FORENSIC SCIENCE

Application of science in law or the application of techniques of science

in legal system is forensic science.
Applies the knowledge of science to the definition and enforcement of laws. This
field of study involves several scientific disciplines: biology, chemistry, and
physics. Forensic science is not a branch of law enforcement, and forensic
scientists are not law enforcement officers.
The main duties of a forensic scientist are to analyze physical evidence, interpret
the results and testify in a court of law. Forensic scientists are expert witnesses
who express opinions as to the significance of laboratory findings.
Forensic science plays a role in criminal and civil law. Forensic scientists help
determine cause of death, identify perpetrators of crimes, identify bodily remain
• Forensic Science draws on many sciences to reconstruct the who, what, where,
when and how of events using the tools of science and the logic of scientific
inquiry.

Forensic science is mostly used to

● Prove elements of a crime scene

● Detect decedents or suspects
● Establish a connection to a crime
● Verify or disprove suspect’s or victim’s statements

TYPES

Forensic anthropology

Forensic pathology
Forensic engineering
Forensic toxicology
Digital forensics
Forensic odontology
Forensic entomology
Forensic DNA analysis
Forensic geology
Forensic arts

Forenscic Anthroplogy
anthropology, “the science of humanity,” which studies human beings in
aspects from evolutionary history of Homo sapiens. Physical anthropology is
the branch that concentrates on the biology and evolution of humanity.
There are a number of applications of anthropology to the forensic sciences. A
large part of physical anthropology deals with skeletal biology, which
includes bone and bone system structures and their relationships
to characteristics such as gender, age, race, socioeconomic status, and so forth.
That knowledge can be applied to the examination of characteristics of skeletal
remains that are part of a crime scene. In such cases, the goal of the analysis
may be to determine the identity of the deceased person and, perhaps, the
cause of death. To those ends, forensic anthropologists make use of a number
of unique techniques.
Two major types of human-remains evidence confront the forensic
anthropologist::
the single bone or bone fragment or small group of bones.
the complete (or nearly complete) skeleton.

the single bone or bone fragment or small group of bones.:: the forensic
anthropologist seeks to determine if the bone is human and, if not, what type
of animal the bone belongs to. If the sample is human bone, then the
anthropologist will determine the part of the body from which it came.
the complete (or nearly complete) skeleton.:: determine gender, race,
approximate age, stature, and approximate socioeconomic status. If there is
damage to some of the bones, the anthropologist may be able to determine
what type of trauma caused it. If the skull is present, it may be possible to
prepare an approximate face on the skull

Forensic Pathology

Forensic pathology is pathology that focuses on determining the cause of death by examining a
corpse.

