Forensic Science: Evolution and how it has helped to solve many infamous crimes Essay

A shoot mystery, an un determine trunk, guessing wounds to the chest, a pool of blood in a eminent destination way in New York, p savoryographers, practice of law, investigators rush in to begin their course of work to puzzle off the mystery of the dead body, to lick the puzzle, to signalize the world the drool of the dead body, to stick sure the life they lived didnt incisively vanish with their cobblers last in a split second. It whitethorn seem desire a season premiere of the in style(p) CSI (Crime Scene Investigation) season, within peerless second you be limned with the get rid ofer and how it occurred and why. provided is it eer that simple? Is it always that crystal deport? rhetorical erudition has n constantly been below the eye of the public as it is right field now. and the perception of what rhetoricals is to the public is non really what it seems to be in TV shows. rhetorical Science is a often more(prenominal)(prenominal) vast collectio n of studies that economic aids couch murderers and criminals stinker bars. It has been demo since a yearn age ago and its evolution from that condemnation to now, has helped puzzle taboo umteen infamous nuisances that gestate shocked the world. It has become angiotensin converting enzyme of the close to crucial ele custodyts in approximately(prenominal) running game to cast the accuracy of the yard and to designation soundice to the innocent and s discontinue the discredited behind bars. rhetorical Science is lie with as the science of collection depict and establishing facts that idler be pictureed as betoken in a motor inn of law. (Rankin, 2013). The early subroutine of Forensics has non been all the way workforcetioned, simply it is evident that Forensics was utilise to solve disciplines tear reduce from long measure ago. ane of the around famous effects report was the boloney of Archimedes, where he utilise his theory of delicacy to prove whether the gold smith who construct the royal cr possess for the king used 100% gold as he said or whether he mix silver to it. (Rankin, 2013). From the old age, Forensics has been ontogeny with cartridge clip. however before the invention of the microscope, flock human beingaged to join tell and solve abhorrences. A fewer such lawsuits include the matching of a torn piece of paper in a pocket to a ar bowleryused in a homicide, obtaining the palpate affect system to verify and hear individuals and distinguishing the different blood categories which were few of the most basic techniques used in the early ages to distinguish try step forward. (Rankin, 2013) With the development of applied science, Forensic Science has blossomed immensely.From the use of fingerprint analytic thinking to DNA sieveing, the advancement of this science has helped to solve umteen offences and put criminals behind bars. It has in any grounds introduced various aspects of Forensic Science which gives wideness to individual specialties and not as a substantial, a few common aspects argon Pathology, bugology, Toxicology and Anthropology. For the CSI fans, Dr. Al Robbins needs no introduction, to the some others, he was the aesculapian quizzer in the series, a doctor who did autopsies and figured bulge out the buzz off of end of the deceased. This is conveyly what a diagnostician does in real life notwithstanding though not as net income coated as on TV. Pathology is the vignette of diagnosis and disease and find the take a shit of remnant. It involves assemblageing turn up from the crime dead reckoning and establishing a time of death, front of death and placeing the body. In almost all looks, Pathology is used, as it is the federal agent that determines the cause of death. One case as such involves a 16 year old girl diagnosed Leanne Tiernan. She mysteriously disappe atomic number 18d in November 2000 and sadly, her body was comprise in august 2001. According to designate appoint around the crime scene- a track collar, twine and a c up to(p), they were soft coupled butt to the murderer can Taylor. But the main piece of evidence was strands of Leannes pink sweater which was form at Johns house which provided the utmost piece of evidence to link him to the murder.John was arrested in November 2001 and sentenced to life imprisonment. (Suzanne Elvidge BSc (hons), 2013) tied(p) though Pathology is one of the main factors being exercised at a crime scene the other factors argon equally essential to date out many other details nearly the crime. Another rather elicit manner used by forensic scientist is bugology which uses in pulpation from insects to establish the time of death and lieu. Naturally afterwards death, the body goes through with(predicate) various stages of decay which attracts many insects in succession, scientists ar because competent to establish a pattern in which insect s attain at which stage therefore, do it easy to establish a time of death. or so insects are unique to a certain region, which helps in distinguishing a location if they are raise in props where they are not commsolely tack. Some insects lactate outblood which helps in analyzing if any toxics were involved in the death. Even though the toxicology report is a job for the toxicologist, the pattern is taken out from the insect by the Entomologist. A case which used Entomology to a very high prototype in the summer of 1997 was the case of Kevin Neal. A step bring come outed both his step children in an act of revenge. The Kevin Neal murder case used Entomology to not bad(p) lengths. The children, 11 days and 4 years old, were both murdered by unidentified homicidal evidence, tho with the help of the vast amounts of insects which gathered in the 2 bodies where they lay for weeks in a hot summer land, the entomologists were able to establish a rough time period of death and the cause of death to some vogue of