Criminal Justice has numerous avenues in which to follow so making the choice of what specific field to choose a difficult decision. This is not a choice that should be taken lightly nor in haste but one that should be contemplated and examined closely. I have done an enormous amount of research on many of the fields of criminal justice narrowing it down to three: Forensics, Probation/ Parole and Homeland Security. For me personally, these are the best three choices given their potential for being challenging.
Forensic science is the application of a broad spectrum of sciences to answer questions of interest to a legal system. Forensics is used in place of forensic science in modern times and is considered to be an effective synonym for “legal” or “related to courts”. The term, however, is closely associated with a scientific fields related to the solving of crimes. The earliest forms of forensic sciences were first used in 16th century Europe by medical practitioners in the army and universities to gather information on the cause and manner of death, though writings on these topics did not begin to appear until the 18th century. (Kind S, 1972)
The science of forensics is now recognized as a critical ingredient in law enforcement and in the solution of crimes. Protecting a crime scene from contamination, gathering and interpreting evidence accurately have become some of the most critical parts in crime solving. With today’s technology, law enforcement is able to solve many crimes that once would have been deemed unsolvable. Now in the 21st century with more unconventional crimes being committed such as terrorism, forensic science must continue to develop and mature. Leading the efforts to develop new scientific crime-fighting c...
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...n/ parole set forth by the courts and to provide services to assist the offender’s rehabilitation and reentry into the community. This is not an easy task, unfortunately with budget cuts and a shortage of officers; therefore offenders are often left to fend for themselves, only to reoffend and incarcerated yet again. (Champion, 1999)
Works Cited
Champion, D. J. (1999). Probation, Parole, and Community Corrections. Prentice hall.
Justice, U. D. (2004). Probation and Parole in the United States.
Kind S, O. M. (1972). Science Against Crime. New York: Doubleday.
Punja, S., & Mislan, R. (2010). Mobile Device Analysis. Small Scale Digital Device Journal.
Watanabe, M., Shiohara, M., & Sasaki, S. (2005). Palm vein authentication technology and its applications. Proceedings of the Biometric Consortium Conference. Fujitsu Laboratories.
The book gives a general overview of the field of forensic science. The sections of the book include “The Scene of the Crime; Working the Scene--The Evidence; Working the Scene of the Body Human; Working the Scene--Different Stages; and Working the Scene--Different Skills (Genge vii-viii). Included are instructions on what professionals should do upon arriving at a crime scene, what items to bring with them, how to protect the crime scene, and how to protect the evidence from contamination. In addition to writing about the subject of forensic science, the author also included several appendixes and suggested readings to help the reader learn even more information about the subject. In addition, the author included a list of colleges that offer programs in the field of forensic science.
Forensic science has changed dramatically over the years in a number of different ways, both positive and negative; new discoveries have altered the ways in which scientific experiments are carried out; how evidence is collected from a crime scene and overall how a criminal is caught as a result of the findings and conclusions made by forensic scientists. Crime has existed for millions of years; however the way in which a crime is detected hasn’t been around for the same length of time. Forensic science has gone through many changes for the better and has become a lot more accurate and reliable since it was first established. The arrival of modern forensic science made apprehending the criminal a lot faster and a lot simpler. The police records are full of anonymous corpses that have been so badly mutilated that they are unable to be recognised by the human eye. This gives forensic scientists a very difficult job; it requires precise medical expertise in order to identify that person and figure out what happened. The
Brief history of Forensic, it surfaced in the state of San Francisco in the 1850’s systematic photography was being used to obtain criminal identification. Later on in the 1920’s “Los Angeles Police Department established the first police department crime laboratory in the United States (Forensic science timeline (n.d). Forensic continued to progress over the years to became one of the most innovating fields in the criminal justice system. Forensic help in the prosecution of many cases as well as exclusion of the wrongfully accused (Forensic science timeline (n.d). Forensic tech work primarily for local governments and state in police departments, coroner offices, and crime laboratories. This field is a combination of lab and field work the best of both worlds (Career guide for forensic science technician (n.d). This is what makes Forensic Science Technician the field of interest; the customary duties of a forensic science technician consist of gathering evidence, investigation of evidence collected, and reporting their discoveries in writing and may also be called into a court of law (criminal or civil laws) to present their finding before a judge (Career guide for forensic science technician (n.d).. There are several different areas of expertise in the field of a forensic technicians are often responsible or specialize in particular types of evidence such as biochemistry, ballistics, fingerprinting, and handwriting analysis. It has been said that forensic science technicians are mostly call upon to assist in two places on crime scenes and in crime labs (Dillon .H, 1999). Crime scenes contains that valuable evident that must be careful collected and preserved to help with the reconstruction of crimes by theorizing the events ...