Eg:: post morterm

Forensic pathologists determine the cause and manner of death by use of the
postmortem examination, or autopsy. The autopsy entails careful dissection of
the body to search for injury patterns, disease, or poisoning that may point to
the ultimate cause of death.
Pathologists determine the cause of death through postmortem
examination or autopsy. There are three stages of death investigation:
examination, correlation, and interpretation. Deaths where there is an
unknown cause and those considered unnatural are investigated.
Forenscic engineering
forensic engineering is a type of engineer that specializes in the analysis of
structural and mechanical engineering failures and develops methods for
resolving them. engineering principles to evaluate the problem, determine
why it happened and plan recommendations for repair and recovery.
orensic engineers have an unconventional engineering role in that they do not
create and construct buildings, structures and materials themselves. Instead,
they act as crisis intervention specialists for other types of engineers. They do
this by exploring the cause behind design failure and figuring out what they
can do to resolve the issue.
When a structure fails, the forensic engineers begin by investigating to
determine the problem and what caused it. Common causes of structural
failure include.
Forensic toxicology
Toxicology:: Toxicology is the study of the adverse effects of chemicals
(including drugs) on living systems and the practice of diagnosing and
treating exposures to toxins and toxicants.
The most common sample types used by forensic toxicologists are blood,
urine, and hair, these provides information regarding both the historical and
present influence of various substances.
Post-mortem sample collection also frequently includes an examination of
the contents of the gastrointestinal tract, which is likely to contain evidence
of consumed drugs or toxins that are yet to be digested. The liver, spleen,
vitreous of the eye, and brain may also hold valuable information regarding
the cause of death.
Blood samples are useful for determining whether an individual was under
the influence of any drugs or toxins at the time when the sample was
collected, Blood is considered to be among the most important of all
samples in forensic toxicology, and it is recommended that samples be
collected from both the heart and an extremity in post-mortem cases
Urine samples provide strong evidence of the past consumption of many
drugs and other compounds, a majority of which will linger in the urine for
longer than in blood
Hair is useful when determining long-term exposure and even the date of
exposure to toxins or drugs, as traces of metabolites are incorporated into
the hair through the follicles as it grows.
The vitreous humor, the gel-like substance contained within the eye, is
highly stable for several months following death and has been used to
provide evidence of the consumption of a variety of drugs, including
cocaine.
Many drugs and toxins will at some point pass through the liver and can
accumulate there, examination of the hepatobiliary system is often highly
informative. This system also includes the spleen, which contains a reserve
of red blood cells that are frequently used to determine carbon monoxide
exposure.
Digital forensics
Digital forensics is a branch of forensic science encompassing the
recovery, investigation, examination, and analysis of material found in
digital devices
The main goal of digital forensics is to extract data from the electronic
evidence, process it into actionable intelligence and present the findings for
prosecution. All processes utilize sound forensic techniques to ensure the
findings are admissible in court.

● Criminal cases: Involving the investigation of any unlawful activity by

cybercriminals. These cases are usually carried out by law enforcement agencies
and digital forensic examiners.
● Civil cases: Involving the protection of rights and property of individuals or
contractual disputes between commercial entities were a form of digital forensics
called electronic discovery (eDiscovery).

● Criminal cases: Involving the investigation of any unlawful activity by

cybercriminals. These cases are usually carried out by law
enforcement agencies and digital forensic examiners.
● Civil cases: Involving the protection of rights and property of
individuals or contractual disputes between commercial entities were
a form of digital forensics called electronic discovery (eDiscovery).

1. Seizure: Prior to actual examination, the digital media is seized.

2. Acquisition: Once the assets are seized, a forensic duplicate of the data is
created, using a hard drive duplicator or software imaging tool. Then the original
drive is returned to secure storage to prevent tampering.
3. Analysis: After the acquisition of the evidence, files are analyzed to identify
evidence to support or contradict a hypothesis. The forensic analyst usually
recovers evidence material using a number of methods (and too ls), often
beginning with the recovery of deleted information. The type of data analyzed
varies but will generally include email, chat logs, images, internet history, and
documents. The data can be recovered from accessible disk space, deleted
space, or the operating system cache.

4.Reporting: Once the investigation is complete, the information is collated into

a report that is accessible to non-technical individuals. It may include audit
information or other meta-documentation.

Forensic odontology
Forensic dentistry or forensic odontology involves the handling,
examination, and evaluation of dental evidence in a criminal justice context.
Forensic odontology (forensic dentistry) involves the correct collection, management,
interpretation, evaluation and presentation of dental evidence for criminal or civil
legal proceedings: a combination of various aspects of the dental, scientific and legal
professions
Forensic odontology (or forensic dentistry) is the branch of forensic anthropology that
focuses on identification and analysis of human teeth in a legal context

● Identify human remains that cannot be identified using face recognition, fingerprints or other means

● Identify bodies in mass fatalities, such as plane crashes and natural disasters

● Determine the source of bite mark injuries, in cases of assault or suspected abuse

● Estimate the age of skeletal remains

● Testify in cases of dental malpractice

Forensic dentistry assists in identifying victims when the body is left in an

unrecognizable state. This is accomplished by examining their teeth, mouth
alignment and overall mouth structure. Forensic dentists or odontologists aid
with a person’s comparative identification by analysing the teeth’s growth and
anatomy, and any restorative dental corrections such as a filling. This is also
used for bite mark analysis in criminal investigations.

