics, tool mark analysis, serology, toxicology, hair and fiber analysis, entomology, questioned documents, anthropology, odontology, pathology, epidemiology, footwear and …

How does forensic science relate to biology?

Forensic Biology is the application of concepts and procedures used in the biological sciences, typically in a medico-legal context. Forensic biologists analyze cellular and tissue samples, as well as physiological fluids that are relevant to a legal investigation.

How can I be a forensic scientist?

• under pressure of work.
• in distressing situation such as at the scene of a murder.
• under cross-examination.

Is forensic science a technology?

3.2 Technology in Forensic Science Several technologies are used in different fields of forensic science to conduct investigations and examine the evidence. Among them include: scanning electron microscopy, DNA fingerprinting, alternative light photography, facial reconstruction and LA-ICP-MS.

What is the most important part of forensic science?

Consequently, the crime scene is the most important area of forensic science.

What type of science is forensic science?

Forensic science is the use of scientific methods or expertise to investigate crimes or examine evidence that might be presented in a court of law. Forensic science comprises a diverse array of disciplines, from fingerprint and DNA analysis to anthropology and wildlife forensics.

What are the two main pillars of forensic science?

The two main pillars of forensic science are that: It is multi-professional. During the utilization of forensic science, for the proper dissemination of the justice, the forensic scientist has to depend upon investigating officer, on one hand and on the presenting counsel and the judge on other hand.

Can fingerprints be aged?

No, fingerprints do not change over time, but there is a catch: they do not change as we grow old, but they can be affected by certain external conditions.

What is the most reliable forensic evidence?

The Report, written by the US President’s Science and Technology advisors (PCAST), concludes that DNA analysis is the only forensic technique that is absolutely reliable.

How has technology improved forensic science?

From collection of evidence at crime scenes to presentation of analyzed results in courtrooms, forensic technology has improved the quality and accuracy of criminal investigations. Forensic techniques include latent fingerprint examination, controlled substance identification and DNA analysis.

Can I become a forensic scientist with a physics degree?

Forensic Scientist Education Requirements Whatever field of forensic science you choose to specialize in, you must first complete at least a bachelor’s degree. Natural science majors, such as chemistry, biology and physics, are the usual prerequisites for starting a career in this field.

What subjects are required for forensic science?

• Crime and Investigative Techniques.
• DNA Isolation.
• Forensic Ballistics.
• Questioned Documents.
• DNA Profiling.
• Forensic Biology.
• Forensic Photography.
• Forensic Psychology.

What subjects are needed for forensics?

This program focuses on how science can be used to analyse and interpret different crime scenes. This includes Chemistry, Physics, Genetics, and Entomology. After completion of this study, the student will have a thorough basic knowledge of the physical and biological science aspects of Forensic Sciences.

What are the 11 forensic science disciplines?

Exhibit 1 shows these subdisciplines: Forensic biology and DNA; forensic anthropology; forensic odontology; forensic pathology; medicolegal death investigation; forensic toxicology; controlled substances; fire and arson investigation; impression and pattern evidence; firearms and toolmarks; bloodstain pattern analysis; …

What are the 4 types of forensic analysis?

Traditional forensic analysis methods include the following: Chromatography, spectroscopy, hair and fiber analysis, and serology (such as DNA examination) Pathology, anthropology, odontology, toxicology, structural engineering, and examination of questionable documents.

Who is the best forensic scientist?

Henry Chang-Yu Lee (Chinese: 李昌鈺; pinyin: Lǐ Chāngyù; born 22 November 1938) is a Chinese-American forensic scientist. He is one of the world’s foremost forensic scientists and founder of the Henry C. Lee Institute of Forensic Science, affiliated with the University of New Haven.

Can I do forensic science without biology?

Yes, you can apply for Forensic Science without Biology background. But, Biology was added in the syllabus. Yes, you can apply for Forensic Science without Biology background. But, Biology was added in the syllabus.

How does chemistry relate to forensic science?

Forensic chemists analyze non-biological trace evidence found at crime scenes in order to identify unknown materials and match samples to known substances. They also analyze drugs/controlled substances taken from scenes and people in order to identify and sometimes quantify these materials.

What is the difference between forensic science and forensic biology?

Forensic biology uses biological material to link a crime to a suspect. Forensic chemistry uses any other substance that is not biological to link a crime to a suspect. Examples of forensic biology: analyzing hair, saliva, blood.

Does the FBI hire forensic scientists?

The FBI hires interns with backgrounds in computer science, law, forensic science, and other disciplines. Regardless of your college major, you can be considered for a spot in the internship.

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Physics and forensics

2002, Physics World

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The present manuscript makes an extensive review of the scientific approaches developed in the last decade involving infrared and Raman spectroscopy combined with chemometrics for solving several issues in the investigation of the most relevant forensic traces, such as questioned documents and currency, explosives, gunshot residues, illicit drugs and body fluids. In addition, current trends, main challenges and the adequate use of several chemometric techniques are discussed. Principal component analysis (PCA) was found to be the most used technique. This unsupervised approach, however, has sometimes been misunderstood as a classification technique. Discriminant analysis techniques are widely employed, leaving a range of possibilities for application of class-modeling techniques, particularly in cases of problems regarding only one target class. In addition, increasingly complex dataset structures frequently require nonlinear approaches or flexible techniques such as multivariate curve resolution-alternating least squares (MCR-ALS). Results reporting, however, still lack reliable quality parameters and sample representativeness, posing a significant challenge to the solution of forensic problems. Regarding the analytical techniques, Raman has been playing an important role, especially in the area of questioned documents and of body fluids. Portable and hyperspectral imaging infrared spectrometers have also been showing significant potential in forensic applications.

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Arson can result in highly challenging and complicated crime scenes. Much physical evidence undergoes chemical degradation because of the destructive nature of fire, while accelerants either completely burn or evaporate, and may be present in traces within any of the decomposed materials. To identify the original material and the accelerant involved, it is necessary to use advanced analytical techniques. Gas chromatography, with different detectors, is one of the most frequently used instruments in fire debris and accelerant analysis. Among other instruments, capillary electrophoresis and laser-induced thermal desorption Fourier transform mass spectrometry are two major contributors. Vibrational spectroscopy, including infrared absorption and Raman scattering, is one of the major non-destructive tools for the analysis of evidence because of its advantages over other spectroscopic techniques. Most studies involving vibrational spectroscopy (i.e. infrared and Raman spectroscopy) have ...

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Science, Evidence, Law, and Justice

The scientific reinvention of forensic science, jonathan j. koehler.

a Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, Chicago, IL 60611

Jennifer L. Mnookin

b Office of the Chancellor, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706

Michael J. Saks

c Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, Arizona State University, Phoenix, AZ 85004

Associated Data

There are no data underlying this work.

Forensic science is undergoing an evolution in which a long-standing “trust the examiner” focus is being replaced by a “trust the scientific method” focus. This shift, which is in progress and still partial, is critical to ensure that the legal system uses forensic information in an accurate and valid way. In this Perspective, we discuss the ways in which the move to a more empirically grounded scientific culture for the forensic sciences impacts testing, error rate analyses, procedural safeguards, and the reporting of forensic results. However, we caution that the ultimate success of this scientific reinvention likely depends on whether the courts begin to engage with forensic science claims in a more rigorous way.

1. The Transformation of Forensic Science

It would be hard to overstate the importance of the transformation that is underway throughout most of the forensic sciences. For much of the 20th century, evidence from a variety of forensic sciences was routinely admitted in state and federal courts with very little scrutiny of whether it had either substantial validity or a genuine scientific foundation. Experts, usually associated with law enforcement and often without any formal scientific training, testified in court to the validity and outsized accuracy of the techniques and their conclusions. Courts admitted their testimony, generally without limitation or careful scrutiny, based on assurances from the forensic science community that the techniques were accurate, effective, and broadly accepted as valid. Assertions unsupported by empirical validation sufficed. The scientific authority of forensic science testimony rarely faced significant challenge from the opposing party, and the occasional challenges that were offered were nearly always unsuccessful.

The story began to change when DNA evidence emerged in the late 1980s and early 1990s. After initial breathless enthusiasm by courts about this transformative new identification technique, highly credentialed scientists identified meaningful concerns regarding how to “translate” laboratory DNA assessments for courtroom use. Several judges excluded DNA evidence to ensure adequate vetting by the scientific community. In the 1990s, scientists from various core disciplines including genetics, statistics, and psychology engaged in lively and sometimes contentious debates in peer-reviewed, scientific journals about the forensic use of DNA profiling, including such matters as population genetics, error rates, standards for defining a DNA match, and communicating the evidentiary meaning of a match. Those debates, and two DNA reports issued by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), impacted the way DNA evidence was treated in court, creating a greater focus on scientific validity than existed for prior forensic techniques. Also in the 1990s, the Supreme Court decided a trio of critical cases on the use of scientific and other expert evidence in the courts. These cases emphasized that the Federal Rules of Evidence gave judges the responsibility to engage in judicial “gatekeeping” to determine whether that scientific and expert evidence was sufficiently reliable and valid to be admitted in court ( 1 – 3 ).

