Forensic Science Technicians Work Imagine going to a crime scene every day and picking up evidence. You then take the evidence back to the lab to investigate it. Not only that, the scene must be reconstructed and evidence used to catch a perpetrator. Once you figure it out, the case must be presented in court. That’s all in a day’s work. Forensic science technicians are also known as criminalists. Their main thing that is focused on is crime scene investigation and laboratory analysis. What happens is evidence such as bloodstains, drugs, pieces of clothing weapons, fibers, hair, and many more are collected then taken back to the laboratory to investigate and reconstruct the crime scene. Looking at everything, they try to link evidence to a suspect. This can be done by looking at marks a gun leaves on a bullet and looking at a suspect’s gun or DNA testing or so many more possibilities. …show more content…
One is being able to communicate with ones colleagues, bosses, or in court situations. Reasoning and problem solving is a big one used in finding the suspect. Math and science are also used to do testing or measurements or anything helpful. Also, helping reconstruct the crime scene will take visualizing. The last, but definitely not least important, is being able to manage time and work with others to get tasks done quickly and efficiently. Some common activities are being able to identify objects, actions, and events while recording down the information. Another major one is communicating with each other so the task will be done efficiently. More specific activities that are known to be done are collecting and keeping the physical evidence to be properly stored and used later to inspect. Crime scenes must also be reconstructed to find the tie between the evidence and suspect. The last one is examining, testing, or analyzing the evidence and data to reach a
“Learning basic investigative techniques will make you better at your job and increase your marketability to other firms. It’s also a lot of fun. Your next accident photo or witness interview might be the factor that wins the case.” (Bevans, 2004).
CSIs must photograph/sketch crime scenes, take measurements, make observations, testify against criminals in court, and collect, pack, label, document, and analyze evidence (Career Cruising). All of these tasks CSIs must complete, require them to handle a variety of tools including: cameras, tripods, flashlights, notepads, utensils to collect physical evidence, measuring tapes, rulers, microscopes, fingerprinting kits, and even guns in some cases (Career Cruising). CSI agents collect to different types of evidence, when they investigate a crime (Byrd). The first type of evidence is testimonial evidence, which is the answers CSIs questioning suspects and witnesses are given (Byrd). Physical evidence, which is the other type of evidence, is any type of three-dimensional evidence collected at a crime scene (Byrd). Although different CSI teams from different areas of the world can consist of multiple branches, including: detectives, technicians, medical examiners, scientists, and lab analysts, they still use forensics, which is science and technology, to investigate crimes (Zullo). There is always crime, but when there are no current cases; CSIs go back to old/previous cases (McFadden).
...atastrophe for the prosecution in the courtroom. Not only must they understand how to collect and analyze evidence, they must also know how to properly store, tag and account for all evidence in order to preserve the integrity of the evidence. Knowledge of how the defense will respond to presented evidence is also helpful in helping forensic experts explain their actions while conducting forensic testing.
A Crime Scene Investigator, CSI, helps law enforcement by collect the evidence at the scene and processing it to catch the criminal. A CSI does many things, such as, sketching the perpetrator from a description of the witness, photographing the scene, and collecting finger prints and DNA. (Crime Scene Analyst) They are held responsible for making sure the evidence is collected thoroughly and can stand up in court for prosecution of the culprit. They can choose whether to take an oath and become an officer to make arrests.
Most technicians decide to specialize in either crime scene investigation or laboratory analysis (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2014). I plan on finishing my degree in Criminal Justice and then go back to school later to obtain a degree in forensic science. Two BRAVO outcomes that I will be useful to use in being a Forensic Science Technician is basics and reasoning. “Basics is to require concepts such as scientific, mathematical, scientific, and creative methods through reading, listening, writing, and speaking all of which are key components in being successful in this job career” (Austin Peay University, 2014b). This career you have to be a good writer because over half of this job is just writing reports. You also have to be able to speak because some forensic technicians have to testify in court and it would be beneficial if that person knew how to put their point across. “Reasoning is the research and all what is involved in doing so hypothesize, experiment, and evaluate
This field is detail oriented involving crucial data and sample collection as well as analysis of the data collected .They take blood samples and tissues. It can also involve taking photographs and measuring wounds as well as collecting other vital evidence from the body. This may include hair or even semen in cases of sexual assault. They also serve to protect, encourage and offer moral support to assault victims.
