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REVEAL & UNVEIL : Forensic Science
Posted Saturday, 15 February 2020 // 01:36
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So hey everyone! As promised, I wanted to share some info on Forensic Science with all of you. This is an article I wrote for my assignment that I wish to publish here in my blog for the public. My intention is just to explain what Forensic Science really is about and to correct some misconceptions that the general public has on Forensic Science. I hope this will benefit any of you people who has or has no intention to further their studies in this course. Consider it as a new knowledge
Disclaimer : I wrote this based on the questions my friends/followers on IG had sent me about things they wanted to know about Forensic Science. All information is based on what I had learned in class and from trusted sources on the Internet (which I have credited in my article).
If you're planning to enroll in this course at USM and have further questions to ask me or if you're just curious, leave me a comment or dm me through instagram. InsyaAllah I will help you.
Introducing Forensic Science to the Public
by : Farahanis
Forensic science and its never-ending relation with death and
corpse. Period. Is it because that is the only thing that is shown to the
public's eyes through the media? Partly yes. But I guess we cannot fully blame
it on the media because, in this era of technology and information, ignorance
is a choice. Still, a large part of the community has misconceptions about
Forensic Science and it is time to unveil the truth of it.
Is
Forensic Science a scary field to work in? Is it a terrifying course? In simple
words, what Forensic Science really is, it is a whole bunch of chemistry with
sprinkles of biology and both are to be implemented in the investigation
process. To properly define it, Forensic Science is the application of science
to law. Hence how it is often related to crime, not just criminal cases but
also civil cases. The word Forensic originated from the Latin word forensis
which is translated to "forum" and if define directly it means
"in open court". Back in the Roman times, Forum was the main center
of a Roman city and it served as a public area in which commercial, religious,
economic, political, legal, and social activities occurred (Ancient History
Encyclopedia). Basically, forensic is an argument used for a legal matter in
court by means of science. Associating something with forensic means that it is
related to finding evidence to solve a crime linking it to the legal system.
Learning
Forensic Science is not just about crimes and criminals or death and corpse. It
is far more than that. Its knowledge is to be used to solve the crime, relating
it to the search of the suspect or criminal and death of the victim. Its field
is way larger than expected. Forensic Science can be related to criminalistics,
narcotics, toxicology, serology and document examination.
Through
my survey conduction on the public's opinion about Forensic Science, many
expected it to be something about an autopsy. One of the most repeated
questions asked was "Do the people of Forensic Science deal with the
corpse?". Autopsy here, autopsy there, autopsy everywhere. This is mainly
the public's general opinion about people who work in this field.
Unfortunately,
I have to break it to everyone that this general opinion is wrong. An autopsy
is the examination of a body after death to determine the cause of death. An
autopsy is indeed related to forensic and may help the investigation process
but it is something a forensic pathologist does. A forensic pathologist is
actually a medical doctor, meaning that you have to get a degree in Medicine and
a master's in pathology for you to be able to do the autopsy. Having said that,
getting a degree in Forensic Science does not give you the ability to do the
autopsy.
In
Forensic Science, we do not directly deal with the corpse but the evidence or
samples around and from it. If doing autopsy is a pathologist's job, analysing
the sample collected from the autopsy is a forensic toxicologist's job and it
is something that someone in the field of forensic science can do. Forensic
toxicologists perform scientific tests on bodily fluids and tissue samples to
identify any drugs or chemicals present in the body using highly sophisticated
instruments, chemical reagents and precise methodologies in the laboratory to
determine the presence or absence of specific substances in the sample
(ExploreHealthCareers.org). Forensic toxicologists also work on cases involving
environmental contamination to determine the impact of chemical spills on
nearby populations. To simplify it, they study the adverse effects of chemical
substances and as part of the crime investigation team, a forensic toxicologist
will isolate and identify any substances in the body that may have contributed
to the crime.
Other
than obtaining sample evidence from post-mortem examination, samples may also
be attained directly from the crime scene and this is the job of a crime scene
investigator. Is it like those in the Hollywood Crime Scene Investigation
(CSI)?
Frankly
yes, but not to the extent that they do almost every single thing. In reality,
the CSI unit or the investigator usually are the police officers in which their
job is to secure the crime scene, collect and package the physical evidence at
the place of incident. The CSI team mainly consists of a crime scene leader, a
crime scene technician, a forensic photographer, a forensic sketch artist, a
ballistics expert, a fingerprint expert and a DNA expert
(CrimeSceneInvestigator EDU).
What
the CSI does when they first arrived at the crime scene is to take an overview
and walkthrough to get an overall feel about the crime, conduct a visual
inspection and examination without touching anything to figure out some of the
potential evidence and come out with theory. Next, they will document the scene
thoroughly using methods of taking photographs and sketches. After that comes
the most crucial part which is collecting the evidence in the most meticulous
and cautious way possible to not add extra unnecessary marks that can ruin the
evidence. The steps include collecting the potential evidence like blood,
fingerprints or firearms, tagging it, logging it and packaging it before
sending it to the crime lab. Depending on the investigator's expertise, he or
she may or may not be the one who analyses the sample in the lab. This is
because not all CSIs are forensic scientists. Again, analysing the samples will
be the work of a forensic chemist, biologist or toxicologist.
Another
popular question is how do the "forensic people" know the estimated
time of death when they found a dead body? Now, this is when forensic
entomologist comes to the rescue. The study of forensic entomology focuses on
insects or any other arthropods that colonize the human tissue in the
post-mortem situation. For instance, flies. Blowflies are one of the earliest
to get attracted to the human bodies from the moment of death and will lay eggs
on natural body openings such as nose and mouth or even wounds. Within 24
hours, these eggs will hatch into maggots. The life cycle of a fly from egg to
maggot to fly takes from two to three weeks. If the oldest insects are 7 days
old, then the victim has been dead for at least 7 days. After the first adults
begin to emerge, it is not possible to determine which generation is present
hence after a single blowfly generation has been completed, the time of death
is determined using the insect succession method (Dr. Gail S. Anderson). This
is the surface of how associating insects with human corpse provides the most
accurate estimation of time since death.
By
estimating the age of insects developing on human remains, we can estimate the
time since colonization and next determine the elapsed time since death of the
dead body.
In
conclusion, people in the Forensic Science field mainly are the one to analyse
and identify samples and evidence to come out with the causes and estimated
time of death and any matter related to the subject.
REFERENCES Labels: Education, Forensic Science, USM |
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