Forensic odontology is proper handling, examination, and evaluation of

dental evidence, which will be presented in the interest of justice. The
evidence that may be derived from the teeth, the age (in children) and
identification of the person to whom the teeth may belong
Dental identification plays an important role when identification of
remains of deceased person is skeletonized, decomposed, burned or
dismembered and is invalid by visual or fingerprint methods.

The identification of remains by dental evidence is possible because, the

hard tissues are preserved after death and can even withstand a
temperature of 1600 degree C when heated without appreciable loss of
microstructure, and the status of a person’s teeth change throughout the
life and the combination of decay, missing, filling can be obtained from
any fixed time (2).

Odontological identification is based on systemic comparison of pre and

post mortem dental characteristics of individual based on dental records
and the supporting radiographs (3). But this technique is complicated by
the trauma to jaws and inadequate ante-mortem dental information.

:: forensic odontology dental identification can be divided into four

types

1. Positive identification: The ante-mortem and postmortem data match to

establish that it is from same individual;
2. Possible identification: The ante-mortem and postmortem data have few
consistent features, but because of quality of the records it is difficulty to
establish the identity;
3. Insufficient evidence: The data is not enough to from the conclusion;
4. Exclusion: The ante-mortem and postmortem data clearly inconsistent

Forensic Entomology

Entomology:: is the study of insects and their relationship to humans, the

environment, and other organisms
Forensic entomology usually involves the identification of insects and
other arthropods associated with human remains as an aid to
determining the time and place of death.
Time of death can often be ascertained based on the ambient
temperature and other weather conditions over the preceding days at
the crime site and by correlating this information with the
developmental rates of key arthropod species present on, or in, the
corpse. These arthropods are typically fly larvae, some of which are
important primary and secondary decomposers of animal remains. By
knowing developmental times and related information for decomposer
species at different temperatures, it often is possible to quite
accurately estimate the time of death.

The location where a crime took place, if different from the discovery
site, also sometimes can be determined based on the presence of
unique arthropods with known distributions that do not include the
area where the body was found

Eg:: maggot activity on the palm of the hands indicates the probable
presence of defense wounds. the presence of drugs can be
determined using insect evidence. There is often not enough flesh left
to determine drug presence, but maggots bioaccumulate so an can be
analyzed to determine type of drug present.

Forensic entomologists use two main methods to evaluate approximate time of death
in, one method looks at what type of insects are on and in the decomposing body and
the other uses the life stages and life cycles of certain insects to establish how long a
body has been dead.

main application is to determine the time interval between corpse

discovery and death.

Forensic Geology

Geology:: Geology is the primary Earth science and looks at how the
earth formed, its structure and composition, and the types of
processes acting on it. Geology is concerned with the history of the
earth.

Forensic geology is the study of evidence relating to materials found in the

Earth.

study of evidence relating to minerals, soil, petroleums, and other materials

found in the Earth.

Forensic geology is that branch of the earth sciences that uses rocks,
minerals, fossils, soils, and a variety of geochemical techniques to provide
physical evidence in criminal investigations and trials.
Forensic evidence can be of two types:
1. Individual - items that can have only one source. Examples are fingerprints,
some took marks, bullets, DNA, etc.
2. Class - items that can come from a variety of sources. The value of a class item
depends on its uniqueness. For example, paint scrapings from a car may identify
the year, make, and model of the car but not the specific vehicle. The usefulness
of the evidence would then depend on how common this car was in a particular
area. Most geologic evidence is of the class type.

The main use of forensic geology as it is applied today is regarding trace

evidence. By examining the soil and sediment particles forensic geologists
can potentially link a suspect to a particular crime or a particular crime
scene.

Physical Description
COLOUR

Colour is one of the most important physical characteristics associated with

soil samples

In a majority parts of the world during a forensic investigation determining

the soil colour is required. This analysis can be achieved in the field itself
with the Munsell soil chart using human perspective.

