Criminal Justice Profession and Forensic Science
Introduction.
The police officers and the detectives find evidences which are subject to objection. This is because when the crime scene is not used for investigation there might be lack of crucial evidence and criminal could go unnoticed leading to the increase in number of the convicted guilty people. The incident of crime will increase; thieves will go unnoticed and keep on stealing, murderers will keep on killing and drug trafficking will increase. Nowadays science is mostly used to solve crimes by providing the necessary information regarding the criminals; as the leave some evidence on the crime scene. When forensic science evidence is collected very well without contamination it can be used to determine the people who were involved in the scene of crime. Criminal justice professionals lack the required training in crime investigation and evidence collection. The evidence and the scientific concepts are crucial in convicting the criminal of a certain crime, thus the criminal justice professional need to integrate with the forensic science in their work to enhance justice and avoid the miscarriage of injustice in their work.
The criminal justice need to work hand in hand with the forensic science which plays a major role in criminal investigations. Prosecution of the criminals has been made ver easy as forensic science provides a better way of identifying the culprits. Forensic science has made it easy to identify the bombing terrorist which criminal justice security could not identify on their own without the forensic science. For example the
Criminal justice profession requires the integration of the forensic science for its process of investigation. The forensic science plays the traditional function of identifying who was involved in the scene and what really happened during the crime. On top of that forensic science contributes more in making the tests and directing on the investigation lines. Forensic science provides timely and effective investigation information that can be used by the criminal justice professionals to judge the culprits. Forensic science has played a major role in solving the crime and has also reduced the crime injustice among the criminal justice professionals as it provides the right information about the offenders to the justice professionals.
The criminal justice integration with forensic science will be of great importance especially for the post convicted culprits and the pre convicted culprits. The justice services will be in a position to identify the criminals who have never been arrested and the people who have been mistaken as criminals and jailed. The use of the forensic science will ease the burden of cases in the courtrooms. The forensic science could also be used to administer justice in cases where by there might be justice miscarriage. The victims could serve in jail for many years due to lack of evidence thus forensic science could provide the best evidence that could be used to find the culprit guilty or innocent. For example in Britain where by the Sean Hodgson had been jailed for 27 years of a murder and rape case of Teresa where by the forensic science evidence showed that he was convicted wrongly which marked the longest Britain justice miscarriage. Forensic science has recently become the criminal justice experts as they provide the necessary information on investigation about the criminals. Though most of the states don’t allow the forensic science evidence to be kept for long and the post convicted criminals don’t have access to the forensic information, this makes the justice professionals to make wrong judgment to some people who are guilty. Chatfield, Sara and Fraser (2010) argues that criminal justice professionals need to find a better way of keeping the evidence to make sure they can use it in future to avoid miscarriage of the justice.
Though forensic science provide the information there is sometime the wrongful conviction which might arise due to the identity mistake by the scientists; thus the criminal justice professionals need to use the forensic science in a clear manner to ensure they foster justice in their work. (Ubelaker, 2011)This can be due to tainted evidence, and contamination which might occur during the transportation, in the scene of crime and may be in the laboratory. There can also be erroneous assumption of forensic science evidences during prosecution. For the enforcement of the authority the criminal justice professionals need to get whet was collected from the crime scene to administer justice in their work. This is because the scientific evidence works as a portion of the investment procedures.
The media reports as been showing that the convicted criminals are guilty as they have been convicted due to wrong identity, wrong eye witness and corruption among the police men. Integrating the forensic science and the criminal justice professionals will be in a position to reduce the level of injustice and criminal miscarriages in the courtrooms. Stuart and Nordby (2009) argues that the forensic scientists should always use the correct procedure and should recognize the scene very carefully to ensure that they get the correct information which wont be distorted to ensure justice is administered through forensic science evidences.
The law is always in need of finding the truth for solving the human conflict thus the best method to achieve this is the use of the forensic science. The forensic scientist need to act with honest and integrity to ensure that they give the correct evidence about the scene, in collecting the information and giving the report about the scene of the crime. The topic relates to saint Leo value of integrity in that the forensic scientists need to work in an honest and integrity way in undertaking their duties. In Saint Leo value of integrity they made sure that in terrorism and crime the information given and the experiences and given in an honest manner in words and action. The criminal justice professionals need to integrate with the forensic science to ensure that their work is done in an honest and integrity manner to enhance justice and avoid the miscarriage of justice in judging the criminals to avoid convicting the wrong people. Forensic science covers a broad discipline in science crime investigations the scientists are required to have integrity to ensure that there is reduction of the disputes in the evidence they give. (Lee and Harris, 2000)
The judgment given by the justice criminal professionals depends on the information given by the forensic scientist they have to act in an integrity matter when taking their duties. They need also to use integrity and host to enhance justice and truth to ensure that the world is a better and safer place. The scientists need to collect the information in an honest manner to ensure that they are clear and honest in their words and action.
In the case of murder of Hannah foster a 17 year old schoolgirl, whereby the forensic science contributed a lot in identifying the criminal Manider Singh Kohli after they had spent several years looking for the Justice. The girl’s body was found killed in her Hampshire home on 14th march 2003 where by she had been raped, abducted and dumped. She disappeared for two days before the body was found. The police called the forensic scientist immediately after they discovered the body. Initial items were taken and the DNA sample was done and in the national Database there was no such kind of match. Kohli had fled to
The forensic science services officers took the family DNA test which had partial match to Hanna’s. They decided to investigate the Kohli’s van. The presence of semen on the seat matched the DNA test they had collected from Hanna’s item. The blood stains which Matched Hanna’s was found on the seat. The forensic science evidence convinced the
References.
Chatfield, k. et al. (2010). Forensic Science: An Introduction to Scientific and Investigative Techniques,
Lee, C. $ Harris, A. (2000). Physical evidence in forensic science. Lawyers & Judges Publishing Company.
Nov 2008 ‘Man jailed for Hannah Foster murder Maninder Pal Singh Kohli get minimum of 24 years in prison for raping and killing 17-year-old in Southampton in 2003’.retrieved from http://www.forensic.gov.uk/html/media/case-studies/f-43.htmlv.
Stuart J. & Nordby, J (2009).Forensic Science: An Introduction to Scientific and Investigative Techniques.Boca Raton, FL: Taylor and Francis.
Ubelaker Douglas 2nd Sep 2011. ‘Forensic science: International perspective, global vision.’ forensic science journal. Volume 56 issue 5 pg 1091-1404.
