Lecture 1: history of forensic science

Question 1

Definitions

Answer 1

-The application of scientific methods and techniques to issues or matters under investigation by a court of law.
-The application of science to criminal and civil laws during criminal investigations, as governed by the legal standards of admissible evidence and criminal procedure.

Question 2

Why do we need forensic science

Answer 2

-EXPERT WITNESS
-Forensic evidence
-Scientific and factual
-Objective evidence

Question 3

Forensic applications pathway

Answer 3

An investigated incident will give rise to three questions:
* Has a crime been committed?
* If so, who is responsible?
* If the responsible person has been traced, is there enough evidence to charge the person and support a prosecution?

CRIME SCENE: Investigate, collect and package evidence
LABORATORY: Examine evidence; Prepare Report
COURT

Question 4

Why is the application pathway essential?

Answer 4

• Knowledge development
• Validation of novel approaches, methods, techniques

Question 5

The origins of forensic science I

Answer 5

• Principles and techniques needed to identify and/or compare physical evidence applied to criminal justice system
• Sir Arthur Conan Doyle popularised scientific crime-detection methods through Sherlock Holmes
• Sherlock Holmes – a fictional character – first:
  -Applied serology,
  fingerprinting, firearm
  identification
  -Questioned document analysis
  long before their value was fully
  recognised and accepted by
  real-life investigators

Question 6

The origins of forensic science II

Answer 6

• 250 BC – Erasistratus, an ancient Greek physician, discovered that his patients’ pulse rates increased when they were telling lies. First lie detection test?
• 1235 – Story of Sung Tzu and the bloody sickle. A murder was committed using a sickle. All those in the village who owned a sickle were made to bring them out and lay them in the sun. Eventually flies gathered on the murder weapon.
• 1686 – Professor of anatomy Marcello Malpighi notes in his treaties the ridges, spirals and loops in fingerprints
• 1835 – Henry Goddard of Scotland Yard first uses bullet comparison
• 1855 – Ambroise August Tardieu first draws attention to petechial haemorrhages occurring in asphyxial deaths
• Mathieu Orfila (1787-1853) - founder of forensic toxicology (poisons & animals)
• Alphonse Bertillon (1853-1914) - founder of criminal identification (anthropometry)
• Francis Galton (1822-1911) - founder of fingerprinting
• Leone Lattes (1887-1954) – founder of blood grouping (still used today)
• Hans Gross (1847-1915) - wrote the first book describing the application of scientific disciplines to the field of criminal investigation
• Edmond Locard (1877-1966) - Locard’s Exchange Principle i.e. every contact leaves a trace; Founder of the first forensic laboratory in Lyons (1910)
• 1840 - First toxicology case; Proof of arsenic poisoning of M. Lafarge
• 1901 - Fingerprint classification scheme; Sir Edward Henry
• 1902 - ABO Blood typing; Karl Landsteiner
• 1910 - “Every contact leaves a trace”; Edmund Locard
• 1988 - 1st DNA court case - Colin Pitchfork

Question 7

Forensic science laboratory’s

Answer 7

• 1910 – Lyons
• 1915 – Dresden
• 1923 – Vienna
• 1925 – Holland, Finland, Sweden
• 1932 – USA - Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
  1935 – UK - Metropolitan Police Laboratory

Question 8

UK forensic science

Answer 8

• Metropolitan Police Laboratory opened in 1935
• Service expanded to provide regional laboratories for all of England & Wales
• 1991 – the Forensic Science Service (FSS) becomes an executive agency of the Home Office with 7 laboratories in England & Wales, and 1 in Northern Ireland
• Scotland – 4 individual police forces with laboratories
• LGC Forensics – formerly government laboratories
• Private laboratories, universities & individuals
• Forensic Science Service (FSS) closed in March 2012
• Scotland – Scottish Police Services Authority / Scottish Police Authority, April 2007
• Forensic Science Northern Ireland –becomes agency within Department of Justice, 12 April 2010

Question 9

Career paths

Answer 9

• Scene of Crime Officer (SOCO)
• Forensic Scientist – chemistry, geology, microbiology, pathology, taphonomy, etc.
• Lawyer
  Consultant

Question 10

Forensic laboratory

Answer 10

• Administration
• Biology
• DNA
• Trace evidence
• Toxicology
• Chemistry

Question 11

Other areas

Answer 11

> Document analysis
Firearms & Toolmarks
Fingerprints – patterns; microbial (?)

Question 12

CAI: three overarching phases

Answer 12

• ‘Customer requirement’
• ‘Case assessment’
• ‘Service delivery’ of written statements of test results together with an assessment of their significance
  -All are sensitive to feedback and review

Question 13

CAI: PERSPECTIVES / CRITIQUE

Answer 13

• Move away from ‘uniqueness’
• Use of probabilistic approach
• Forensic Science Service scientists
• Bayes theorem
• ‘Value for money’