By the early part of the 21st century, a shift to a more scientific paradigm for the forensic sciences was observable, though still in its infancy ( 4 ). This shift represented a move from a framework of “trusting the examiner” to “trusting the method.” Rather than relying on untested foundational assumptions, and assurances from witnesses that their training and experience makes their confident conclusions accurate and trustworthy, legal scholars, scientists, and some forensic practitioners began endorsing a more scientific model that prioritizes common and detailed protocols, empirical testing, and more moderate, data-driven knowledge claims. Some have hinted that a scientific paradigm shift has already occurred ( 5 , 6 ); others see little evidence of a shift ( 7 ). Most likely, the transformation remains a work in progress: Notable progress has been made on some fronts, but significant concerns remain ( 8 ).

In some areas, when scientific reviews established that available empirical science did not support experts’ claims, entire subfields of forensic science that had contributed to criminal convictions for decades ceased (e.g., bullet lead analysis) or ceased using discredited principles (e.g., fire and arson analysis). In other areas, scrutiny led to reduced credibility and a shift away from exaggerated claims (e.g., microscopic hair analysis). However, other fields, such as bitemark identification, continued despite adverse scientific reviews ( 9 ).

Some forensic subfields, such as single-source DNA identification, survived scientific scrutiny quite well. Latent fingerprint identification, which has been scrutinized more than most other forms of pattern identification evidence, has survived as well, although it has scaled back on its claims in recognition of the role that human factors and subjectivity play in reaching conclusions ( 10 ). Firearms evidence is gaining attention from the scientific community, and weaknesses in its scientific foundation and reporting traditions have been identified ( 11 ).

In what follows, we discuss how the move to a more empirically grounded scientific culture in the forensic sciences impacts testing, error rate analyses, procedural safeguards, and the reporting of results. Whereas there can be no debate that forensic science claims must be grounded in both relevant testing and data, legitimate open questions remain about how best to make the forensic sciences “scientific.” How should errors and mistakes by forensic practitioners be defined and counted? How should conclusions be reported? These questions are currently being discussed and debated by the scientific community. Responsibility for implementing recommendations from the scientific community ultimately rests with the courts. Unfortunately, few courts have undertaken serious gatekeeping of forensic science evidence. We discuss this problem and conclude by examining how to build on institutional and structural opportunities to assure that this vital reinvention of forensic science proceeds.

The shift to a truly scientific framework in the forensic sciences requires attention to empirical testing of the techniques and methods employed under realistic conditions. As PCAST ( 12 ) notes, “Scientific validity and reliability require that a method has been subjected to empirical testing, under conditions appropriate to its intended use, that provides valid estimates of how often the method reaches an incorrect conclusion” (p. 27 and p. 118). Empirical testing is a sine qua non for moving from a “trust the examiner” to a “trust the methods” ethos.

Although scientifically-minded people understand the importance of empirical testing in any scientific endeavor, calls to test the accuracy of forensic science claims are relatively recent. For most of the 20th century, few asked forensic scientists to provide empirical proof that they could do what they claimed. The training, knowledge, and experience of the examiner, coupled with assurances that the method used was generally accepted in the forensic community, were deemed sufficient to admit nearly every forensic science that was proffered in court in the 20th century. Once admitted, forensic scientists commonly offered conclusions with 100% confidence and claimed, with little evidence, a 0% error rate ( 13 ). Although some optional forms of certification existed, little attention was paid to whether, or how, forensic examiners should be required to pass proficiency tests or what those tests should include. Nor did judges require any form of testing or certification as a prerequisite to allowing forensic testimony.

2.1. History.

Most forensic sciences were raised, if not always born, in the world of law enforcement for the purpose of helping police identify criminals. The granddaddy of forensic identification, anthropometry was invented by Alphonse Bertillon in the Paris Prefecture of Police in the 1880s. This technique involved making systematic measurements of bodies of prisoners to assist with their identification at a later date if they were using aliases ( 14 ). Fingerprints soon proved to be a more useful means of identifying criminals, and courts eagerly admitted this evidence without serious inquiry into the scientific underpinnings of the claim that experts could accurately identify the source of partial prints recovered from crime scenes. At no point did the fingerprinting method face the rough-and-tumble questioning of a scientific discipline where everything is questioned and tested, progress is incremental, and cautious, tentative claims are the norm. Over time, other forensic science techniques were invented and introduced on the basis of assurances from practitioners rather than persuasive evidence from rigorous scientific tests.

2.1.1. DNA evidence.

When DNA technology burst onto the legal landscape in the late 1980s—a technology that, unlike most forensic disciplines that came before it, derived from basic scientific disciplines—the broader scientific community took notice. Initially, this impressive technology was received with great enthusiasm. But questions about its courtroom use soon emerged. In People v. Castro ( 15 ), through the involvement of talented defense counsel and distinguished scientists as defense experts, substantial concerns about how laboratory DNA science was being “translated” for courtroom use gained prominence ( 16 ). In the wake of Castro and several cases that followed, the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences convened a blue-ribbon committee to examine DNA evidence, and a flurry of additional scientific activity ensued. Geneticists, statisticians, evolutionary biologists, psychologists, and others debated, tested, and wrote about various aspects of this new technique in prestigious scientific journals. It was not forensic science business as usual; this time there would be no deference to authority or to the say-so of a narrowly defined forensic community.

The National Research Council (NRC) ended up writing two reports, four years apart, about DNA evidence ( 17 [NRC I] and 18 [NRC II]). We do not focus on the reports as a whole but limit our attention to their respective treatments of testing in the forensic sciences.

Two types of proficiency tests were needed to legitimate the use of DNA profiling in court. One type of test would address issues that were internal to the forensic sciences. These tests address matters such as whether examiners can follow the protocols for a particular technique and whether different examiners and different laboratories obtain identical (or nearly identical) results on identical samples. A second type of test focused more on matters external to the day-to-day workings of forensic science analyses, such as helping triers of fact assign appropriate weight to DNA evidence. This goal is best accomplished through another type of proficiency test designed specifically to identify accuracy and error rates under various casework-like conditions ( 19 ). As NRC I noted, “Interpretation of DNA typing results depends not only on population genetics, but also on laboratory error” ( 17 , p. 88). This report referenced the results of a DNA proficiency test conducted a few years earlier that identified a false positive error rate of 2%. Noting that some of the early proficiency tests were “less than ideal,” NRC I stressed that for DNA typing, “laboratory error rates must be continually estimated in blind proficiency testing and must be disclosed to juries” ( 17 , p. 89).

This testing recommendation was largely ignored by the forensic science community and the courts. Moreover, some influential forensic science voices actively counseled against error rate testing on the specious grounds that error rates are irrelevant to individual cases because they change over time (testimony from a leading FBI scientist in United States v. Llera Plaza ( 20 , p. 510). At trial, prosecutors argued that the source opinions of DNA examiners were reliable. With few exceptions, trial judges gave little weight to defense arguments that DNA evidence should be limited or excluded when error rate tests had not been performed.

NRC II offered a different perspective on tests designed to measure laboratory error rates than that taken by NRC I. NRC II offered four arguments against performing such tests: 1) error rates are unknowable because they are always in flux, 2) error rates never translate directly into an estimate of error for a given case because each “particular case depends on many variables,” 3) general error rate estimates “penalize the better laboratories,” and 4) an “unrealistically large number of proficiency trials” would be required to obtain reliable error rate estimates ( 18 , p. 85–86). Although these arguments were widely rebutted ( 21 – 23 ), this report stifled calls for empirical testing and made it difficult for defense attorneys to argue that the reliability of any proffered forensic science method is unknowable without such data.

Fourteen years later, yet another National Research Council report was issued ( 24 [NAS]). This report examined a variety of non-DNA forensic science disciplines (latent prints, shoeprints, toolmarks, hair, etc.) and concluded that nearly all had failed to test their fundamental premises and claims. According to NAS, testing requires an “assessment of the accuracy of the conclusions from forensic analyses and the estimation of relevant error rates” ( 24 , p. 122). A follow-up report by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) argued even more forcefully for empirical error rate testing programs: “Without appropriate estimates of accuracy, an examiner’s statement that two samples are similar—or even indistinguishable—is scientifically meaningless: it has no probative value, and considerable potential for prejudicial impact” ( 12 , p. 6).

