Forensics science is getting more and more popular nowaday. But what is forensics all about?
Although popularly referred to as forensics, forensics science includes all the applications connected to crimes and their legal investigations. Over the last years, life-based documentaries and television crime series have made forensics science a part of popular culture. It seems like forensic investigations are not that difficult to understand. Thus, according to the laws and methodology of forensics science, experts gather all the information that is to be used in a court of law for the conviction of a criminal.
The practice of forensics science is nothing new and it seems to have been specific to certain cultures since the days of the Roman Empire. Records do exist in Europe and in some Far East countries such as China. By the 18th century, legal systems had already started using treatises in support of forensic medicine meant to clarify deaths and justify prosecution. This is how medical experts even came to identify the presence of arsenic in corpses, thus, getting a proof of poisoning. Every discovery in police diagnosis thus had a share in the growth of forensics science in its present day form.
The sub-divisions or applications that are classified into forensics science categories include computational forensics, criminalistics, forensic anthropology, forensic geology, forensic toxicology and so on. As it results from these examples, forensics serves for more than the act of justice alone. Some subdivisions thus serve well for archaeological, ethnological and geographical purposes. Forensic anthropology analyzes human remains, and enables the study of past cultures and historical contexts as they appear on site.
Controversies have also existed over the years, mainly related to some aspects of forensics science that are not considered scientifically valid. For the moment, forensic dentistry can no longer convince whether the bite marks belong to one person, without any shade of a doubt. People charged and convicted starting from such evidence were released as in 1999, the American Board of Forensic Odontology showed that the possibility of false identification was higher than 60% in all such cases. Although it has come a long way, forensics science has a sinuous path to cover before reaching perfection.