What A Forensic Scientists Does

Ch 1 Notes

Pages 1-9

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Forensic Terminology• Coroners – an elected official with death investigation duties

• Medical examiners – government official, always a physician and often a forensic pathologist, charged with investigating sudden and unexpected deaths or deaths from injuries.

• Crime scene – the location of a crime. It contains physical evidence used by forensic scientists to generate individual linking statements that constitute material evidence.

• Expert witness – the specialists who is recognized for their expertise and is asked by the trier of fact to evaluate the facts in a case and render an opinion.

• Precision – ability to achieve the same result; reproducibility.2

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I. Introduction

1. To be a forensic scientist requires the appropriate integration of basic human emotions with basic rationale enterprise, (reason).– Dealing with life’s grimmest

realities dispassionately, while never losing sight of the feelings that keep us human.

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Forensic Scientists

• May recover human remains

• Identify human remains

• Document the cause of human death

• Assist in criminal investigations through scientific analysis of evidence

2. Why do forensic scientist recover, identify and document each individual’s death so meticulously?

• Our society’s moral foundation is reflected through our system of law. – We value human life as a matter of social

order thereby attaching great significance to human death

• Questions must be asked and answered, not only for relatives and friends of the deceased, but for the greater social good as well.

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3. Through their contribution of scientific reliability, the forensic sciences must help the court ensure that the guilty receive punishment and that the innocent remain free.

4. Forensic science can be called a public science because forensic scientists are bound to combine scientific skills with a sworn duty to the public good.

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II. Law and Science

• 1. The criminal justice system, due to the high number of cases to be heard, has the potential to sacrifice values of truth and justice to organizational efficiency.– Results may be misinterpreted or falsified– A forensic expert may define scientific error

as any interpretation that disagrees with their own.

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• 2. Forensic scientists have a political duty to find the balance between emotion and reason in their scientific investigation.– Commitment to ethics is stressed

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3. In real forensic sciences, individual scientists always work as members of a larger team, each contributing his/her efforts to the bigger picture.– An important characteristic of a forensic

scientist is adaptability and a willingness to advance the common good.

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4. Lawyers vs. scientists

Lawyers have an obligation to defend the accused, especially if they are guilty.

– have a clear objective of winning a favorable decision for one’s client through knowledge of the law.

– may argue that data is inadmissible and prevent it from becoming evidence.

– Law – outcome based

Scientists depend upon the available evidence combined with reliable method to reach the truth, (not persuasion)

– remain dependant upon data and present their conclusions as tentative, conditional, or probable in nature where appropriate.

– Science – justification based

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Natural Science vs. Forensic Science

1. The forensic sciences have an important element in common with the natural sciences. – the identical method of inquiry (scientific

method)– focus on scientific reliability– all start from data when explaining a “puzzle”

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2. Legal challenges to forensic techniques are being made......questioning whether such evidence is truly scientific.

Natural sciences happen as expected in a controlled laboratory setting, whereas a crime scene is anything but a controlled setting

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Natural Sciences are said to be:

Forensic Sciences are said to be:

Theoretical vs Practical

Pure Knowledge Applied to Problems

Orderly Disorderly

Pristine Contaminated

Controlled Chaotic

General Specific

Covering Laws Approximations

Predictions Conjectures

Certain Uncertain16

Forensic Experts

1. Lawyers engage experts when:• the facts of the case remain unclear, • when analytical procedures in some field

might help clarify these facts, • or when specialized training can help

educate the jury

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Forensic Scientists• Must attach some degree of certainty to their

work• Should not omit larger issues which could

lead to a false opinion • Leave out the precision of mathematics and

probability theory• Must develop an intellect not too sure of what

must remain uncertain, not too certain of what must remain sure.

• “…Whereof on cannot speak, thereof one must remain silent”

- Ludwig Wittgenstein

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Summary – What does it mean to be a Forensic Scientist?

• -Deal with life’s grimmest realities dispassionately while never losing sight of the feelings that keep them human.

• -Work as members of a larger team, demonstrating adaptability, each contributing their efforts to advance the common good.

• -Teach others, an ability that requires patience and the communication of complex principles in simple terms.

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• -Ensuring the best data collection and control, and determining the clearest relevant scientific explanations supported by reliable methods.

• - Reason from a set of given results to their probable explanation.

• -Develop a spirit of intellectual honesty.

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