Therefore, the criminal justice system relies on other nonscientific means that are not accepted or clear. Many of forensic methods have implemented in research when looking for evidence, but the methods that are not scientific and have little or anything to do with science. The result of false evidence by other means leads to false testimony by a forensic analyst. Another issue with forensic errors is that it is a challenge to find a defense expert (Giannelli, 2011). Defense experts are required to help the defense attorneys defend and breakdown all of the doubts in the prosecutors scientific findings in criminal cases. Scientific information is integral in a criminal prosecution, and a defense attorney needs to have an expert to assist he/she in discrediting the prosecution (Giannelli,
Forensic science has now been recognized as an important part of the law enforcement team to help solve crimes and cold cases. The advances in technology are being used each day and we must continue to strive to develop better advances in this field. The recent discovery of using DNA in criminal cases has helped not only positively identify the suspect, but it has helped exonerate hundreds of innocent individuals. “With new advances in police technology and computer science, crime scene investigation and forensic science will only become more precise as we head into the future.” (Roufa, 2017) Forensic science and evidence helps law enforcement officials solve crimes through the collection, preservation and analysis of evidence. By having a mobile crime laboratory, the scene gets processed quicker and more efficiently. Forensic science will only grow in the future to be a benefit for the criminal justice
The individuals within our society have allowed we the people to assess and measure the level of focus and implementation of our justice system to remedy the modern day crime which conflict with the very existence of our social order. Enlightening us to the devices that will further, establish the order of our society, resides in our ability to observe the Individual’s rights for public order.
Many people who find themselves engulfed in law enforcement or criminal justice careers desire to serve their community; to help others and protect the citizens from offenders who have caused harm, by breaking the law. There are several career paths that a person can take to achieve their goal to serve their communities. Parole officers focus their efforts on enforcing conditions of release, incarcerating those who fail to comply with those conditions, reintegrating offenders safely into society, and closely monitoring parolees, thereby protecting the community.
Gaining an in-depth knowledge of the criminal justice system, throughout my Bachelors program has been exciting as much as an eye opener. Some of the subjects were ones that I did not expect. There were also, ones that had no idea how ignorant I was on the subject.
Forensic Science, recognized as Forensics, is the solicitation of science to law to understand evidences for crime investigation. Forensic scientists are investigators that collect evidences at the crime scene and analyse it uses technology to reveal scientific evidence in a range of fields. Physical evidence are included things that can be seen, whether with the naked eye or through the use of magnification or other analytical tools. Some of this evidence is categorized as impression evidence2.In this report I’ll determine the areas of forensic science that are relevant to particular investigation and setting out in what method the forensic science procedures I have recognized that would be useful for the particular crime scene.
Law enforcement is a career that is both violent and rewarding in many capacities. Justice needs to be served in law enforcement and they have a responsibility to uphold the law and serve the people in the community. Law enforcement is crucial in the world today as a global realm as life continues to be more complex and law enforcement struggles to combat many aspects of crime. In order to combat these problems and have a positive future in the criminal justice system, everyone must work together on a bigger scale.
Criminal justice is one of the most important majors one can study due to the necessity to keep the streets safe and clean. From street cops, to state troopers all the way to criminal psychologists the criminal justice system is a very important part of modern society as it keeps us safe from murders, rapists and various other criminals. The street cops are the ones that are out on our streets protecting every citizen. It can be as simple as writing a parking ticket on a car that is illegally parked, to arresting murderers and rapist in a quiet neighborhood in the suburbs. The cops are the ones that are keeping our streets more safe for families everywhere. The main thing I want to learn about Criminal Justice is where I can go with my degree. By studying criminal justice I would like to be able to pursue my dreams of becoming a Drug enforcement agent so that I can help make neighborhoods safe and take bad people off the public streets.
White, P 1992, Crime scene to court: the essentials of forensic science, Royal Society of Chemistry, London, p. 20-33.
In today’s time, modern Crime Scene Investigation has increased rapidly. From throughout the late 1900’s and in the early 2000’s (Taylor 1). For all of the evidence that they find, a solid foundation has formed over the thousands of years of Crime Scene
Forensic evidence can provide just outcomes in criminal matters. However, it is not yet an exact science as it can be flawed. It can be misrepresented through the reliability of the evidence, through nonstandard guidelines, and through public perception. Forensic science can be dangerously faulty without focus on the ‘science’ aspect. It can at times be just matching patterns based on an individual’s interpretations. This can lead to a miscarriage of justice and forever alter a person’s life due to a perceived “grey area” (Merritt C, 2010) resulting in a loss of confidence in the reliability of forensic evidence.
“The word ‘forensics’ means “connected with the courtroom”; so forensic science is, therefore, concerned with gathering hard evidence that can be presented in a trial” (Innes 9). Forensic science is a science that is applied specifically to legal matters, whether criminal or civil. “Few areas in the realm of science are as widespread and important as forensic science” (Hunter 12). Forensics is the one science that is most commonly used in everyday life. It is also a branch of science that incorporates other branches of science such as biology, chemistry, and etc. Since it is used almost every day “No one can dispute the importance of the contributions to society made by forensic science; the ability to solve crime is undeniably important” (Hunter 13). Forensic science has given criminal investigation a new edge. “Advances in science have opened the door for more effective evidence discovery, howev...