Are You Interested In Forensic Science?
Forensic science is the practical application of science and medicine to law.About the Forensic Sciences
From the Career Brochure of The Forensic Sciences Foundation at http://www.aafs.org:
"The forensic sciences form a vital part of the entire justice and regulatory system. Still, some of its disciplines have become identified primarily with law enforcement, an image enhanced by television and movies. This is misleading because forensic scientists may be involved in all aspects of a criminal case, and the results of their work may serve either the defense or the prosecution. The forensic scientist's skill is to use all the information available to determine facts.
"Though closely identified with the criminal justice system, the forensic scientist plays an increasingly active role in the civil justice arena. Issues of law and/or fact which may require forensic science expertise range from questions of the validity of a signature on a will, to a claim of products liability, to questions of whether a corporation is complying with environmental laws.
"Some of the disciplines involved are: criminalistics, engineering sciences, jurisprudence, odontology, pathology and biology, physical anthropology, psychiatry and behavioral science, questioned documents, and toxicology. In addition to these established specialties, there are several emerging disciplines, including forensic rehabilitation, accounting, sculpting, polygraph examination, nursing, mental health services, photography, computer image enhancement, social work, and speech analysis. Many of the scientists in these disciplines work with or are employees of criminalistics laboratories, medical examiner/coroner offices and toxicology laboratories."
Wildlife Forensics
From the Career Brochure of The Forensic Sciences Foundation, Inc., at http://www.aafs.org:
"Wildlife forensics is a relatively new field of forensic science. Poaching violations, the development of state and federal hunting regulations, the Endangered Species Act of 1973, and the United Nations Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) are some of the factors which helped create this new field. Wildlife forensic labs have two primary functions: the identifying of evidence, and the linking of suspect, victim, and crime scene through physical evidence. The major difference between criminal science and wildlife forensics is that the victim (and occasionally the suspect) is an animal.
"The identification of wildlife evidence, however, is more complicated than police science in that wildlife enforcement officers rarely seize whole animals (which can be readily identified by a museum or zoo expert with established taxonomic keys), but will more typically confiscate parts and products of these animals as evidence. The problem then is that the characteristics which define an animal species are rarely present in those parts or products. Wildlife forensic scientists are often required to develop new species-defining characteristics, through research with carefully documented known specimens, before they can examine evidence in a case and testify in court.
"An additional complication is that, while police forensics deals with only a single species (homo sapiens), wildlife forensic scientists must be prepared to identify evidence from any species in the world that is illegally killed, smuggled, poached or sold in an illicit market. Examples of wildlife evidence items might include blood on an illegal hunter's clothing; fresh, frozen or smoked meats; loose hair; fur coats; reptile leather products, such as purses, belts, and shoes; loose feathers and down; carved ivory objects; sea turtle oil (suntan lotion); sea turtle shell jewelry; and powdered rhinoceros horn.
"While it might seem that wildlife forensic scientists face an overwhelming task in developing new and reliable ID techniques, they do have one advantage over police-related workers: sample size is rarely a problem. Example seizures of wildlife evidence have included 20,000 pounds of suspected sea turtle meat, 10,000 pounds of ivory, and 300,000 suspected rhinoceros horn pills."
Additional Sites And Resources:
- The American Society of Forensic Odontology at http://asfo.org
- Zeno's Forensic Page (a great resource) at http://forensic.to/forensic.html
- The Why Files at http://whyfiles.news.wisc.edu/014forensic/index.html
- The Forensic Sciences Foundation, Inc., Career Brochure at http://www.aafs.org/employ/brochure.htm
- The American Academy of Forensic Sciences at http://www.aafs.org
- A list of schools with graduate forensic sciences programs at http://www.erols.com/lebeau
- Forensic Science Communications, at the FBI site at http://www.fbi.gov/programs/lab/fsc/current/index.htm
- The Forensics Sciences Student Organization at George Washington University at http://www.gwu.edu/~forensic
- The National Fish and Wildlife Service Forensics Laboratory in Ashland, Oregon, at http://www.lab.fws.gov
- Forensic References List at http://www.lab.fws.gov/refs/forensic_references.htm
- Forensic Entomology Pages International, at http://www.uio.no/~mostarke/forens_ent/forensic_entomology.html