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

A withdraw mystery, an unidentified clay, stab wounds to the chest, a pool of countercurrent in a high contain street in New York, photographers, police, investigators rush in to begin their course of work to solve the mystery of the assassinated body, to solve the puzzle, to tell the world the story of the dead body, to make sure the realityner they lived didnt just vanish with their expiry in a recess second. It may seem like a season premiere of the latest CSI (Crime Scene Investigation) season, within one hour you are beated with the murderer and how it occurred and why. But is it always that simple? Is it always that crystal clear? Forensic Science has never been under the eye of the ordinary as it is right now. But the perception of what Forensics is to the public is not re solelyy what it seems to be in TV shows. Forensic Science is a much more vast collection of studies that helps sic murderers and criminals behind bars. It has been present since a long m ago an d its evolution from that time to now, has helped solve many infamous crimes that have shocked the world. It has become one of the approximately of the essence(p) elements in any trial to verify the accuracy of the indorse and to grant justice to the innocent and send the guilty behind bars.Forensic Science is know as the science of gathering tell apart and establishing facts that can be taken as evidence in a apostrophize of law. (Rankin, 2013). The first make use of of Forensics has not been clearly mentioned, but it is evident that Forensics was employ to solve causal agencys even from long time ago. One of the most famous cases reported was the story of Archimedes, where he utilise his theory of buoyancy to prove whether the gold smith who built the royal crown for the king used 100% gold as he say or whether he mixed silver to it. (Rankin, 2013). From the old age, Forensics has been developing with time. Even before the invention of the microscope, masses managed to link evidence and solve crimes. A hardly a(prenominal) such cases include the matching of a torn piece of paper in a pocket to a gunused in a homicide, developing the feel print system to verify and identify individuals and citeing the different blood categories which were some of the most basic techniques used in the early ages to distinguish evidence. (Rankin, 2013) With the development of engineering, Forensic Science has blossomed immensely.From the use of fingerprint analysis to DNA testing, the advancement of this science has helped to solve many crimes and put criminals behind bars. It has also introduced unhomogeneous aspects of Forensic Science which gives importance to individual specialties and not as a whole, a hardly a(prenominal) common aspects are Pathology, entomology, Toxicology and Anthropology. For the CSI fans, Dr. Al Robbins needs no introduction, to the others, he was the Medical Examiner in the series, a doctor who did autopsies and figured step up the seduce of death of the deceased. This is exactly what a pathologist does in real lifetime even though not as sugar coated as on TV. Pathology is the study of diagnosis and disease and determining the cause of death. It involves gathering evidence from the crime scene and establishing a time of death, cause of death and identifying the body. In almost all cases, Pathology is used, as it is the work out that determines the cause of death. One case as such involves a 16 year old girl named Leanne Tiernan. She mysteriously disappeared in November 2000 and sadly, her body was put up in august 2001. According to evidence make around the crime scene- a dog collar, twine and a cable, they were easily linked back to the murderer John Taylor. But the main piece of evidence was strands of Leannes pink sweater which was found 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 E lvidge BSc (hons), 2013) Even though Pathology is one of the main factors being exercised at a crime scene the other factors are equally essential to find out many other details about the crime. Another rather interesting method used by forensic scientist is Entomology which uses information from insects to establish the time of death and location. Naturally afterwardsward death, the body goes through and through various stages of decay which attracts many insects in succession, scientists are indeed able to establish a image in which insects arrive at which stage therefore, making it easy to establish a time of death. virtually insects are unique to a certain region, which helps in distinguishing a location if they are found in places where they are not commonly found. Some insects suck outblood which helps in analyzing if any toxics were obscure in the death. Even though the toxicology report is a job for the toxicologist, the sample is taken out from the insect by the Entom ologist. A case which used Entomology to a very high standard in the summer of 1997 was the case of Kevin Neal. A stepfather killed both his step children in an act of revenge. The Kevin Neal murder case used Entomology to great lengths. The children, 11 years and 4 years old, were both slay by unidentified homicidal evidence, but with the help of the vast amounts of insects which collected in the two 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 manner of asphyxia.The fact that 3 different types of insects werent found to be acting in the same manner as they would on a normal body made them suspect the day which they first thought the children were murdered. Then a few weed seeds which were