Science in a Murder Case
Forensics is used in murder cases all the time. Fingerprints are one of the most commonly used techniques in forensics. For over a century fingerprints have been used to identify criminals such as murders. Fingerprints are used because they are infallible, they are one hundred percent certain. To make an identification the fingerprint taken from the crime scene is examined for unique characteristics like loops, ridges, and whorls. There are no machines that identify fingerprints, instead people closely examine the fingerprints. One of the biggest problems with fingerprint examiners is that they can be biased, or change their minds. Many people think that the fingerprint examination has a zero percent error rate but that is not accurate. Even though their are problems with fingerprint examinations they are vital to our criminal justice system.
Evidence is extremely important to any investigation because it tells a story. Evidence tells what happened, how it happened, and why it happened. It can put people in jail or get people out of jail. Some people think that the investigation put into forensics does not meet the requirements to be in the science category. Practices such as finger print examination, analyzing blood splatter, matching hair and fibers, ballistic analysis, and matching marks on a bullet casing to a gun are not scene as true scientific practices by many scientists. Many people feel this way because they think it was not based on a scientific methodology. The most controversial practice of forensics is bite mark analysis because many people do not think it is accurate enough. Even though there are many problems with forensic science the one test that everyone can agree on is DNA testing.