Forenic science effect on America

detectivebruce

Dead on Arrival
I am writing a thesis paper on The effect Forensic science made on America... I need help on the history and how it was introduced...
 
You should probably start with the man known as the Father of Forensics, Dr. Edmond Locard. He was a Frenchman who lived from 1877-1966, and he pioneered the theory that in every contact a person makes with anything, they take a piece of it away with them, and they leave a piece of themselves behind.
 
As for the effect of the television show, CSI: has had on America (which is related to forensic science, obviously, but :p), demand for forensic science students is at an all time high. And the impact the show has had on the country is astounding- classes for the field are filled up to your eyeballs! More women have wanted to get into this line of profession and courts are now requiring more technical (forensic) proof in testimonies because they now know what is expected from watching CSI:.

Not sure if this was what you were looking for ;)
 
Well I don't know on a grand scale but I know people are more aware of laws and forensics than ever. People in my hiostory class are always bringing up CSI: because of the laws we go over and what you can and can't do. This is the Science era, and TV is something almost everyone watches, so people are more informed today because of CSI.
You might want to also ask this in the Forensics Forum, they might be able to answer it better. :D Good luck on your paper.
 
I made a project about CSI a couple of months ago, and actually focused a little bit on that, too. I found an interesting article about that. The original was called CSI:The Reality, written by Max M. Houck and was published in ScientificAmerican.com. Here's the link. Anyway, it's not possible to read the entire article without subscribing or buying the article. I did my project in Portuguese and actually find a complete translation of it in the brazilian version of the site. At least it was useful to me, but I am not sure if it would be useful in the same way to you, as I don't know how detailed your paper would be...
Anyway, the article mentioned the fact that are now a lot more students interested in the area and also that the jury is asking for a biggest amount of evidence, even though it could be not necessary, using more resources and more money, too, which is a negative point of the CSI effect. But, by another side, these kinds of series have their strong point in the fact that they help people getting interested in science again, and contribute for the developing of the science.
Hope this made any sense ;)
 
This may not be exactly what you had in mind but in my Criminal Justice Systems class there is a section in my book called the CSI Effect. Apparently a few years ago jury members would go all glassy eyed when a scientist would testify because they found all of the forensics stuff boring but now juries expect to hear forensic evidence in every case. The sit up and pay attention when a Forensic scientist testifies. If there isn't any forensic evidence in the case the juries wonder why. Prosecutors are putting CSIs on the stand just to keep the jury interested.
 
thanks guys. I really need this...

But I am looking for how fingerprints, DNA and, Medical Examination. Those three, and i have to describe how they helped... kind get it?
 
if it dont, forensic science better have one. alot of our police crimes go unsolved cuz no one knows how to do anything about forensics. expecually in ohio. no one knows anything about it.
 
Well forensics have advanced investiagtions in many ways, especially DNA. You get one strand of hair of one drop of blood or one skin epithelial (well you know what I mean) at the crime then they trace it back to you. Now, it's almost impossible to get away with murder. Fingerprinting is the same, as in, they can track you down from what you leave behind. Good luck, hope this somewhat helps.
 
It's also made everything go faster : before automatical fingerprint search was introduced ( AFIS ) , the police had to compare fingerprints with the database of the city ... Imagine having to compare 10,000 fingerprints ...
DNA ( how to sequence it ) has given the police unique caracteristics. But the best advantage of DNA, is that it is so easily found : for example, it the killer realises he has left a fingerprint, he will wide it off with the back of his hand ... but by doing it that , he might leave epithelials ... which are nearly invisible ...

What I mean, is that forensic science has made the use of science systematic, in a sense that processing a scene is now an extremely thorough job : you can't just have someone with a hunch ... you need to follow the fingerprints and DNA.
 
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