We thus see a variety of particularized approaches to proficiency testing in the forensic sciences across blue-ribbon analyses of the topics. Three of the four reports noted above emphasized the importance of proficiency testing and the development of empirically grounded error rates. Although there are challenges to developing meaningful error rates, the program of proficiency testing called for in the PCAST and various NAS reports is an indispensable part of the evolving scientific framework in the forensic sciences. Error rate proficiency tests have now been conducted with forensic examiners in various subfields including latent prints ( 25 , 26 ), firearms and toolmarks ( 27 , 28 ), and footwear ( 29 ). These studies are important steps forward and have prompted interest in how error rates should be computed and reported. A consensus has not yet emerged. Far from signaling a discipline in disarray, ongoing research and sophisticated debates depict a field that is undergoing a scientific transformation.

2.2. Evolving Error Rate Studies.

In the late 1900s, proficiency testing in the forensic sciences focused mainly on the issue of examiner competence. Could the examiner conduct a proper analysis using simple exemplars, and did the conclusions reached by different examiners agree? To the extent error rates were computed from these proficiency tests, it was clear that those rates should be considered with a grain of salt. The study participants were usually volunteers who knew that they were being tested and who may or may not have collaborated with others or otherwise examined the test samples differently than they treat casework samples. The test providers often were not disinterested parties, and the samples used were less challenging than many that appear in actual cases. Although some of these testing problems remain, efforts have been made in recent years to employ realistic samples and to blind examiners to the fact that they are working with test samples rather than casework samples ( 30 , 31 ).

2.3. Inconclusives.

A focus on testing and accuracy raises important correlative questions: Precisely what counts as an error and how should error rates be computed? There is no single “correct” error rate ( 32 , 33 ). False-positive error rates, false-negative error rates, and false discovery rates are all different, legitimate error rates. But even when there is agreement about which error rate is of interest, scientists might not agree about what “counts” as an attempt (or trial) and what “counts” as an error. If examiners always reached either an identification conclusion (i.e., that two patterns derive from the same source) or an exclusion (i.e., they come from different sources) for all sample pairs in a test situation, it would be a simple matter to compute, say, a false-positive error rate. It would be the number of times the examiner reached a “same source” conclusion divided by the number of sample pairs that were known to have been produced by a different source.

But forensic examiners do not always reach a firm binary source decision. Depending on the subfield, they might reach more limited judgments, such as leaning toward identification, high degree of association, association of class characteristics, limited association of class characteristics, inconclusive, indications of nonassociation, and leaning toward exclusion. * We discuss the wisdom of categorical conclusions later. For now, we simply note that error rate computations are not straightforward when an examiner reaches a conclusion other than identification or exclusion for a given paired comparison. Because all pairwise samples are, as a matter of ground truth, either produced by a common source (corresponding to a conclusion of identification) or by different sources (corresponding to a conclusion of exclusion), any conclusion other than identification or exclusion cannot be factually correct. This raises the question: Should conclusions other than identification or exclusion be classified as errors? If not, should these comparisons be included in the error rate denominator?

Some scholars have argued that under particular circumstances, uncertain conclusions (e.g., “inconclusive”) should be scored as correct or incorrect and should be included in error rate computations ( 34 ). According to this argument, inconclusives should be scored as errors when the available information—as judged by qualified experts or by the set of tested examiners themselves in aggregate—suggests that one of the two conclusive decisions could in fact be reached by a competent examiner. Dror ( 35 , pp. 1036–1037) goes so far as to say that, even when an examiner correctly concludes that two samples came from the same source, that decision should be scored as a false-positive error when a panel of experts or group of other examinees regard the comparison to be inconclusive.

Others have argued that inconclusives should not be scored as errors or counted in error rate computations on grounds that when examiners fail to offer a conclusive decision, they are neither wrong nor right because they have not made a claim about the underlying state of nature ( 36 , 37 ). According to this view, neither a panel of independent experts nor a wisdom-of-the-crowd approach provides a dependable gold standard for ascertaining when a pairwise comparison should be deemed inconclusive ( 38 ). Indeed, experts are most likely to disagree with one another on hard cases which, of course, are also the cases where examiners will be tempted to offer an inconclusive decision.

Resolution of this debate is complicated by the practical reality that forensic scientists might be motivated to minimize their reported error rates. If inconclusives are not treated as errors, then examiners might be incentivized to minimize their reported error rates in known test situations by deeming all but the most obvious comparisons inconclusive, even if they might reach a definitive conclusion about many or even most of those same stimuli in real-world casework. Conversely, if inconclusives are treated as errors, examiners might be incentivized to reach conclusions on even the most difficult cases and thereby increase the risk that innocent people are convicted based on faulty forensic science. Misuse of the inconclusive category is likely to be reduced when blind testing is broadly implemented and when examiners provide weight-of-evidence testimony rather than source conclusion testimony. This very debate, and the sophistication of the engagement with this set of questions about measuring error, is a welcome development.

3. Procedural Reforms

For more than a century, the forensic science enterprise in the United States has been controlled and often staffed by law enforcement agencies. This may not be surprising given that police are responsible for investigating crimes, and forensic scientists have the ability to collect and examine evidence in a wide range of cases. But forensic science should not be the exclusive tool of law enforcement for several reasons. First, for the adversary system to work as intended, all parties—including criminal defendants—need to have equal access to forensic science resources. Second, the scientific status of the forensic sciences is compromised by its close association with one side. If crime laboratories are beholden to the needs of law enforcement, they might be discouraged from pursuing scientific investigations that are not aligned with the interests of law enforcement ( 24 , pp. 78–79; 39 , p. 775). Relatedly, if forensic scientists see themselves as working in partnership with police and prosecutors, subtle contextual and cognitive biases might creep into their work at various stages.

3.1. Adversarial Allegiance.

There has long been concern that expert witnesses who are retained by one side or the other in legal cases will, intentionally or unintentionally, slant their conclusions and testimony in favor of the party retaining them ( 40 ). Psychologists theorize that experts see themselves as part of a team and often develop a so-called “myside bias” ( 41 ) or “adversarial allegiance” to their team and teammates ( 42 ). In one controlled experiment, 108 forensic psychologists evaluated the risk posed by certain sex offenders at the request of either the prosecution or the defense. After reviewing and scoring four case files using standard risk-assessment instruments, the psychologists who thought that they had been hired by the prosecution viewed the offenders as posing greater risks than did the psychologists who thought that they had been hired by the defense ( 43 ).

The tendency to favor one’s own side in an adversarial setting is one of many demonstrated psychological influences (or biases) on human judgment and decision. These biases may be perceptual, cognitive, or motivational in nature. Perceptual biases commonly refer to situations in which a person’s expectations, beliefs, or preferences affect their processing of visual stimuli ( 44 ). For example, a latent print examiner might “see” a point of similarity between two prints after having noted several other points of similarity between the prints, whereas another examiner—or even the same examiner—might not see the similarity absent an expectation that the two prints share a common source. Cognitive biases refer to systematic distortions in thinking that occur when people are processing information. Confirmation bias is a well-known cognitive bias in which people seek, interpret, and recall information in ways that tend to confirm their prior beliefs ( 45 ). Motivational biases, such as motivated reasoning, refer to the phenomenon in which our wishes distort our interpretations of events ( 46 ). The significance of these overlapping biases for forensic science work is that they might affect what examiners choose to look at, what they see when they look, and the conclusions that they reach about what they have seen.

Research shows that irrelevant contextual, cognitive, and motivational factors can alter the judgments and decisions of forensic scientists in many areas, including fingerprint ( 47 ), handwriting ( 48 ), firearms ( 49 ), DNA ( 50 ), pathology ( 51 ), forensic anthropology ( 52 ), digital forensics ( 53 ), bloodstain pattern ( 54 ), and forensic odontology ( 55 ). The takeaway point of these studies is not that forensic science evidence is fatally flawed. The point is that forensic scientists, like other scientists ( 56 , 57 ), are subject to potentially significant biases that should be examined empirically and minimized where possible.

3.3. Reforms to Minimize Bias.

Despite the ubiquity of subtle biases in human judgments ( 58 ), people do not readily recognize that their own judgments and decisions could be biased ( 59 ). Unsurprisingly, this reluctance has been observed in the forensic science community. When a small group of psychologists and forensic scientists debated the risk of bias in forensic judgment in a scientific journal in the late 1990s, some forensic scientists argued that their disciplines were objective (hence unbiased) and that potentially biasing information therefore need not be withheld from examiners ( 60 ). Two decades later, a survey of 403 forensic scientists suggested that this view may still be common. Most of the survey respondents did not think that their own judgments were influenced by cognitive bias, and most did not agree that examiners in their domain “should be shielded from irrelevant contextual information” ( 61 , p. 455). Regardless of whether practicing forensic scientists support efforts to guard against unwanted influences, it is incumbent on the broader scientific community to continue researching potential sources of bias and to continue proposing reforms designed to blunt the impact of bias on forensic judgments.