asphyxia.The fact that 3 different types of insects werent found to be acting in the akin elan as they would on a normal body do them suspect the day which they first fancy the children were murdered. Then a few gage seeds which were attached to Neals pants from the site, were found at his house linked him to the crime scene and after years of trial, he was sentenced to life imprisonment. (Gribben, n.d.) This also shows us how a simple factor such as insect succession which helped in determining the time of death which helped in forensics to form a timeline to figure the whereabouts of Neal at the time of death and link it to the murder of the children. Toxicology is the examine of the adverse effects on the humankind body caused by toxics. It is mostly used to identify any chemicals present in the body after death to find out out foul play or suicide. not only poisons toxicology is used to identify any foreign stuff that may use up b een become toxic era in the body. (Toxicology, 2013) The first use of toxicology occurred in 1751 where a woman named Mary in concert with her husband in need of her forefathers estate gave him Arsenic in small dosages until he died. However the maidservant caring for Marys father realized what Mary did and she was accused of murdering her father.The post-mortem done by 4 noteworthy doctors at that time revealed that the cause of death was indeed arsenic poisoning and from the powderise saved by the maid they conducted a very poor system of hot the powder and smelling it which confirmed it was arsenic. This was reported to be the first toxicology experiment conducted to reprove a criminal. Even though the test conducted was purely vague, this incident contact them develop more complete tests to identify compounds and to trace them pay attention to forensic toxicology.(Ramsland, n.d.) If you use up watched the hit TV series bone you probably to a lower place(a)stand what Forensic Anthropology is. The SWAGANTH (Scientific functional Group for Anthropology) defines forensic anthropology as The finishing of anthropological methods and theory particularly those relating to the recuperation of analysis of human remains to crack up legal matters. (Scientific functional group for Forensic Anthropology, 2013) Anthropology, just as the other sectors of Forensics, is a mystery itself. all told human gaunt remains are very correspondent therefore, identifying its induceer can be a cumbersome task and not as easy as it looks on TV. From gathering bones to creating a three dimensional image of the individual, anthropologists remove to first gather the bones, analyze it and past identify its origin. thithers a certain communications protocol which they follow to study their evidence and present it. The protocol is as such ar the remains human?Do they gibe one person or more?When did the death occur?How old was the desc finishing(prenominal)?Wh at was the sex of the descendant?What was the race of the descendant?What was the descendants stature? soundbox weight? Physique?Does the skeleton present physical anomalies, signs of old disease and injuries or other characteristics which could give a plus identification? What was the cause of death?What was the manner of death? (natural, accident, suicide, murder or unknow) (Snow, Forensic Anthropology, 1982)This method was introduced after a high profile murder case which took place in the 1850s at Harvard University. The case was called, The Parkman Murder after the murder of Dr. George Parkman. A Harvard alumnus, Parkman donated the land in which the Harvard medical instill was built. Professor John Webster was a chemistry professor at the medical inculcate his friend Parkman established. But collect to hundreds of dollars Webster was indebted(predicate) to Parkman, their friendship was heading masterhill. Webster was a man with expensive taste that couldnt service wit h the $4000 a year pay fancy he received, sohe has taken many loans oer the couple of years when Webster and Parkman were friends. Parkman, let the debt go on until he found out that Webster was trying to grass off a valuable mineral collection which he put up as collateral on the loan. This do Parkman denounce Webster in public which may agree been the cause for his dismissal from Harvard. Webster under false pretences then had requested Parkman to arrive at his laboratory to allegedly disembowel a substantial payment of his debt, and little did Dr. Parkman know that, that it would be his net journey in life.Dr. Parkman was murdered that iniquity and his body was burnt in a furnace to make him unrecognizable and if that was not drab enough, his body, or what was remaining, was thrown into the Charles River. The body was beyond recognition and a highly en lighterened set of pathologists, anthropologists, odontologists who works in Harvard got together and distinguished it t o be Dr. Parkman. In the pursual week, Webster was caught by bone fragments which were found at his home furnace. This case would go down in history as the first case to be solved down through Anthropology and a guiding stone to what Forensic Anthropology is forthwith. (Snow, 1982) Most murder cases such as the Parkman Murder, Leanne Tiernan , are only a one time scenario. You capable the murderer, the victim, the patrol, and the investigation. Some end up well, some end up bad, but either way, when the blameworthy party is charged, and the deceased family componsated, the story ends. But there are stories that dont end that easily. Stories which go on for years, with many masses involved, many casualties that would terrorize whole nations in the matter of days and some to not be solved even after a centurys time Serial Killings.These are cleanup spots that are premeditated and are carried out in a series over a period of time. (Jenkins, 2013) What triggers human beings t o suddenly be as impulsive as to kill and mutilate their own beings, we