Forensic Science Research Papers

Forensic Science was officially developed in the 13th century. It began when a murder mystery in China led a man named Song Ci to compare multiple wounds on animals with different weapons to see which wound matched that of the victim. Song Ci was living in 1248, so he was not even close to the technology we have today in the field of Forensic Science. In fact, forensic science just kept growing and eventually, hundreds of years later; the first official forensic science lab was opened in Los Angeles in 1929.
Crime scene investigators use forensic science to solve murders, trace chemicals in the victims, and also be able to identify the true identity of a victim. The evidence from a crime scene is picked up and taken back to a laboratory to be fully analyzed and
be able to trace the various factors recently mentioned. However, the process of analyzing isn’t always up to only one forensic scientist. Forensic Scientists have varying fields, such as that as lawyers and doctors.
As mentioned, a forensic scientist will not always be one man in charge of investigating an entire crime.There are many types of forensic scientists, with varying tools and roles in a crime scene. For example, a crime scene investigator will go to the crime scene and make short and fast deductions with a few amounts of tests that can be performed in a matter of minutes. The tests that will need more analyzing and cannot be done at the actual crime scene will be sent back to the laboratory. A tool mark investigator is such as one as Song Ci, who will look at wounds or collateral damage to see what could’ve caused the crime and how intense the crime was. Finally, a forensic pathologist is the man or woman responsible for running all major lab tests and will be in charge of finding any evidence linking either the victim or suspect to the crime scene. A small example of this would be: a crime scene investigator will walk into a house that

Farias & Ramon 3 was broken into, look for the blood of the victim and quickly try to find fingerprints at the scene. A tool mark examiner would look at how the door was broken, to see if it was picked, forced open, etc. He will then do a quick run through on the victim’s body, see what kind of trauma he/she will have, any marks indicating how he/she died. The information will then be compiled, and sent back to a laboratory, where more in depth tests will be made. These tests will show the identity of the victim, if fingerprints were found, help with who committed it.If the tool mark examiner could not find any external markings, it is up to the laboratory examiner to find any signs of the murder in the organ systems, such as poisoning. Finally, if they see that the door was smashed through, the victim shows multiple bruises, a fractured skull, and the fingerprints leads to his/her jealous coworker, the scientists will deduce the killer used a blunt weapon to kill a person out of envy.
As complex as the previous quick view into a crime scene seemed, these scientists have a plethora of tools to help them out, unlike Song Ci. Many of these are very complex pieces of machinery, however, technology does not always mean electricity.
Some non electrical tools include tweezers, serology kit, used to deduce any bodily fluids, including blood and urine, a hazard kit, used to identify any external hazards, such as carbon monoxide, sharp objects and such. Other technology includes many chemicals when combined in combinations with different pieces of the human body, including blood, tissue, and skin, will react and show signs of what the killer used to “hide.” For example, a few years ago in a small Texas town made a colossal change in the path of forensic science.
After a man was suspected of poisoning multiple wealthy families to gain money from their will, a scientist had to place two sister’s ashes in a solution to

Farias & Ramon 4 liquefy them as much as possible. Then he added a solution that after a few hours would turn purple to indicate if poisoning truly happened. After the wait, both solutions were a deep purple, indicating lethal doses of arsenic, a common rat poison that in large doses can be lethal. These types of innovations are what gives cities with a lot of crime hope to drop these rates.
East St. Louis is America’s top rank of murder rates. Most Forensic scientists work in these types of areas, mostly due to the amount of victims needing to be examined. Forensic science has developed these last three hundred years and will continue to develop, and due to these developments, areas with extremely high murder rates, such as East St. Louis or Detroit will eventually see drops in
crime.