Perhaps the most important reform is blind testing and blind review. Training in most scientific fields includes learning how scientific judgments and choices might be tainted by subtle psychological forces. This problem is best addressed in human research by blinding investigators and participants alike to the participants’ condition (e.g., placebo or treatment). Similarly, in fields that rely heavily on subjective judgments—as many pattern-matching forensic sciences do—it would seem important to prevent analysts from receiving extraneous information that could affect their judgments about the patterns they analyze. In forensic science, blind analysis requires an administrator or case manager to provide examiners with case information on a need-to-know basis. Trace samples recovered from crime scenes (i.e., unknown samples) should be examined thoroughly prior to the introduction of reference samples (i.e., known samples). Knowledge about features of known samples, like knowledge about other aspects of the case, could inadvertently cause an examiner to see features in the unknown sample that are not there or fail to see features that are there ( 17 ).

Similar precautions should be taken for verifiers, i.e., examiners who are called on to provide a second opinion. These examiners should be unaware of their role as verifier of the conclusions offered by another examiner. Such knowledge could create a confirmation bias that affects the verifier’s forensic perceptions and judgments.

Scientists have recommended various blinding procedures for the forensic sciences. These include sequential unmasking ( 62 ), case manager models ( 63 ), and evidence line-ups ( 64 ). Sequential unmasking minimizes bias by blinding examiners to information about known samples until after the examiners have completed an initial review of the unknown samples. Information related to the known samples that is required for the examiner to draw additional conclusions is “unmasked” as needed. Whereas separate analyses of unknown and known samples will generally work well for DNA and fingerprint analysis, a modified version of this procedure is needed for fields such as firearms and handwriting where the known sample provides information needed for a proper examination of the unknown sample. Sequential unmasking has been implemented on occasion in the United States ( 65 ) and is employed as a working standard for fingerprint and DNA evidence at the Netherlands Forensic Institute and at the Dutch National Police for DNA ( 66 ). Recently, extensions of this technique have been proposed ( 67 , 68 ).

The case manager method minimizes bias by assigning a forensic “manager” to interact with investigators and to participate in decisions related to what is tested and how a “blind” examiner conducts those tests. The manager then tells an examiner what to do without revealing other case-relevant (or potentially biasing) information. In evidence line-ups, known reference samples that are not the source of the unknown sample are provided to the examiner at the comparison stage along with a reference sample from the suspected source of the unknown. In the context of an eyewitness lineup, this “filler-control procedure” ( 69 ) purportedly reduces errors that incriminate innocent suspects by spreading the errors among a set of fillers as well as the innocent suspects ( 70 ). This technique, which could be costly to implement broadly ( 69 ), may reduce false positive errors in forensic contexts as well ( 71 ).

Growing attention to bias-reducing reforms, though implemented only to a limited degree thus far, suggests that the forensic sciences are beginning to recognize that examiners may be influenced by irrelevant contextual knowledge. Behavioral science research holds the key to identifying procedural guardrails that should be erected to reduce unintentional bias.

4. Examiners’ Conclusions and Reporting

4.1. categorical reporting..

Forensic scientists in many subfields offer one of three categorical conclusions when comparing an unknown (questioned) sample to a known (reference) sample: exclusion (the paired samples come from different sources), individualization (the paired samples come from the same source), or inconclusive (insufficient basis for excluding or individualizing). Exclusions arise when an examiner determines that there are important identifiable features in one of the samples that are not present in the other sample. That determination is left to the judgment of the individual examiner ( 72 ). When examiners feel that they lack sufficient evidence that two samples come from different sources, they must decide whether there is enough evidence to conclude that the pair come from the same source. An individualization—sometimes referred to as an identification—is a conclusion that a particular item or person is the one and only possible source of an unknown item of forensic evidence. † Despite the long history of reaching individualization conclusions in most forensic sciences, it is an unscientific practice that should be abandoned.

4.2. Individualizations Are Not Scientific.

Individualization has long been central to the forensic science enterprise. ‡ Examiners make individualizations in most of their casework ( 73 ). Until recently, such testimony was routinely offered with “100% certainty” § and assurances of a 0% error rate. ¶ Although vestiges of this type of hyperbole remain, several forensic professional associations now warn their members not to engage in these practices.

However, the individualization claims themselves are nearly as problematic from a scientific standpoint as the exaggerated ways in which those claims are sometimes made. Individualization claims exaggerate what the underlying science can reveal ( 7 , 74 – 76 ). A scientist cannot determine that there is no chance that any object other than a particular known sample could be the source of an unknown sample simply because the known and unknown samples share many features ( 77 ). When forensic scientists offer individualization conclusions, they are merely offering personal speculation that markings on one of the samples that are not shared by the other sample are unimportant for source determination purposes and that they believe that the samples show sufficient similarity to conclude that they share a common source.

4.3. Abandon Source Opinions and Source Probabilities.

The individualization problem cannot be solved by adding a caveat that an individualization is a personal opinion rather than a scientific statement or that it is made to “a reasonable degree of scientific certainty,” as had become common in recent years ( 78 ). An examiner who offers such an opinion would still be engaged in an unwarranted “leap of faith” ( 76 ). Moreover, empirical research shows that such caveats have little impact on the weight that people assign to the forensic testimony ( 79 , 80 ).

Furthermore, if individualization testimony is abandoned, it should not be replaced by a statement that provides an estimate of the probability that the samples in question were produced by a common source. First, most forensic disciplines do not have extensive data on the frequency with which the various markings appear in various populations or statistical models that reveal the frequency with which particular markings appear in particular combinations. Therefore, no scientific basis exists for estimating the chance that observed similarities between items were merely coincidental. Second, even in disciplines where such data have been collected (e.g., DNA) or are being collected (e.g., fingerprints), it would still be inappropriate to use those data to provide source probability estimates. According to Bayesian logic, these estimates require the examiner to take account of the prior probability that the known source is the actual source of the unknown sample before reaching a conclusion about the source probability in question. The prior probability is informed by a variety of nonforensic considerations, including the existence and strength of other evidence in the case that the forensic scientist should not and likely would not know. Even when the forensic scientist does know the nonforensic facts of a case, that knowledge and its corresponding impact on the forensic scientist’s beliefs are not relevant at trial. Instead, jurors’ own prior beliefs about the source of the forensic evidence, based on other evidence in the case, should inform their source probability estimates.

4.4. Provide Weight of the Evidence.

How then should forensic examiners provide information to a factfinder? There is broad agreement in the scientific community that forensic scientists can and should confine their testimony to providing information pertinent to the weight of the forensic evidence ( 81 , 82 ). The question to be addressed is how much support do the results of the forensic analysis provide for the proposition that the unknown and known samples share a common source? Note that this is a different question from how likely it is that the two samples share a common source. Triers of fact should make the latter judgment for themselves by updating their initial beliefs about the common source hypothesis with the additional weight provided by the results of the forensic analysis.

4.4.1. Likelihood ratios.

There is also an emerging consensus in the scientific and statistical communities that likelihood ratios (LRs) are the most appropriate tool for identifying the strength of forensic evidence ( 10 , 83 – 85 ). # In its most common form, the LR measures the strength of support that the forensic findings provide for the hypothesis that two samples share a common source relative to the alternative hypothesis that the two samples do not share a common source. If E denotes the evidence from the forensic analysis and CS denotes the hypothesis that the two samples share a common source, then the LR is P(E|CS)/P(E|-CS). In words, the LR is the probability of obtaining this forensic evidence if the two samples came from a common source divided by the probability of obtaining this evidence if the two samples did not come from a common source.

At an abstract level, the LR is an appealing way to report forensic science evidence. In practice, however, it raises a set of challenges. Aside from a relative dearth of data, a significant obstacle to employing LRs to assess evidentiary weight is that it often is not obvious what values to use for the LR numerator and denominator. Even when LRs are computed using reliable data, human judgment usually plays a significant role. For example, reasonable people might disagree about the size and composition of the reference population used to inform the denominator of the LR. Consequently, the size of the LR may vary, sometimes by orders of magnitude.

Choices related to how to handle the risk of human error can also affect the magnitude of the LR. When the risk of such errors is ignored, LRs may become astronomically large. But when estimates of the rates at which recording errors, mislabeling errors, and sample mix-ups are incorporated into LR computations, the resultant LRs will typically be smaller ( 86 ). Whether the risk of error is expressly included in the LR computation or provided to jurors in some other way, this risk is always present, and it should place an upper limit on the weight assigned to the forensic evidence.

Misinterpretation poses another obstacle to employing LRs to describe the strength of forensic evidence ( 87 ). Studies show that people commonly transpose conditional probabilities and thereby end up treating LRs as posterior odds ratios ( 88 ). That is, rather than using LRs as a measure of the weight of evidence, people mistakenly treat LRs as if they directly answer the question, “What are the odds that these two samples come from a common source?” The error of confusing LRs with posterior odds ratios is committed by laypeople, judges, attorneys, and even the experts who present this evidence at trial.