The most commonly used technique to determine colour of a soil sample

has been measuring the colour once the sample has been dried. Although
to obtain a more thorough analysis different case studies have taken colour
measurements when the soil sample is moist, allowing organic materials to
decompose, removing iron oxides, crushing and heating the sample.

DENSITY

Another physical characteristic used is measuring the density.

This can be achieved in regards to the particle density or material
density, this measurement will vary depending on the specific type of
material measured. The main use of density of the sample in forensic
geology is to obtain the best description of the sample in question.[2]

Particle size distributions[edit]

One of the most discriminating physical characteristics consist of particle
size where it is characterized as particle size frequency distributions. This
consists of the materials weight, weight %, number of particles present, or
the volume. Depending on the sample, different methods can be used such
as examination use a microscope, laser diffraction, dry/ wet sieving,
computer program analysis and many more

Evidence collection
forensic geology there are two distinct types of soil samples. The first
being the questioned sample, samples of unknown origin. These types of
sample can be taken from someones shoe for example. The other type of
sample consists of the control sample which the forensic geologist can
choose. The most common control sample would be soil taken from the
crime scene. The questioned and control sample would then be compared
to find similarities or distinction from the two.[11]

Controlled samples consist of two sub categories samples from the scene
itself or an alibi location. Soil samples can differ from a very small distance
and is why the questioned sample should be examined first two establish
particle size/ colour or any other distinguishable factors to then carefully
choose a location at the scene to sample in comparison
FORENSIC ART
Forensic art is the artistic technique used in the identification, apprehension
or conviction of a wanted person. This person may not necessarily be a
criminal, but could be a missing person or an unidentified deceased
Forensic art refers to the application of artistic skills such as drawing and
image modification to legal investigations. Primarily these artistic methods
are applied to legal investigations for the purpose of identification, whether
that be in attempting to name an unidentified victim when human remains
have been found, or identifying and ideally tracking down a suspect based
on eyewitness testimony or surveillance footage. person.

Perhaps the most well-known task undertaken in forensic art is that of the
composite drawing
After a certain amount of time has passed in a case, for instance a missing
person investigation or another unsolved crime, existing photos of victims
or suspects will eventually become outdated, rendering the distribution of
an old photo relatively futile. In this instance, if the individual is believed to
still be alive, a technique known as age progression might be used. As the
name suggests, this essentially involves manipulating the image of an
individual (or producing a hand-drawn sketch) to portray what that
individual may look like now after,
The term facial reconstruction typically refers to the reconstruction of an
individual’s face, often using underlying bone structure as a basis, carried
out by a forensic anthropologist and/or a forensic artist. This may be carried
out when badly decomposed or completely skeletonised remains are under
investigation, and an approximation of the individual’s face is required for
identification purposes. The reconstruction of a face can be 2D or 3D. A
common method of 3D reconstruction utilises clay, which is placed over a
replica of the skull and moulded. The depth of the clay, or ‘flesh’, is
established by the placement of a number of tissue markers placed at
specific anthropological landmarks on the facial plane of the skull. If the
remains are not yet entirely skeletonised and some soft tissue remains,
determining likely flesh depth may be somewhat less difficult

FORENSIC DNA ANALYSIS

DNA
The molecule inside cells that contains the genetic information responsible for the development
and function of an organism.
Deoxyribonucleic acid (abbreviated DNA) is the molecule that carries genetic
information for the development and functioning of an organism. DNA is made
of two linked strands that wind around each other to resemble a twisted ladder
— a shape known as a double helix. Each strand has a backbone made of
alternating sugar (deoxyribose) and phosphate groups. Attached to each
sugar is one of four bases: adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G) or thymine
(T). The two strands are connected by chemical bonds between the bases:
adenine bonds with thymine, and cytosine bonds with guanine. The sequence
of the bases along DNA’s backbone encodes biological information, such as
the instructions for making a protein or RNA molecule.