attached to Neals heave 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 study of the adverse effects on the human body caused by toxics. It is mostly used to identify any chemicals present in the body after death to rule out foul play or suicide. Not only poisons toxicology is used to identify any foreign satisfying that may have been become toxic while in the body. (Toxicology, 2013) The first use of toxicology occurred in 1751 where a woman named Mary together with her husband in need of her fathers estate gave him Arsenic in small dosages until he died. However the maid caring for Marys father agnize what Mary did and she was accused of murdering her father.The autopsy wear offe by 4 notable doctors at that time revealed that the cause of death was indeed arsenic poisoning and from the gri nd saved by the maid they conducted a very poor method of burning the powder and smelling it which confirmed it was arsenic. This was reported to be the first toxicology essay conducted to convict a criminal. Even though the test conducted was purely vague, this incident made them develop more accurate tests to identify compounds and to make them pay worry to forensic toxicology.(Ramsland, n.d.) If you have watched the hit TV series Bones you probably understand what Forensic Anthropology is. The SWAGANTH (Scientific Working Group for Anthropology) defines forensic anthropology as The application of anthropological methods and theory particularly those relating to the recovery of analysis of human corpse to resolve legal matters. (Scientific Working radical for Forensic Anthropology, 2013) Anthropology, just as the other sectors of Forensics, is a mystery itself. All human skeletal remains are very similar therefore, identifying its owner can be a cumbersome task and not as easy as it looks on TV. From gathering tusks to creating a three dimensional image of the individual, anthropologists have to first gather the bones, analyze it and then identify its origin. Theres a certain protocol which they follow to study their evidence and present it. The protocol is as suchAre the remains human?Do they represent one person or more?When did the death occur?How old was the descendant?What was the sex of the descendant?What was the race of the descendant?What was the descendants stature? Body weight? Physique?Does the skeleton present physical anomalies, signs of old disease and injuries or other characteristics which could give a positive identification? What was the cause of death?What was the manner of death? (natural, accident, suicide, murder or unknown) (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 D r. George Parkman. A Harvard alumnus, Parkman donated the land in which the Harvard medical school was built. professor John Webster was a chemistry professor at the medical school his friend Parkman established. But overdue to hundreds of dollars Webster was indebted to Parkman, their friendship was heading checkmatehill. Webster was a man with expensive taste that couldnt suffice with the $4000 a year pay check he received, sohe has taken many loans over the lucifer of years when Webster and Parkman were friends. Parkman, let the debt go on until he found out that Webster was trying to sell off a valuable mineral collection which he put up as collateral on the loan. This made Parkman denounce Webster in public which may have been the cause for his dismissal from Harvard. Webster under phoney pretences then had requested Parkman to arrive at his laboratory to allegedly make a substantial payment of his debt, but little did Dr. Parkman know that, that it would be his final jour ney in life.Dr. Parkman was murdered that night and his body was burnt in a furnace to make him unrecognizable and if that was not gruesome enough, his body, or what was remaining, was thrown into the Charles River. The body was beyond recognition and a highly educated set of pathologists, anthropologists, odontologists who works in Harvard got together and distinguished it to be Dr. Parkman. In the following 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 immediately. (Snow, 1982) Most murder cases such as the Parkman Murder, Leanne Tiernan , are only a one time scenario. You have the murderer, the victim, the police, and the investigation. Some end up well, some end up bad, but either way, when the guilty party is kickd, 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 people 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 killings that are premeditated and are carried out in a series over a period of time. (Jenkins, 2013) What triggers human beings to suddenly be as impulsive as to kill and polish off their own beings, we dont know. But fortunately Forensics has been a driving force behind bringing these notorius criminals to justice. Theodore Robert Cowell, notoriously known as Ted Bundy was one of the most gruesome and frightened series killers in the USA. He used to pretend to have a broken arm and lured young women into his vehicle and horridly mutilated, raped and killed them. Known 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 have murdered over 30 women and to date , the exact amount is unknown. Aknown case, somewhat believed 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 genitals fortunately or unfortunately she was one of the very few people to have escaped the death sentence from Bundys terror.Bundy was not arrested for suspicion 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 handcuffs in his car which fall to the initial suspicions. This lead to him being recorded and under