dont know. But fortunately Forensics has been a ride force behind bringing these notorius criminals to justice. Theodore Robert Cowell, notoriously known as Ted Bundy was one of the most gruesome and frightened serial killers in the USA. He used to pretend to ware a broken arm and lured youth women into his vehicle and horridly mutilated, transgressd and killed them. cognize to be a handsome man, Bundy had no problems with making small talk to make young women comfortable around him, until he made his move. He is known to arrest murdered over 30 women and to date, the exact amount is unknown. Aknown case, fair call upd to be Bundys first, was the brutal rape of 18 year old Joni Lenz, she was found in her own basement with a bed rod savagely rammed into her genital organ fortunately or unfortunately she was one of the very few people to draw escaped the death sentence from Bundys terror.Bundy was not ar rested for qualm for murder, he was arrested for not stopping at a police blockade and after being stopped, the police were found suspicious items such as a ski mask, rope, crowbar and chains in his car which lead to the initial suspicions. This lead to him being save and under surveillance for some time and after many times he was emissiond receivable to lack of evidence. But due to his sadistic fantasies of biting his victims, it was Odontology that helped put Bundy away, Odontologists were able to associate his teeth marks with the mo marks of some of the victims, at the same time a few strands of tomentum found in his car linked him to the murders that lead to the final conviction of this mount murderer in 1989 January with his life ending in the electric chair. (Bell, 2012) The story of Richard Ramirez is kinda intriguing. He was known as the shadow Stalker due to his modus operandi which followed, jumping into houses and killing people inside the house. The method of his killings were gruesome. He would mutilate his victims by gouging their eyes out and mutilating their corpses. He was known to manage intimate activities with dead corpses as well. He was a self aclaimed satanist who had no remorse for the crimes he commited. His capture was with the help of fingerprint techonology which was making quite a a hassle at that time.Ramirezs fingerprint caught in a car was linked to him and his mugshot was sent to the police, in one weeks time, he was captured and sent to prison on the business relationship of 13 murders. (Reporter, 2013) John Wayne Gacy Jr., a name that still sends chills down anyones paster was a serial killer who preyed on young boys. He would perform inner acts on the boys who he caught and eventually murder them. Gacy was a man loved by everyone. He was a hard player who was just trying to catch a break which he did, but would end up tarnishing his image due to his sadistic homosexual needs. Married twice, he would be no more different to your own friendly neighbor, as his close friends express in court during his hearing. He would go on to murder more than 30 young teenage boys who he would perform sexual acts on and burying them in his own backyard. After going through the second divorce he startedhis own business where he undertook work such painting, refurbishing and maintaining. He chartered young men under him to apparently lower the costs, but it was apparent that, that was a cover up to hide Gacys fantasies. One by one, the men at his workplace unbroken disappearing and after being straitsed for suspicion of the disappearance of the men he hired to work for him, the sheriff in charge did a background check on Gacy and got to know about his previous acts of sodomy. He then got a search warrant to analyze his house when Gacy wasnt in, he then went on to find many link up that connected Gacy to many of the lose men and at that point he confessed to one of the murders thinking they would not dig the sombre yard in his crawl situation at that point.However the unbearable reek coming from Gacys crawl plaza would lead the police to dig up his backyard that would reveal the grave yard of the missing men, more than 30 bodies and of which, 7 kick in not been recognized up to date. Anthropology contend a massive role in separating all the bone fragments gathered from his backyard and identifying their owners as well as determining their cause of death. When the final tally came up Gacy would only be second to Ted Bundy with the death toll. Even though it was one factor in forensics which helped in catching these murderers be it pathology, anthropology or odontology, all of the other factors help in verifying the data you gather. Therefore, it is not quite clear cut as to give tongue to that only one aspect of Forensics contend the whole part in result a murder. This is the reason as to the Medical Examiner is the head of the Forensic department.All the data is gat hered by him and he makes the final judgment as to what the evidence shows. In forensics, the evidence is the bits and pieces of a story that is scattered around. The forensic examiner however interprets what the evidence means to his area of expertness and delivers it to the Medical Examiner the author. Here, the Medical Examiner gathers all the little stories scattered around and builds up the story that exit be given out to the police the publisher. In the same case, these results may turn out to not be what you expected. Sometimes, these results may interpret inconclusive results that would alter the final determination of the respected official therefore it is not always correct. Recently many scientific communities have been debating about the validity of Forensic Evidence in court due to various inconsistencies in the results that has been produced in labs. Not only scientists, many people are now questioningthe science of forensic evidence as at current, the evidence is taken for granted. With hit TV shows exchangeable CSI, Body of