4.4.2. Verbal scales.

Some scholars have proposed using verbal scales and qualitative expressions to convey forensic conclusions. For example, a popular scale in Europe describes LRs < 10 as providing slight support/limited support for the source proposition, LRs between 10 and 100 as providing moderate support, LRs between 100 and 1,000 as providing moderately strong support, etc. ( 83 , p. 64). This well-intentioned idea should not be implemented absent empirical evidence that people give appropriate weight to the evidence that is described using those qualitative terms. For example, if studies show that people treat, say, a 10,000:1 LR as if it were a 100:1 LR when the term “more likely” is used, then a different qualitative phrase is needed. It is not appropriate to simply assign verbal labels to LRs without knowing how people interpret those labels. Preliminary research suggests that some verbal scale expressions are treated roughly in accordance with their corresponding LRs, but some are not ( 89 ).

Even as the forensic sciences continue to evolve, it will likely take years before conclusory individualizations are replaced by more scientifically justifiable weight-of-evidence measures such as LRs, verbal scales, or some other probabilistic indicator. A recent survey of 301 fingerprint examiners found that 98% of respondents report categorically rather than probabilistically and that a large majority regard probabilistic reporting to be inappropriate ( 90 ). To the extent that examiners in other forensic fields hold similar beliefs—and that prosecutors persuade judges that categorical reporting serves the interests of justice—change may be slow in coming. Further research on how factfinders hear and receive evidence must continue to be a priority.

What role have the courts played in improving the scientific quality of forensic science? How can the courts do better? For centuries, courts have appreciated both the value and risk of inviting expert witnesses to help factfinders find their way to the truth of disputed facts. Where specialized knowledge can cast useful light, it would be foolish to disregard it. On the other hand, parties in our adversarial legal system are motivated to present experts only when their testimony will advance the advocate’s case, regardless of whether their words illuminate underlying truths.

Courts and other rulemaking bodies have developed various legal tests calculated to facilitate the screening of expert evidence. One hundred years ago, in Frye v. United States ( 91 ), a court turned to the intellectual market for guidance. Only those propositions and techniques that had “gained general acceptance in the particular field in which it belongs” would be admissible ( 91 , p. 1014). The Frye test, which has its merits, also exposed the courts to the substantial risk that those who stood to benefit most from the admission of certain types of expert evidence might be called upon to vouch for questionable evidence if the “particular field” was defined too narrowly. Over subsequent decades, judges variously employed the Frye test, related tests, and, often, no test at all to screen experts, including forensic science experts. As noted earlier, many different types of forensic science were admitted based simply on the say-so of the few who practiced the technique at issue.

In 1993, the US Supreme Court held that the Federal Rules of Evidence (promulgated in 1975) did not incorporate Frye’s general acceptance test. Instead, judges must determine whether the methods used by proffered experts were reliable and valid, although the Court held that “general acceptance” could be one element of that inquiry. According to the Court, the “overarching subject” of “[t]he inquiry envisioned by Rule 702 … is the scientific validity and thus the evidentiary relevance and reliability—of the principles that underlie a proposed submission” ( 1 pp. 594–595). Daubert’s focus on scientific validity is consistent with efforts to increase a scientific approach within the forensic sciences. However, judges may not have the scientific training necessary to know whether “the principles that underlie a proposed submission” have been adequately tested and validated.

Whether or not this point can serve as explanation or excuse, the fact is that when called on to evaluate the proffers of forensic science, courts have not done well. As NAS observed, “Forensic science professionals have yet to establish either the validity of their approach or the accuracy of their conclusions, and the courts have been utterly ineffective in addressing this problem” ( 24 , p. 53). Rather than engage with the underlying science, most trial judges simply opted to follow past practice and allow proffered forensic science evidence to reach the jury. In the wake of this NAS report, numerous courts made modest gestures toward a more engaged assessment of forensic pattern evidence, limiting it around the edges (i.e., prohibiting claims of zero error rate or 100% certainty) or noting the lack of empirical support with surprise. But nearly all forensic science pattern evidence continued to be admitted.

PCAST sought to help the courts fix this problem by providing specific guidance to the courts for assessing the validity of feature-matching forensic science evidence (e.g., DNA, hair, fingerprints, firearms, toolmarks, and tire tracks). Not surprisingly, the guidance focused on rigorous empirical testing and the estimation of accuracy and error rates for the different methods.

Earlier we noted that several fields of forensic science—including bullet lead comparison, microscopic hair identification, and arson indicators—have been transformed or abolished following serious scientific reviews. Notably, the judicial system did not initiate, and barely even contributed to, these transformations. The courts have not led. Indeed, the courts have often not even followed, as some of these unvalidated techniques continue to be admitted.

Whether the courts will ultimately choose to a) follow the mandates of Daubert and the guidance provided by PCAST, or b) remain “utterly ineffective” at holding the forensic sciences scientifically accountable for their claims, is not yet clear. Although it has been business as usual in most post-PCAST cases, there are some signs of more full-throated, robust engagement, and even occasional exclusions [see, e.g., People of Illinois v. Winfield ( 92 ), excluding firearms evidence].

Thanks to Daubert, Federal Rule of Evidence 702, the 2009 NAS report and the 2016 PCAST report, judges indisputably have both the authority and the tools to insist that forensic evidence has an adequate scientific foundation. But they have only rarely availed themselves of this power. As the primary consumers of forensic science evidence, the courts can hold the forensic science community’s feet to the fire by requiring that expert testimony is backed by “sufficient facts or data” ( 93 ), accompanied by relevant error rates from methodologically sound studies, and presented without exaggeration ( 94 ).

6. Successes and Challenges

The scientific reinvention of forensic science is not an all or nothing concept. Rather, it is a process of gradual and continuing change. The most important element of change currently under way in forensic science is a recognition that a framework of trusting the examiner must give way to one that trusts the empirical science. Although the training, knowledge, and experience of the examiner are important, they will not be enough to sustain the forensic enterprise going forward. Forensic science is becoming an actual science: “The debate and rigor of academic science is now influencing much of forensic science and that is the most significant change from the past” ( 95 ).

Empirical testing has proceeded rapidly in some disciplines, and efforts are under way to measure sample difficulty and to identify statistical models that capture the probative value of forensic evidence. Extreme and unsupportable claims (e.g., 0% error rate and 100% certainty), once widespread, have been rejected by numerous scientific authorities and forensic science associations. Techniques that relied on false assumptions have exited the stage, and others whose validity appears doubtful seem to be headed toward the graveyard of unsupported science as well.

Perhaps the most important institutional step forward thus far has been the creation of national scientific bodies whose purpose is to increase the scientific rigor of the various forensic fields. The Organization of Scientific Area Committees (OSACs)—a complex of interconnected, multispecialty entities operating mainly under the auspices of the National Institute of Standards and Technology—were established in 2014 to do the heavy lifting. These committees, which are composed of more than 800 crime lab examiners, administrators, conventional scientists, and legal experts, create standards which, when fully developed, approved, and published, are available for adoption by individual crime labs. “OSAC-approved standards must have strong scientific foundations so that the methods that practitioners employ are scientifically valid, and the resulting claims are trustworthy” ( 96 ). As of March 2023, there are 97 published standards and 37 proposed for an array of different forensic disciplines. These developments count as successes. Institutions have been built and staffed, and a process is underway.

On the other hand, it is not obvious that the emerging OSAC standards go far enough in terms of ensuring that examiners’ methods are valid and that their claims are trustworthy. Rather than squarely addressing major challenges such as the individualization problem discussed above, many of the standards merely nibble around the less controversial edges. Even if the OSACs do decide to take on the most important forensic challenges, it is crucial that the standards they create be supported by an empirical foundation. But many accepted that forensic techniques remain underresearched. The scientific evolution that we have described would benefit greatly from an overarching research agenda that coordinates both the needs of standards development and the research that gets funded. For example, a gap analysis would reveal the distance between what is believed (assumed) and what has been empirically validated. Research should be aimed at filling the discovered gaps. Unfortunately, as of 2015, a report on the funding of forensic science research found that “such a research agenda has not yet been developed” ( 97 , p. 14). To be sure, such assessments and gap analyses have begun, but they are incomplete and have yet to receive much attention from practitioners or courts.

Even if the OSACs can address these issues, a practical problem remains: The OSACs lack enforcement power. Individual crime labs are free to adopt OSAC standards as they please. Even those labs that do endorse OSAC guidelines may decide to do so only nominally and then fail to incorporate them into day-to-day work.

The solution to this practical problem lies with the courts: If judges refused to admit evidence produced by laboratories that could not demonstrate how, exactly, they have incorporated OSAC guidelines and other scientific recommendations into their work, compliance would be guaranteed. More generally, if judges took seriously their duties under the Daubert line of cases (and state equivalents) and refused to admit insufficiently validated claims, the forensic sciences would adopt scientific practices more quickly and completely. Unfortunately, few courts have been so bold. The scientific advances that have been made are largely due to initiatives by the forensic fields themselves or by the wider scientific community. However, given that most forensic disciplines have ignored calls from the broader scientific community to replace individualizations with a more appropriate weight-of-evidence measure, a push from outside the fields themselves is needed.

