Tuesday 16 June 2015

Forensics: The Story Told By Crime

There is virtually no crime in the  world that Forensic Science cannot conclusively solve 'beyond a reasonable doubt'. This relatively known and developing science has been proven to unearth crime mysteries with staggering scientific precision and confident accuracy.
When presented in a court of law, evidences from Forensic Science has given
  the 'beyond a reasonable doubt' condition a greater lift and new definition.



This is not when the prosecution  and defence attorneys exhaust and  try to outwit themselves themselves by displaying their legal prowess  until the judge rules in favour of who presents the best by-the-book case. Of course, the best presented case(defence or prosecution) wins!



But the field of forensics offers hard, undeniable and scientifically proven facts and truths. Facts in that the processes undertaken to recover and analyse evidence followed unmistakable scientific procedures and methods which when presented in court, dumb founds  at least the accused who accepts it as the truth and wonders how come 'they knew all these'! One interesting fact about people who commit crime and hide it is that, they never believe they can be caught.


In a particular case popularly known as the "Helle Crafts' case" during the fall of 1986, the suspect after murdering his wife, froze her, took the frozen body to the bank of a river and cut the body into several parts with a chain saw he had purchased and finally passed the dismembered body through a wood chipper he had rented which crushed the body into pieces and flung them into the river! Mean while, he scratched off the serial number of the chain-saw to cut any chance of linking its ownership to him. Helle Crafts was then declared missing till date. 

That was a perfectly crafted and executed crime. The police could not solve it alone. It took  concerted efforts by forensic experts from different fields of science to piece the puzzle together.



The big question now asked is 'why is the use of forensic science not given the priority and attention it deserves?' It is very obvious that awareness of the subject matter is relatively low and slow as well.


In simple terms, Forensic Science is using science to solve crime. It is the application of scientifically proven principles and laws to develop admissible evidence to be presented objectively in a law court.


The word 'Forensics' refers to the world of forensic science. It describes the different scientific fields involved in legal matters.


Therefore it is important to know that the world of forensics is a multi-interdisciplinary field that involves but not limited to anthropology and archaeology, biology, chemistry, computing, physics, law and psychology. 


Given the advance in science and technology, it will take an ignorant person to believe they can commit any crime and just walk away without fear of being caught.


 There are now hi-tech, state-of-the-art Forensic laboratories around that are committed just for solving otherwise known as 'mystery crimes'. Most prominent among them is the FBI's Forensic Lab in Quantico, West Virginia, USA reputed to be the best in the world. This lab is home to experts from chemists, botanists, ballistics experts, to pathologists, psychologists, toxicologists etc. 


These scientists work on virtually all kinds of crime such as homicide(murder crimes), arson(fire crimes), rape, forgery of different kinds, internet crimes etc. So, there is no hiding place for the criminal offender.


It is noteworthy that one main objective of this blog is to raise the awareness level of the populace into the this exciting world of Forensics, its applications and subsequent beneficial impacts to our immediate society.


 We need to know what limits us from partaking from these 'fruits of science' and how to tackle the problem headlong.


In summary, with Forensic Science, cases such as someone raping a woman in a secluded area or anywhere at all without  being seen by anybody, burying a murdered victim in a very remote location, intentionally setting a house, person or car on fire in order to hide a crime (arson), even deleting  internet scam-chat histories are no longer 'safe'. Somehow, they can end up being caught. 


Why? Because nature has a way of 'recording and encrypting living and non living activities' without your knowledge while science has developed a way of decoding and downloading these activities for the judge to see(everyone sees it though). 

Its called FORENSICS!

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