Essay Example on Forensics: A Scientific Discipline for Criminal Activity Examinations

Introduction

When people hear of forensics, they often think of crime scene examination. A crime scene examination is always an important consideration for any successful criminal activity examination, and this is what, in a nutshell, forensics entails. Forensic discipline is a scientific discipline that is involved in the examination of data, information, and materials that are found in a scene of a crime, and the results are usually used in a court of law. It is a field that employs laws of science to turn what is found in a crime scene into real evidence that can be used in a case. There are many fields involved in forensics, including DNA examination, documentation analysis, among many other related fields. This essay seeks to delineate several aspects of forensics discipline, including how long the forensic discipline has been around, some of the leading investigators, significant cases relating to the discipline, what is interesting in this discipline before picking a state, and researching their state laboratory system.

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How Long the Forensic Discipline has been AroundForensic has been used for many years to resolve puzzling criminal activity but what is intriguing is that there is evidence of the existence of this discipline in the prehistoric period evidenced by fingerprints found in paintings and carvings. Nevertheless, it is the Chinese who have probably used forensics for a longer period compared to most civilizations. For instance, in 700s, identification of clay sculptures and documents was made through the use of fingerprints (Iorliam, 2018). Although there was no formal classification at the time, they most likely helped modern forensics more than anyone would think. Later, the Chinese came up with what is thought to be the first written record of medical forensic science. The record, known as Hsi Duan Yu (The Washing away of wrongs), was crafted in 1248bc, and this book explored human anatomy in-depth, specifically the difference in the body system of a strangled person and a drowned person (Gehl & Plecas, 2017). The 17th century was marked by the renaissance, where civilizations started to concentrate more on science rather than religion. Consequently, it was during this time, in specificity 1609, that the first treatise on systematic document examination was published by Francios Demille. Later in 1686, the University of Bologna's professor, Marcello Malpighi, wrote about the different qualities of fingerprints, and since then, there has been a subsequent discovery of new forensic techniques. For example, the Germans, in 1810, utilized query document analysis.

Mathieu Orfila, a Spanish teacher, is known as the father of recent day toxicology due to his published documents on chemical content. He was also one of the first persons to use a microscope to detect differences in blood and semen stains. However, the invention of the polarizing lumination microscope by William Nichol transformed the field of forensics as it gave more insights through in-depth checks. It was in 1835 that a Scottish, Henry Goddard did the first bullet comparability to solve a murder case. Later in 1854, another Scottish, James Marsh, detected strychnine that was used in a jury trial. In the same year, dry out plate digital photography was developed by an English doctor (Gehl & Plecas, 2017). In 1856, Friend William Herschel, working for the Indian Civil Service, started to use fingerprints as a document verification technique instead of the use of signatures. It was later in 1896 that the print classification system for fingerprints was developed by Richard Henry, and it is an important aspect that is utilized by forensics today (Iorliam, 2018). The 20th century saw more advancement, such as the discovery of different kinds of bloodstreams, development of portable polygraph machines, deciphering electron microscopy with electron dispersive X-ray technology, among others. One can point out from this history that forensics is characterized by improvements over the years, and many more improvements are expected in the future, which will make law enforcement even more interesting.

Leading Scientists

Since the 19th century, law enforcement agencies have continually applied forensics to solve many high profile cases. The contributions of several scientists in this field have made criminal investigations turn to a high-tech process, which has made it more difficult for criminals to get away with crimes than in the past. Hsi Duan Yu is one of the pioneers of forensics, and Yu documented how insects could be used to solve a murder in the 13th century in his/her work "the washing away of wrongs." Mathieu Orfila is known as the father of recent day toxicology (Gehl & Plecas, 2017). Alphonse Bertillon is credited as the first scientist to develop a scientific system of personal identification. It was Francis Galton who came up with a methodology for classifying fingerprints for filing purposes. Leone Lattes, at the start of the 20th century, developed the blood classification system, now widely recognized as A, B, AB, and O.

Dr. William Bass is United States' famous forensic scientist who is well known for his contribution to human decomposition and well as interpreting people's bones. Dr. Joseph Bell was a famous scientist who came up with the concept of close observation before making a diagnosis. Dr. Edmond Locard became the first scientist to set a crime laboratory, which he set in France for analysis of crime evidence (Iorliam, 2018). Although fingerprints have been in use for many years, it was in the 1880s that he established a statistical model of fingerprint analysis, noting that the chance of two individuals having identical fingerprints was 1 in 64 billion (Iorliam, 2018). William R. Maples credited for his contribution in forensics through human identification and trauma analysis. Frances Glessner Lee from the United States is recognized for developing crime scene investigations through building miniature crime scenes, which is still used in forensic training. Robert P. Spalding is another scientist whose work is highly recognized in the field of forensics. He developed expertise in bloodstain pattern analysis, where he even became the trainer to FBI field office evidence response teams across the United States.