In short, although a scientific reinvention of the forensic sciences is underway, its ultimate success is not assured. Its success depends on consistent attention to empirical validation of methods and conclusions and that in turn requires institutional structures that can help make that focus meaningful in courts of law. One such institutional structure was proposed by the NAS report. This report called for the creation of a new federal agency that focused on forensic science. Among other things, this agency, which would operate independently of law enforcement or any other potentially interested party, would be responsible for establishing and enforcing scientific practices in the forensic sciences. Ultimately, however, such an independent agency was not created.

Courts of law provide an alternative institutional structure for advancing the forensic sciences. Although the courts may not seem like an obvious force for advancing a scientific agenda, the expert evidence gate-keeping duties imposed on trial judges by Daubert and the relevant Federal Rule of Evidence, if faithfully followed, will promote a scientific focus and culture within the forensic sciences. To be sure, the courts’ record on this front does not warrant much optimism. But the scientific paradigm is young and there are signs of hope and progress. The future of forensic science is ours to choose.

Author contributions

J.J.K., J.L.M., and M.J.S. wrote the paper.

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interest.

This article is a PNAS Direct Submission.

* Similarly, examiners are often permitted to conclude that samples are “unsuitable” or “insufficient” for reaching any conclusion.

† For shoeprint evidence, “An identification means the shoe positively made the questioned impression and no other shoe in the world could have made that particular impression” ( 98 , p. 347).

‡ ”The concept of individualization is clearly central to the consideration of physical evidence. Our belief that uniqueness is both attainable and existent is central to our work as forensic scientists” ( 99 , p. 123).

§ ”Latent fingerprint identifications are subject to a standard of 100% certainty” ( 100 , p. 8).

¶ Responding to a question by 60-Minutes interviewer Leslie Stahl, Stephen Meagher, the former head of the FBI’s latent print unit, said that the chance that a reported fingerprint match is in error is “zero” ( 101 ).

# Log-LRs provide equally rigorous measures of probative value.

Data, Materials, and Software Availability

120 Forensic Science Topics & Project Ideas

Are you choosing a forensic science topic for your essay or research paper? Delve into the intriguing world of scientific investigations and crime-solving with us! We invite you to our list of excellent forensic science research topics, where you can uncover various forensic disciplines, cutting-edge technologies, and ethical issues that shape the field.

🕵️‍♂️ 7 Forensic Science Topics

🏆 best forensic science research topics, 🎓 good forensic topics for a research paper, 👍 catchy forensic science essay topics, ❓ forensic science topics for project, 🔥 hot forensic science topics.