Proof, Bones, people are easily manipulated into believing the circumstantial evidence provided to infer a case, now called the CIS effect where people judgments are subconsciously questioned by TV shows than what is provided as evidence.Some juries who are fans of CIS have gone on to acquit ostensibly guilty criminals just because the investigators failed to test evidence the CSI way. (Cole & Diosso-Villa, 2009) These jurors are now known to rely on superficial evidence CSI has provided rather than the evidence provided. The most frightnening factor in this case is the evidence itself. disregarding of the jurors verdict, the results that have provided in some cases are now known to be inconclusive. A recent research found out that identifications on the same fingerprint can change solely by presenting the print in a different place setting. Called conceptual biasing the report showed how previously identified fing er print results of the samples changed when details about their arrest were told which is called conceptual biasing. (Jr. & B., 2009, 36-38p) Another case which was under the spotlight was th case of Brandan Mayfield. He was arrested with charges of being a material witness based on his fingerprints found in a bag where the detonation device of the terrorist bombing which occurred in Madrid, Spain which killed 191 people and injured thousands. The fingerprint of Mayfield was analyzed by an outside source by a different individual.The Spanish police then alerted the FBI regarding doubts with the findings of Mayfield and released him after 18 days with $2 million componsation. (Jr. & B., 2009) Many scholars have begun to question the accuracy of the evidence used in a court. The highly controversial Amanda Knox case was recently brought back to lime light with the Forensic Scientist in charge of the murder trial requested to retest the blood which was on the dig which was used to ki ll Meredith Kercher however, the appeal judge thought the evidence was perfidious and hence dismissed the suggestion. This would have been a major point to rule out whether it was Kerchers blood in the knife as statistically, if the testing was done more than 5 times, the results would have been more accurate with regard to whether the blood was actually from Kercher and would have either verified the unreliable evidence or dismissed it which would make a firm case for Knoxs release (Alexander, 2013) At points likethese the evidence is just put aside where it would have been of great resource. Since the inception of forensics, it has managed to send many criminals behind bars, as to whether the law decides if it is true or not is up for debate, but scientist today are trying to make the evidence they gather more reliable so that no such cases get out approach in the future.The advancement of engineering has helped to create many pertly methods of tests for the use of Forensics. A recently discovered method of finger printing was found in Australia at Curtin University employ henna. The usual method of identifying out of sight fingerprints were said to be by using nin-hydrin a volatile chemical, now they have been able to use henna to identify the finger prints which is not harmful at all and is available at ease. (Renee Jelly, Chris Lennard, Limc, & Almogd, 2008) other findings include gunshot residual identification. The technology to identify minute residual materials on suspects is being developed. Earlier use, included the use of paraffin to make cast over the suspects hand and when sprayed with a reagent would turn into a specific colour, but due to cigarettes and peeing also giving the same results, this method was dropped in the 1950s, therefore this new method would be a new root system for Gun Shot Residual identification. (Pilant, 2000) The min of a purely fictional TV episode ends. What has is it done to you? What has it made you believe? If only forensics was as crystal clear as in TV, the police would have caught all the criminals and serial killers of the world if so, but unfortunately it is not.We have to slap ourselves back to reality and realize the situation at hand. Forensic Science has helped to imprison the demons in human form that have made you want to doubt if you will ever see your loved ones after they advance the comfort of your house. It might soon traverse the point where innocent children such as Madeleine McCann, Edward and Austin Bryant (Sampson, 2011) can be found by the use of new technology and reopen these cases and analyze the evidence recorded and stored. It would give peace to many parents who are mourning the disappearance of their loved ones not knowing whether theyre alive or not. Forensics has turned out to be a scientific breakthrough in the assiduity of crime. With the media attention it is getting, Forensics is at a point where its growing at a steady rate. It has brought a whol e new era in to the cycle of forensics and what we will expect in the future will definitely be unimaginable and till then we willawait.BibliographyAlexander, R. (2013, 04). Amanda Knox and bad mathematics in court. Retrieved 2013, from BBC News Magazine http//www.bbc.co.uk/ news show/magazine-22310186Bell, R. (2012). Ted Bundy. Retrieved 2013, from Crime subroutine library http//www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/notorious/bundy/index_1.htmlCole, S. A., & Diosso-Villa, R. (2009). INVESTIGATING THE CSI aftermath EFFECT MEDIA AND LITIGATION CRISIS IN CRIMINAL LAW. The Stanford constabulary revue , 1335-1373. Gribben, M. (n.d.). Crime subroutine library. Retrieved 2013, from Crime Library crimina mindls and methods http//www.trutv.com/library/crime/criminal_mind/forensics/kevin_neal/1_index.htmlJenkins, J. P. (2013). Encyclopeadia. Retrieved 2013, from Encyclopaedia Brittanica http//www.britannica.com/EBchecked/ payoff/863836/serial-murderJr., D., & B., H. 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