Forensic pathologists are the people who determine the cause and time of death if the deceased person died under suspicious circumstances, whether they be violent or not. They determine if the death was accidental, a homicide, natural, a suicide, or even if the cause of death was unknown. They do this by studying said victim’s medical history, evaluating the crime scene for evidence, studying the body for any clues, and performing an autopsy. After determining the cause, time, and the manner in which the victim died, forensic pathologists make a written report on the victim and sometimes testify in court to report their findings.
A Crime Scene Investigator is a special agent that investigates crimes from local to federal levels. This career was chosen due to the hands-on investigation of collectible evidence by photographs, interviews, fingerprints, blood samples, crime scenes, and much more. As a future Crime Scene Investigator, this would be an exciting, stimulating, and rewarding job. This type of career would provide support for the prosecution team and hopefully lead to successful convictions. After analyzing and synthesizing four concepts of psychology that can be applied to a Crime Scene Investigator career, and ones that will be used in this paper are: biological, cognitive, behavioral, and social concepts.
CBS’s CSI: Crime Scene Investigation exploded into popularity when it aired in 2000, opening doors for the creation of other similar criminal investigative television shows involving forensic evidence such as Cold Case, Criminal Minds, and Bones. Many of these CSI-type shows present a murder or crime solved within an hour-long episode using forensic evidence conceived by glamorized CSI personnel and sometimes fabricated methodologies and technologies that only exist on television. Despite just being shows, one wonders whether these popular shows have skewered public perceptions about forensic evidence in real court cases and have impacted the outcome of court verdicts. The CSI Effect, explained by Kim, et all, was named after the television show
Forensic science is a broad term for a series of tests that forensic scientists run to potentially identify a perpetrator. Law enforcement uses these tests results, if allowed in court, to put said perpetrator behind bars. Common methods that forensic scientists use to determine this are fingerprint, hair and blood analysis. Fingerprint analysis is the case in which a fingerprint is left at a crime scene and law enforcement hope to trace it back to a database to get a match of a former criminal who maybe tied into the case. Hair analysis is when forensic scientists find a strand of hair most likely from the back of the neck which is then transported to the laboratory to be tested on for its measurement on its mineral availability. Lastly blood
A forensic interview is a structured conversation with a child or minor with the intention of eliciting detailed information about a possible event (s) that the child many have experienced or witnessed. Concurrently, for Van Heerden (1977: 8) forensics refer to the computerized activities or scientific knowledge employed by law enforcement agents to serve justice. In the study, forensic investigation is used to refer to any computer-related activities or methods used by police, investigators, prosecutors and all other law enforcement agents to gather facts, track down criminals, arrest or detain them, gather information, preserve information and finally present it in the court of law.
Forensic science is a broad name for many branches of forensics. It can be anything from analyzing crime scenes at the crime site to performing chemical, biological, and microscopic analysis in a lab. There is forensic biologists and forensic chemists who typically work in laboratory’s and specialize in natural sciences or engineering. But what I want to lean towards is the criminalist or crime scene investigators. The criminalist job includes; going to crime scenes, collecting evidence, and performing scientific and technical analysis in a lab or in a office. All forensic technicians have to write written reports with vivid details about their findings. They work with lawyers, detectives, and law enforcement to give the evidence to. Sometimes
“Forensic science is a group of scientific disciplines concerned with the application of their particular scientific area of expertise to law enforcement, criminal, civil, legal, and judicial matters.”
Forensic scientists help solve all crimes, including arson, rape, robbery, burglary, theft, forgery, and fraud. Forensic scientists also work on civil cases. In criminal law, the government - such as federal, state, and local - prosecutes and punishes people who harm the public safety. In civil cases, individuals seek compensation for private wrongs. An example of this is a car accident. As a criminal case, the reckless driver can be prosecuted and punished by the government for harming the public safety. At the same time, the person whose car was hit can sue the driver in a civil court for costs of damages and injuries that were suffered. Civil court cases that might require the services of forensic scientists include automobile, train, and airplane accidents, machinery, and product failures, and building
As long as people have been attempting to solve crime, forensic science has been involved in some form or another. Whether it has been through deductive reasoning or modern day science, evidence must be processed and understood in order to accurately depict what truly happened. Forensics is the use of science under a legal aspect (“Forensics”), meaning that the findings are to be presented in court upon the time of trial. More often than not these cases will involve murder and a conviction of the supposed murderer as the processed evidence is presented against them. Evidence is processed in several different types of methods and techniques, and these methods and techniques have become more and more reliant on technology in the past couple of decades. Forensic Science and its methods have moved forward though the production of biotechnologies, facial reconstruction, carbon dating, ballistic science, and emerging technologies.