• Significance of Computer Forensics to Law Enforcement
• Forensic Science: Killing of JonBenet Ramsey
• Theories of Crime in Forensic Psychology
• Mobile Forensics: Investigating BlackBerry Devices
• Forensic Psychology Analysis: Ethical Dilemmas and Principles
• Forensic Psychologist’s Role in Death Penalty Trial
• Jacqueline Blake Forensic Fraud
• Forensic Psychology for Police Recruitment and Screening The quest for competitive and effective police officers led to the introduction of some measures to help in the recruitment of individuals.
• Latent Fingerprints in Forensic Examination The forensic examination of latent fingerprints requires the dusting of surfaces with suitable powder to reveal invisible fingerprints.
• Principles of Forensic Toxicology Forensic toxicology is the scientific study of identification of drugs, poisons, chemicals, and metals that are present in the fluids and tissues of an organism.
• Forensic Psychology: Quantitative vs Qualitative The comparison of the quantitative and qualitative research designs used in psychology is important to conclude when the actual statistical data are expected to be found.
• Forensic Psychology and Criminal Profiling The paper seeks to explore insight into the nature of criminal investigative psychology and a comprehensive evaluation of the practice in solving crime.
• Correlational Design in Forensic Psychology Correlational designs are actively used in forensic psychology research in order to determine the meaningful relations between different types of variables.
• Digital Forensic Examination of Counterfeit Documents A citizen has contacted the police regarding the selling of counterfeit public documents. The investigator contacted the computer forensic laboratory to examine the evidence.
• Full-Service Crime Laboratory: Forensic Science Forensic scientists study and analyze evidence from crime scenes and other locations to produce objective results that can aid in the investigation and prosecution of criminals.
• Application of Forensic Evidence in Legal Cases This paper presents four court case reviews, in which forensic evidence was presented against defendants for prosecution.
• Explaining Concepts of Forensic Accounting The standards for forensic accounting are thus derived from the law and they give this practice its law definition.
• Experimental Psychology and Forensic Psychology Psychology is a powerful field of study aimed at addressing a wide range of human problems. The field can be divided into two specialties. These include experimental and forensic psychology.
• Ethical Issues in Forensic Psychology Psychologists face many moral dilemmas in law due to the field’s nature because they are responsible for deciding people’s fates, which puts pressure on them.
• Analysis of Forensic Psychology Practice The important feature of the whole sphere of forensic psychology practice is the ability to testify in court, reformulating psychological findings into the legal language, etc
• Suicide-Related Research in Clinical Forensic Settings Suicide-related research is to be conducted in the area of forensic psychology to determine the risks associated with suicidal behaviors in patients with mental disabilities.
• Daubert Standard Definition and Importance for Forensic Assessment The Daubert standard provides courts with expanded criteria for expert testimony acceptance, and it is a valuable tool in the forensic assessment.
• Computer Forensics and Investigations A computer forensics examiner may be called to provide evidence and advice in a court of law. Before logs disappear, digital forensics investigators are required to capture them.
• Forensics Analysis of Terrorism Crime Scene Terrorism uses calculated violence to generate public fear and panic to establish a specific political agenda within the general population.
• A Look at Firearms and Ballistics in Forensic Science Firearms and ballistics expertise is an essential process and area of study within the framework of forensic science.
• Police and Forensic Science Technician
• How Reliable Is Forensic Science?
• Forensic Science and the Identification of Explosives
• Liquid Chromatography Finds Its Usefulness in Forensic Science
• Forensic Science: Proper Crime Scene Techniques
• Saving the World With Forensic Science
• Going Deep Into Forensic Science and Its Technology
• Forensic Science and the Law Enforcement Field
• Lab Questions Forensic Science
• Future Forensic Science: Multi-Modal Biometrics
• Forensic Science and Criminal Investigation
• The History and Development of Forensic Science
• Forensic Science and the Criminal Justice System
• Integrating Forensic Science: Physics-Based
• Forensic Science: Physical Evidence Is Tangible
• Physical Evidence and Forensic Science
• Forensic Science Technicians: Career, Salary, and Education
• The Scientific Method Applied to Forensic Science
• Forensic Science: Blood Spatter Analyst
• The Death Penalty and Forensic Science
• Forensic Science and the Crime Laboratory
• Homicide Investigations and Forensic Evidence Forensic evidence can be defined as the information at a crime scene such as DNA, blood, body tissues among others found at a crime scene.
• Implications of Unethical Conduct in Forensics The paper discusses several issues caused by an individual’s unethical behavior and presents a case pertaining to the topic.
• Mobile Forensics: Cell Phone in Everyday Life The modern cellular phone is basically a phone, computer, telegraph or fax machine, portable GPS device, and video game machine all in one.
• The McMartin Preschool and Forensic Psychology The forensic psychologist helps to extract critical information from the children through interviews, leading questions, and medical tests.
• Forensic Psychology: Subspecialties and Roles Of my specific interests have been basically two subspecialties of forensic psychology. These include correctional psychology as well as police psychology.
• Statistical Significance and Effect Size in Forensic Psychology Nee and Farman evaluated the effectiveness of using dialectical behavior therapy for treating borderline personality disorder in the UK female prisons.
• Digital Forensics in Law Enforcement The paper shows that digital forensics in law enforcement is useful in collecting extra proof after an occurrence to support charges against a suspect.
• Forensic Psychology and Its Essential Feature in the Modern World The essay defines the origins of forensic psychology, analyzes its role in various fields and spheres, and identifies its essential feature in the modern world.
• Computer Forensics for Solving Cyber Crimes This paper presents research about the deployment of computer forensics in solving cybercrime. The paper brings out a number of cases concerning crimes in the cyberspace.
• Juvenile Forensic Psychology: Contemporary Concern The present juvenile forensic psychology system has many pitfalls that have compromised the wellbeing and development of the young offenders admitted within these institutions.
• The Usage of DNA Technology in Forensic Science DNA typing technology gives the forensic science an opportunity to uncover the information considered by the society “intensely private”.
• Toxicological Evidence in Forensic Pharmacology Forensic toxicology entails the analysis of stains and drugs found in fluids and solid materials collected from a crime scene. Numerous methods are used in a toxicological analysis.
• Computer Forensics Investigation Plan The US Constitution prohibits employers from conducting searches on employees. However, the protection does not apply to private organizations.
• Forensic Psychology: Graham v. Florida and Sullivan v. Florida The question in the two cases Graham v. Florida and Sullivan v. Florida was juvenile sentencing. The offenders claimed their life prison sentences for rape and robbery.
• Speciality Guidelines for Forensic Psychology A primary goal of this paper is to discover various guidelines, which are vital to the forensic psychological practice.
• Forensic Entomology: Collecting and Handling Arthropods Forensic entomology defines the use of insects and other arthropods in investigating the crime scene to determine postmortem interval in cases of missing or dead victims.
• A Forensic Pathologist’s Professional Path Forensic pathologists go through a demanding educational path to get an equally challenging job, which, in turn, has an excellent outlook.
• Forensic Drug Analysis Course: Reflection The most interesting part of the course is the study of various techniques for the analysis of substances and their impact on forensic research.
• Cyber Law and Digital Forensic Science The advantage and disadvantage of external media at the same time is that information is easy to hide, steal, or destroy since it is located on a small object.
• DNA Analysis in Forensic Science This paper aims to describe its details, such as the PCR process, loci and their relation to CODIS, and the functions of touch DNA.
• Forensic Readiness Programme: Design & Analysis The aspects of the creation of a Forensic Readiness Programme (FRP) have to be viewed in consonance with its hypothesis and payback values.
• Digital Forensics and Deoxyribonucleic Acid The practice of digital forensics involves analysis of data collected computing devices from a particular crime scene.
• Computer Forensics and Investigations: Basic Procedures In this paper, the author is going to show the basic procedures that ought to be undertaken while performing a digital forensic examination.
• The Role of GC Within Forensic Applications The focus of the paper will be on the role of gas chromatography within forensic applications and it will elaborate on the analytical approaches used the challenges faced.
• Forensic Science: Psychological Analysis Human behavior can be evaluated by studying the functioning of the human mind. This is important information in crime profiling among other operations in forensic psychology.
• What Are the Fundamentals of Forensic Science?
• What Are the Common Problems of Forensic Science?
• How Detective Fiction and the Rise of Forensic Science Are Connected?
• What Is Francis Henry Galton’s Contribution to Forensic Science?
• How Has Forensic Science Changed Society?
• How Does Forensic Science Contribute to Society?
• What Are the Pros and Cons of Forensic Science?
• What Is Liquid Chromatography’s Usefulness in Forensic Science?
• What Are the Four Advances in Forensic Science That Can Change the Future?
• What Are the Three Famous Cases Solved by Forensic Science?
• What Is the Interface Between Forensic Science and Technology?
• What Are the Recent Advances in Forensic Science?
• When Did Forensic Science Start To Become Influential in Solving Crimes?
• What Is the Importance of Forensic Science in Criminal Investigation?
• In Which System the Forensic Science Plays an Important Role?
• How Does the Public View Forensic Science?
• What Are the Ways to Strengthen Forensic Science in the United States?
• What Is the Application of Next-generation Sequencing Technology in Forensic Science?
• How Chemometrics Are Used in Forensic Science?
• What Are the Current and Future Directions of DNA in Wildlife Forensic Science?
• What Are the Practical Solutions to Human Factor Challenges in Forensic Science?
• What Is the Role of the Subjectivist Position in the Probabilization of Forensic Science?
• What Are the Advances in Chemistry Applied to Forensic Science?
• How to Expand Forensic Science Through Forensic Intelligence?
• What Is the History of the Formation of DNA Databases in Forensic Science Within Europe?
• The Role of Forensics in the War on Drugs This essay looks at chemicals that are used by forensic experts and the role forensics play in the war on drugs.
• Computer Forensics in the FCC vs. Jack Brown Case In the case of the FCC vs. Jack Brown, this will involve accessing the information that has been stored in different file formats.
• Penguin Sleuth, a Forensic Software Tool The key aim of the paper is to analyze the forensic software tools available and, give a detailed description of the functionality range for each software tool or tool pack.
• Forensic Psychology Practice Standards for Inmates It is vital for the inmates to have frequent access to psychological assessments because the majority of the inmates end up with psychological problems.
• Treating Adjudicated Forensic Populations The APA’s ethical code relies on the standards revealing different aspects of psychologists’ practice. It defines the way of resolving ethical issues, explores the specifics of competence.
• Forensic Psychology, Its History and Evolution Forensic psychology refers to an applied discipline focused on the application of psychological research as well as principles within the legal and criminal justice systems.
• The Role of Forensic Psychology in the Investigation Confidentiality is an essential feature of a therapeutic bond. Forensic psychologists are bound by a code of ethics to safeguard clients’ information.
• Forensic Psychology in the Police Subspecialty Forensic psychological officers have crucial roles in the running of the police departments. This is because law enforcement chores are entitled to many challenges.
• Violence Potential Assessment in Forensic Psychiatric Institutions This paper aims to discuss the ways of predicting violence in forensic psychiatric institutions while focusing on the review of the recent research in the field.
• Forensic Psychology in the Correctional Subspecialty Psychological professionals have the role of ensuring that the released convicts have gathered enough knowledge and understanding for them to fit in the society.
• Applying Codes and Guidelines in Forensic Psychology The codes and guidelines for forensic psychologists are designed specifically to provide a direction to forensic psychologists when addressing their official duties as directed by courts.
• Current Perspectives in Forensic Psychology Correctional psychologists can act as expert witnesses who can tell the court about the mental problems that an individual could face in the past.
• Forensic Psychology Guidelines and Assessment Another important element of conducting an assessment in the forensic environment, the principle of diligence should be brought up.
• Forensic Psychology: Personality Assessment Inventory The appraisal finds application in forensic psychology, psychotherapy, PTSD (posttraumatic stress disorder) evaluation, and in employee selection.
• Geological Forensics and Its Evaluation Geoforensics, which is also referred to as geological forensics, is a branch of study that collects and analyzes geological evidence to solve crimes.
• Forensics of Fire and Explosions Critique Forensics of fire and explosion is a subfield that keeps developing and transforming to serve the needs of the criminal justice system.
• Forensic Nursing in Palmetto Bay, Florida The purpose of the forensic nurse is to assist the authorities in investigating accidents and criminal incidents and to provide quality care to victims.
• Forensic vs. Advanced Practice Nursing Evolution The main distinction between forensic nurses’ and advanced practice nurses’ divisions is their scope of practice. Forensic nursing has developed in a direction different from APN.
• The Role of Forensic Nurses in Florida This paper is aimed at discussing the role of forensic nurses in health promotion activities and related professional organizations in Florida.
• Career in Clinical, Counseling, Forensic Psychology The paper indicates the further direction of educational planning and job research in the spheres of clinical, counseling, and forensic psychology.
• Linguistics and Law: Forensic Letters This paper review articles The Multi-Genre Analysis of Barrister’s Opinion by Hafner and Professional Citation Practices in Child Maltreatment Forensic Letters by Schryer et al.
• APA Standards and Forensic Psychology Practice This paper gives answers to two psychology-related questions about the changes in APA standards and the influence of forensic psychology on the concept of competence.
• Forensic Psychology: Important Issues Forensic psychologists consider that task of determining insanity extremely difficult. There is a difference between insanity as a psychological condition and a legal concept.
• The American Psychological Association: Forensic Field Forensic psychologists are commonly invited to provide expert consultation and share their observations that might be useful to the judicial system.

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Home — Essay Samples — Law, Crime & Punishment — Forensic Science — Forensic Science Case Study

Forensic Science Case Study

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Published: Mar 19, 2024

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Table of contents

I. introduction, ii. background of the case study, iii. forensic techniques used in the case study, challenges faced in the case study, v. conclusion, vi. recommendations, vii. future research, viii. references, a. dna analysis, b. fingerprint analysis, c. ballistic analysis.

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Advance in forensic fingerprint research provides new hope for cold cases

by Meg Cox, Loughborough University

Researchers have unveiled a method capable of detecting drug substances from fingerprints lifted from crime scenes, which could provide fresh insights into unsolved cases. The research is published in the journal Drug Testing and Analysis .

Analytical scientists from Loughborough University have demonstrated for the first time that drug residue—namely the fast-acting sleeping pill Zolpidem, which has been linked to drug-facilitated sexual assault and drink spiking —can be detected on gel-lifted fingerprints.

Dr. Jim Reynolds and Dr. Ayoung Kim say the breakthrough could shed new light on cold cases and unsolved crimes as forensic gel lifters—which transfer prints onto a gelatin surface—are used globally by scenes of crimes officers to preserve and visualize fingerprints.