Significant Cases Relating to Forensics

In one case, a teenager named Ima Jean Sanders disappeared from Warner Robins in 1974, a time when DNA testing was hardly known. It was the same year that Paul John Knowles, a serial killer, started his killing spree, and in 2011, forensic investigations revealed that Sanders was one of the victims of the serial killer (Jeffries, 2011). Georgia Bureau of Investigation collected skeletal remains from a wooden area in 1976, and in 2008, they submitted the DNA materials to the authorities. The genetic material matched those of Sander's mother and sister, and the authorities indicated that she was Knowles's victim because the remains confided to the serial killer's audiotaped descriptions of crimes in Georgia.

In another case, Helene Pruszynski's murder was only solved this year after almost four decades. She was raped and stabbed to death in 1980 in what the investigators initially thought was abduction on her way to school. It was only last that the police caught up with her alleged murderer after accessing the DNA of the killer's distant cousin. The alleged killer, Joseph DeAngelo, terrorized California in the 70s and 80s, and police have identified him as the killer from his cousin's DNA that she uploaded on a genealogy website (Shammas, 2019). In this case, the identification of the killer has been a result of the assistance of Forensic Genetic Genealogy (FGG).

Another case is that in which Cobb District Attorney Joyette M. Holmes announced in January this year that genetic genealogy testing had been used to solve three rape cases that occurred 21 years ago. In 1999, three women were assaulted in their homes that are within a three-mile radius from June to October. It was determined that one offender was responsible for the three acts, and over the years, investigators had tried to match the DNA of the semen to offenders whose DNA was in the Combined DNA Index System, but none matched. Genetic genealogy testing identified a potential ancestor of the rapist, and this is what was used to highlight a potential suspect (Johnson, 2020). In December 2019, the police collected a sample from a man for DNA comparison only for the man to go missing and commit suicide the next day.

It took 21 years for police to solve a murder case that involved the killing of Lorrie Ann Smith in 1997. It was not until 2018 that Darryl Halbert, Fulton's county police chief announced that a suspect, Jerry Lee, was finally arrested in connection with the murder. Smith was shot dead in her home, and police at the time found the suspect's blood, but they could not make DNA match at the time. It was not until recently that Parabon Company found DNA that had strains that matched that of the suspect, and this was a DNA of a person who was trying to uncover their family tree (Fernandes & Jaquez, 2018). It was this DNA that was used to connect Lee, and his DNA matched that of the 19997 murder suspect, confirming that he killed Smith.

A murder case that had gone cold for more than two and a half decades was only solved last year. In 1994, a woman was raped at B & H Cleaners premises after the perpetrator had demanded that she gives him all the money. The case went cold after the police were unable to figure out who the man was until 2019 when they uncovered some DNA evidence. The evidence was sent to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation for testing, and results led law enforcers to Walter Bullard (Dillon, 2019). He was consequently charged with aggravated sodomy, kidnapping, armed robbery, and rape.

Interests that I have in the discipline

Forensics is a broad investigational field that covers many studies and sub-sciences. However, I find some forensic field more interesting than the others. One of these fields is forensic anthropology, and this forensic discipline involves applying the science of biology to the legal process, primarily the human skeleton (Strengthening forensic science in the United States, 2009). As a forensic anthropologist, I will have the capability to perform forensic investigations based on bones and human remains' examinations. The other field that interests me is forensic archaeology. The filed also entails applying forensic investigative techniques to human bones and remains only that it deals with materials that are thought to be quite old such as human materials dating back to several centuries. Forensic pathology is another area of interest, an area that focuses on disease and microbiological matter to get is right about a crime or death, such as in postmortem examinations. I also have interests in forensic microscopy. As a forensic microscopist, I will specialize in microscope use such that I can effectively analyze samples derived from scenes of crime suspects' bodies, environmental matter, and victims' bodies. A crime scene technician is one of the most intriguing forensic fields. This area entails visiting the scene of the crime, collecting, recording, and maintaining on-scene evidence (Strengthening forensic science in the United States, 2009). The uniqueness of a crime scene technician is that one gets to experience the most interesting, riveting, and disturbing scenes not experienced by any other forensic worker. Boredom here is unheard of as one gets to engage in real and gritty work.

Current and Future Trends in Forensics

Forensic science continues to evolve and advance. One of the current trends in this field is DNA phenoty...