ACR102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Frye Standard, Daubert Standard, Innocence Project
ACR102 – Introducing Crime and Criminal Justice
Week 8
What is forensic science?
Forensics has now become and integral part of the CJS.
Forensic science is “the application of science to those criminal and civil laws that are
enforced by police agencies in a criminal justice system” (Safterstein 1998: 2).
Functions of forensic science
Informs law enforcement during investigations about the nature of crimes.
Assist in the detection and prosecution of known offenders.
Inform decision about the legal guilt, prospective legal guilt, or innocence of an offender.
Forensics in the CJ process
“Pre-crime”: crime is understood in terms of risk or potential loss (Zedner 2007). Discourses
of safety are often prominent.
Investigation as a means to detect, identify, and intervene before crimes occur.
Close link between forensics and intelligence analysis, data-retention, etc.
Forensics in the criminal justice process
“Post-crime”: crime has already occurred and is in need of investigation post hoc.
Forensics used as a means to retroactively identify and investigate a criminal event.
e.g. Traditional crime scene investigation, or cyber forensics.
A brief history
Forensics has long been premised on ‘expert evidence’.
Anthropological criminology as a sort of forensics
e.g. Lombroso, Bertillion, etc. – “born criminals” and inferior physical traits.
An interesting starting point, but overwhelmingly disproven.
Types of forensic sciences: DNA Forensics
Both pre- and post-crime functions
It has been noted that DNA samples recovered from crime scenes:
“…can be derived from many different materials and areas. It is possible to obtain samples
of DNA from fabrics, cigarettes, tools and utensils as well as from minute amounts of
biological material, even where this material has been deposited many years earlier, has
been degraded or is not even visible to the naked eye” (DRP, 2010:10-11).
Fingerprinting (‘Dactyloscopy’)
Types
Plastic
Visible
Latent
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Forensics has now become and integral part of the cjs. Forensic science is the application of science to those criminal and civil laws that are enforced by police agencies in a criminal justice system (safterstein 1998: 2). Informs law enforcement during investigations about the nature of crimes. Assist in the detection and prosecution of known offenders. Inform decision about the legal guilt, prospective legal guilt, or innocence of an offender. Pre-crime : crime is understood in terms of risk or potential loss (zedner 2007). Investigation as a means to detect, identify, and intervene before crimes occur. Close link between forensics and intelligence analysis, data-retention, etc. Post-crime : crime has already occurred and is in need of investigation post hoc. Forensics used as a means to retroactively identify and investigate a criminal event. e. g. traditional crime scene investigation, or cyber forensics. Forensics has long been premised on expert evidence". Anthropological criminology as a sort of forensics e. g. lombroso, bertillion, etc.
