Ethics in Forensic Science

Ethics in Forensic Science

Introduction

The paper aims at investigating ethics in forensic science. Firstly, the paper provides a brief overview of forensic science and identifies interconnectivity between forensic science and criminology. Then, paper describes ethics in forensic science with the help of relevant literature and research findings. Moreover, the paper highlights certain ethical issues in the discipline of forensic science in the light of evidence collected from the real world. Finally, the paper provides conclusive remarks on the overall understanding of the subject matter.

Overview of Forensic Science

The term forensic dates back to Roman times, where it was used to denote the forum or gathering of people to judge criminal acts. Forensic science involves gathering of scientific evidence and putting it in front of people (Chisum and Turvey, 2011). Being a branch of science, forensic science connects its origin back to pure science subjects including biology, physics, psychology, chemistry, social science and geology (Staffordshire, 2011). It refers to a multidisciplinary science subject that serves the purpose of the law. The UK Physical Science Center defines it as “Forensic science is the application of science to matters of law” (2010, p. n.d.).

Forensic science provides objective scientific evidence that can be of significant use to the court of law for instance, evidence collected via forensic science can be helpful in the criminal trial and investigation (Staffordshire, 2011). In a typical scenario, a scenes-of-crime-officer (SOCO) gathers material evidence from the suspect or crime scene (Staffordshire, 2011). Then, forensic scientists examine gathered material to provide scientific evidence that can lead crime scene investigation and the subsequent court proceedings in the right direction (Chisum and Turvey, 2011). In a practical field, one can find numerous examples of forensic science such as blood sample collected from the crime scene can assist in the process of recognizing the murder suspect with the help of DNA profiling (Staffordshire, 2011).

In addition to this, gas chromatography can be used to identify detained drugs (Staffordshire, 2011). Forensic science assists regulatory authorities to resolve civil disputes in diverse areas such as insurance claims, medical negligence, and product liability. Primarily, forensic science performs the function of independently interpreting scientific evidences to help non-scientific people in the court of law (Saferstein, 2010). Since forensic examination results can have significant implications for an accused person; hence, forensic examiners need to assure high levels of integrity and competence (James and Nordby, 2003).

Forensic Science and Criminology

According to Turvey (2012), there is an implicit relationship between forensic science and criminology. Thornton and Peterson (2007) state that forensic science is an exercise on behalf of the law in order to resolve the legal conflict either in the civil domain or criminal. According to Houck and Seigal (2010), sub-disciplines of forensic science include crime reconstruction, forensic toxicology, criminalistics and forensic criminology. In the view of CAC (2011), criminalistics is one of the most recognizable types of forensic science, which involves identifying, examining and interpreting physical evidence with the help of logic, critical thinking and natural ...