Forensic science, also known as Forensics, is the application of science to law.
It uses highly developed technology to uncover scientific evidence in a variety of fields. Modern forensic science has a broad range of applications. It is used in civil cases such as forgeries, fraud or negligence. The most common use of forensic science is to investigate criminal cases involving a victim, such as assault, robbery, kidnapping , rape, or murder. Forensic science is also used in monitoring the compliance of various countries with such international agreements as the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the Chemical Weapons Convention and to learn whether a country is developing a secret nuclear weapons program.
It can help law enforcement officials determine whether any laws or regulations have been violated in the marketing of foods and drinks, the manufacture of medicines, or the use of pesticides on crops. It can also determine whether drinking water meets legal purity requirements. The medical examiner is the most important individual in an investigation of a crime involving a victim. It is the responsibility of the medical examiner to visit the crime scene, conduct an autopsy (examination of the body) in cases of death, examine the medical evidence and lab reports, study the victims history, and put all the information together in a report to be turned in to the district attorney.
Medical examiners are usually physicians specializing in forensic pathology, the study of structural and functional changes in the body as a result of injury. Their training and qualifications most often include a medical degree and an apprenticeship in a medical examiners office. In the field of forensic science, there are many subspecialties. They include odontology (the study of teeth), anthropology(the study of human beings), psychiatry, biology, chemistry, physics, toxicology (the study of poisons), and pathology (the examination of body tissues and fluids). The medical examiner may call upon forensic scientists who are specialized in these fields for help in a crime investigation. Toxicology is a branch of forensic science that deals with the adverse effects of drugs and poisonous chemicals found in the home, at work or in the environment.
All drugs have toxic effect but the effect is most often minor. The toxic effect of drugs may produce only a little discomfort or they may be serious enough to cause death. One of the most common cases of death by poison is arsenic poison. Pathology is the branch of forensic science that determines the nature and course of diseases by analyzing body fluids and tissues. Pathology is divided into clinical and anatomic pathology.
Clinical pathologists contribute to the diagnosis of diseases by measuring chemicals and cells in blood, sputum, bone marrow and urine. Anatomic pathologists perform autopsies and analyze tissues taken from patients during surgery or by biopsy. The medical examiner investigates many different types of violent crime to determine whether a violent death was an accident, a suicide, or a homicide. In cases involving gunshot wounds, the medical examiner looks for gunpowder residues on the clothing of the victim and around wounds. The information is used to determine whether the gun was fired by the victim of by someone else. In the case of knife wounds, the medical examiner must distinguish between a cut (an injury that is longer than deep) and a stab wound (an injury that is deeper than long).
He must also be able to identify a defense wound which is a cut caused when a victim grabs the knife in self-defense. Cuts are associated with suicide. The body of the victim usually has numerous parallel cuts which indicate hesitant wounds or repeated hesitant trials before the final cut is made. Homicides typically consist of one deep gash.
Medical examiners are also called upon to investigate cases of asphyxiation or death form lack of oxygen in the blood. Asphyxiation may be caused in a number of different ways, such as hanging , which can be an accident, homicide or suicide, or strangling which is homicide. Damage to the victims air passage by an object in the throat or compression of a victims chest by a person or an objector the replacement of oxygen in the red blood cells by another gas such .