surveillance for some time and after many times he was released due 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 bite marks of some of the victims, at the same time a few strands of hair found in his car linked him to th e murders that lead to the final conviction of this mass murderer in 1989 January with his life ending in the electric chair. (Bell, 2012) The story of Richard Ramirez is quite intriguing. He was known as the Night 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 perform sexual activities with dead corpses as well. He was a self aclaimed satanist who had no repentance for the crimes he commited. His capture was with the help of fingerprinting techonology which was making quite a stir 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 account of 13 murders. (Reporter, 2013) John Wayne Gacy Jr., a name that still sends chills down anyones spine was a serial killer who preyed on young boys. He would perform sexual acts on the boys who he caught and eventually murder them. Gacy was a man loved by everyone. He was a hard worker 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 soused friends stated 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 hired 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 kept disappearing and after being questioned for suspicion of the disappearance of the men he hired to work for him, the sheriff in charge di d a background check on Gacy and got to know about his previous acts of sodomy. He then got a search warrant to investigate his house when Gacy wasnt in, he then went on to find many links that connected Gacy to many of the missing men and at that smear he confessed to one of the murders thought process they would not dig the grave yard in his crawl blank at that point.However the unbearable stench coming from Gacys crawl space 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 have 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 running game 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 od ontology, all of the other factors help in verifying the data you gather. Therefore, it is not quite clear cut as to say that only one aspect of Forensics played the whole part in solving a murder. This is the reason as to the Medical Examiner is the head of the Forensic department.All the data is gathered 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 merely interprets what the evidence convey to his area of expertise 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 will be habituated 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 last of the respected official therefore it is not always correct. R ecently 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 like CSI, Body of Proof, Bones, people are easily manipulated into believing the circumstantial evidence provided to judge 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 plainly 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. Regardless of the jurors verdict, the results that h ave provided in some cases are now known to be inconclusive. A recent question found out that identifications on the same fingerprint can change solely by presenting the print in a different context. Called conceptual biasing the report showed how previously identified finger 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 b egun to question the accuracy of the evidence used in a court. The highly controversial Amanda Knox case was late brought back to lime light with the Forensic Scientist in charge of the murder trial requested to retest the blood which was on the knife which was used to kill Meredith Kercher however, the invoke judge thought the evidence was unreliable 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 verify 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 will arise in the future(a).The advancement of technology has helped to create many new methods of tests for the use of Forensics. A recently discovered method of finger printing was found in Australia at Curtin University using henna. The ordinary method of identifying invisible 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 urine also giving the same res ults, this method was dropped in the 1950s, therefore this new method would be a new beginning for Gun grab Residual identification. (Pilant, 2000) The hour 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 leave the comfort of your house. It might soon overcome 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 on es not intentional whether theyre alive or not. Forensics has turned out to be a scientific breakthrough in the industry 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 whole 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 maths in court. Retrieved 2013, from BBC News Magazine http//www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22310186Bell, R. (2012). Ted Bundy. Retrieved 2013, from Crime program library http//www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/notorious/bundy/index_1.htmlCole, S. A., & Diosso-Villa, R. (2009). INVESTIGATING THE CSI EFFECT EFFECT MEDIA AND LITIGATION CRISIS IN CRIMINAL LAW. The Stanford Law Review , 1335-1373. Gribben, M. (n.d.). Crime subroutine library. Retrieved 2013, from Crime Library crimina mindls and methods http//www.trutv.com/library/crime/c riminal_mind/forensics/kevin_neal/1_index.htmlJenkins, J. P. (2013). Encyclopeadia. Retrieved 2013, from Encyclopaedia Brittanica http//www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/863836/serial-murderJr., D., & B., H. (2009). 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