DNA Analysis

DNA Analysis

DNA Analysis

Introduction

Forensic science is a scientific method of gathering and examining evidence. Crimes are solved with the use of pathological examinations that gather fingerprints, palm prints, footprints, tooth bite prints, blood, hair and fiber samples. Handwriting and typewriting samples are studied, including all ink, paper, and typography. Ballistics techniques are used to identify weapons as well as voice identification techniques are used to identify criminals. (Hadley, 2008)

Detailed History of Forensic Science From 1950 Until The Present

The first recorded application of medical knowledge to the solution of crime. In the 1248 Chinese book Hsi DuanYu or the Washing Away of Wrongs, ways to distinguish between death by drowning or death by strangulation were described.

In the 1950s the 'serial' type of killings became known amoungst the American police as 'Stranger-to-Stranger' murders. This type increased in occurrence in the U.S., from 6% of all crimes, to 18% by the mid-1970s. The large-scale computerization of U.S. police departments begins. Major computer-based applications in the 1970s include computer-assisted dispatch (CAD), management information systems, centralized call collection using three-digit phone numbers (911), and centralized integrated dispatching of police, fire, and medical services for large metropolitan areas. (Archer, 2008)

Beginning in the late 1960s, there are many attempts to develop riot control technologies and use-of-force alternatives to the police service revolver and baton. Tried and abandoned or not widely adopted are wooden, rubber and plastic bullets; dart guns adapted from the veterinarian's tranquilizer gun that inject a drug when fired; an electrified water jet; a baton that carries a 6,000-volt shock; chemicals that make streets extremely slippery; strobe lights that cause giddiness, fainting and nausea; and the stun gun that, when pressed to the body, delivers a 50,000-volt shock that disables its victim for several minutes. One of the few technologies to successfully emerge is the TASER which shoots two wire-controlled, tiny darts into its victim or the victim's clothes and delivers a 50,000-volt shock. By 1985, police in every state have used the TASER, but its popularity is restricted owing to its limited range and limitations in affecting the drug- and alcohol-intoxicated. Some agencies adopt bean bag rounds for crowd control purposes. (Amendt, 2009)

At that time, there was more than 4000 cases per year. In 1978, the Yorkshire Ripper case taught detectives a valuable lesson. If Peter Sutcliffe's details, (his shoes size, blood type, etc.), had have been stored on a computer, he probably would have been questioned furt-her, sooner, saving a few lives. It would have also told detectives working on the case, that he'd been interviewed before. The Surrey Police began investigating the next Serial Killer case, with the use of the computer print-out of the names of 4900 sex offenders. On this list was a man named John Duffy, who'd been charged with loitering near railway stations. A study of this loiterer's 'mental map', (of committing crimes near railway lines), led to the development of 'Psychological Profiling' techniques in the 1980s.

It was soon discovered that Serial Killers were likely to ...