"This is the first time that analysis of gel-lifted prints for a drug substance has been accomplished, and shows that lifted prints and other forensic marks can be interrogated for useful information," says Dr. Reynolds, the research lead.

"Since gel-lifted prints and marks can be stored for many years, the technique could be of real use in cold cases where additional information may prove useful to either link or exonerate a suspect to the investigation. Working with police forces and applying the method to cold case samples could help bring criminals to justice who may have thought they have got away with it."

A number of tests exist to detect drugs directly from fingerprints, but these face limitations. They can be destructive to the fingerprint, degrade drug residues, and be affected by environmental interferences.

It has long been speculated that gel-lifted prints contain valuable chemical information and could offer more accurate drug detection.

However, traditional techniques used to analyze the chemicals present in a sample have previously not been suitable for gel lifters. This is because they detect all chemicals present, including those that make up the gel, making it difficult to identify specific substances.

The method used by Dr. Reynolds and Dr. Kim, called sfPESI-MS, overcomes this issue using a rapid separation mechanism that distinguishes the drug substance from the background of the gel.

The process involves sampling the chemicals from the gel lifters into tiny liquid droplets. The chemicals extracted into the droplets are then ionized, which means they gain or lose electric charge depending on their chemical properties. The drug substance chemicals are more surface active than the chemicals originating from the gel, which enables them to be separated from the mixture.

This separation method enables the direct detection of a drug substance using mass spectrometry , a technique that identifies chemicals by measuring their molecular weight. The researchers have successfully tested the technique using Zolpidem-laced fingerprints lifted from glass, metal, and paper surfaces in a laboratory setting.

They now hope to work with police forces to analyze stored gel-lifted prints and use the method to identify other substances.

Dr. Reynolds said, "Zolpidem was the focus of our research, but the method could just as easily be applied to other drug substances a person may have been handling and could be applied to other chemicals such as explosives, gunshot residues, paints, and dyes.

"By linking chemical information to the fingerprint, we can identify the individual and link to the handling of an illicit substance which may prove useful in a prosecution. This could be useful to detect individuals who have been spiking drinks; for example, if the drug they are using gets onto their fingertips, then they will leave evidence at the scene."

Dr. Kim, who is the first author of the paper and completed the research as part of her Ph.D. at Loughborough, added, "We would like to apply our method to real samples from criminal investigations; it would be good to know my Ph.D. research has helped bring criminals to justice."

Journal information: Drug Testing and Analysis

Provided by Loughborough University

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• Essay Database >
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• Essay on Crime

Free Essay About Forensic Science

Type of paper: Essay

Topic: Crime , Evidence , Science , Family , Blood , Social Issues , Women , Value

Words: 1200

Published: 01/10/2023

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Criminal investigations have been completely transformed by the advances of modern forensic science. Evidence that was once undetectable or of little probative value can now have tremendous investigative value because of forensic science techniques. These techniques enable scientists and investigators to extrapolate relevant information from even the tiniest of samples. Before forensic science, there would be no way to test a small, dried blood drop found at a crime scene. The advent of forensic science combined with police and investigative efforts make it much more difficult for criminals to go undetected. But as amazing of feats forensic science has conquered, it is not a universal answer to solving all crimes. The case of Jeffrey MacDonald is a prime example where forensic science had little value in solving the puzzling mystery of the military family. Therefore, the field of criminal justice still relied on solid police work and sharp attorneys to uncover the truth.

Introduction

Forensic science has equipped law enforcement and investigators with modern tools needed to solve crime. Crimes used to go unsolved simply due to lack of evidence or suspects. Today, forensic science uncovers and reveals evidence that would have gone completely unnoticed just a few years ago. The advances of forensic science have made a breakthrough in preserving, collecting, and analyzing evidence recovered from a crime scene. Advanced scientific testing can now be performed on the smallest, most microscopic evidence samples and still contain high investigative value. One of the most important advances in the field of criminal investigation is the advent of DNA and fingerprint analysis. The history of fingerprints dates all the back to ancient China (Owen, 2000, p. 160). Legal contracts were endorsed by the fingerprints of the parties that were bound (Owen, 2000, p. 160). The Japanese also endorsed legal instruments through fingerprints (Owen, 2000, p. 160). What makes fingerprints such a valuable investigative tool is fingerprints are highly unique, making fingerprints a highly accurate means of identifying persons (Kaushal and Kaushal, 2011, p. 1). Galton once estimated that the chance of discovering two identical prints was 1 in 64 million (Kaushal and Kaushal, 2011, p.1). And unlike facial features or body characteristics, the ridge patterns on a person’s fingerprints remain the same throughout time, from birth to death (Kaushal and Kaushal, 2011, p. 1). The ridge patterns on fingerprints are classified into three different categories; loops, whorls, and arches (Kaushal and Kaushal, 2011, p. 1). Between 60-65 percent of the population has loops, 30-35 has whorls, and only 5 percent fall into the arches category (Kaushal and Kaushal, 2011, p. 1). While there have been a few high profile cases revealing identifiable fingerprints of two different individuals, the probability of finding identical fingerprints remains extremely rare.

Jeffrey MacDonald

In the early morning hours on February 17, 1970 in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, someone viciously attacked the MacDonald family in their home (Anthony, 2013). MacDonald’s pregnant wife was stabbed repeatedly in the check and her arms were badly broken (Anthony, 2013). The family’s five-year-old daughter was found beaten in the head and stabbed multiple times (Anthony, 2013). The couple’s other two-year-old daughter was stabbed nearly 30 times all over her body (Anthony, 2013). Jeffrey MacDonald sustained only superficial injuries, except for one stab wound (Anthony, 2013). Word of a military family being stabbed to death in their home quickly attracted media attention. Jeffrey MacDonald was the opposite of what most would consider an evil, cold-blooded killer (Anthony, 2013). MacDonald was a handsome, ivy league graduate who went on to marry his childhood sweetheart and become a Green Beret. While it seemed unlikely that MacDonald was the murderer, suspicion soon grew (Anthony, 2013). Investigators soon began to suspect that MacDonald had stabbed his family and had stabbed himself to make it appear like he was attacked (Anthony, 2013). The house was treated as a crime scene. Police discovered a bloody and gruesome scene (Jeffrey MacDonald, 2015). MacDonald’s wife was found in the master bedroom, covered in blood, lying a top a rug (Jeffrey MacDonald, 2015). Both daughters found in their rooms (Jeffrey MacDonald, 2015). In an unlikely fashion, all members of the MacDonald family had different blood types (Jeffrey MacDonald, 2015). Jeffrey MacDonald had type O, and a great deal of type O blood was found in the master bedroom (Jeffrey MacDonald, 2015). A woman named Helena Swokely came forward as a witness, confessing to taking part in the murders (Jeffrey MacDonald, 2015). But when she was placed on the stand to testify, she recanted and claimed that she did not remember what happened the night of the murders (Jeffrey MacDonald, 2015). While the evidence was largely circumstantial, MacDonald was convicted and sentenced to prison for the murders. Like fingerprints, biological evidence is unique and can be extremely helpful in identifying persons and suspects. Biological evidence includes bodily fluids like blood, saliva, and semen. What gives biological evidence its significant evidentiary value is its ability to form an accurate DNA profile, even with very small samples. While many criminals attempt to get rid of blood or other biological evidence from a crime scene, it is almost impossible to fully eliminate it. This is because the tiniest blood drop can be detected and tested for DNA evidence through modern forensic science techniques (Owen, 2000, p. 190). Forensic scientists have a number of chemical tests at their disposal to differentiate between blood and other substances that might resemble blood to the naked eye (Owen, 2000, p. 190). A tiny bloodstain enables forensic scientists to produce a DNA profile that is completely unique to one particular individual.

The Jeffrey MacDonald case raises the problem of circumstantial evidence and the problem of the media frenzy. The media immediately latched onto the high profile case. There was very little evidence directly incriminating MacDonald as a suspect. Although one could assume that because he was the sole survivor and had very minor injuries he committed the crimes, the evidence did not strongly support this theory. Investigators inferred from the blood type O in the master bedroom where the wife was found that MacDonald had killed her. While type O blood is relatively rare, simply because MacDonald had type O blood and type O blood was found in the bedroom does not equate to murder. While it is circumstantial evidence, it does not directly link MacDonald to the murder.

Anthony, A. (2013, Apr. 13). The Fort Bragg murders: is Jeffrey MacDonald innocent? The Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/apr/14/jeffrey-macdonald-murder-errol-morris Jeffrey MacDonald. (2015). Crime Museum. Retrieved from http://www.crimemuseum.org/blog/jeffrey-macdonald Kaushal, N. and Kaushal, P. Human identification and fingerprints: A Review. Journal of Biometrics & Biostatistics 2(4): 1-5. Owen, D. (2000). Hidden evidence: Forty true crimes and how forensic science helped solve them. Buffalo, NY: Firefly Books Ltd.

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