The U.S. criminal-justice system is a mass of conflicts and contradictions. While trying to protect innocent people from criminals, law enforcement agencies also must try to protect the innocent from being mistaken for criminals. Science should be purely impartial in this process—it should prove as much as possible that pieces of physical evidence are what they are supposed to be and that they came from where witnesses and investigators say they came from (Carvey, 2004). In order to meet changes and social needs, law enforcement should employ a large number of forensic scientists from different fields of research and investigation.
Today, in the U.S. legal system’s adversarial approach, there really is no such thing as the impartiality of evidence. As science becomes more complex, the need for experts to translate the meaning of science becomes more acute, but not even these experts are impartial: Both the prosecution and the defense in criminal trials, and both parties in civil trials, routinely have their own scientific experts testify on nearly every aspect of the evidence.
This leads to the question of whether it is possible to find an expert who will defend any position—as an attorney does—or whether there is so much scientific uncertainty in physical evidence that it really is not possible to use any such evidence in a conclusive manner (Carvey, 2004).
It is clear that some people are in prison today because of bad science done in the name of criminal justice: bad laboratory procedures; exculpatory evidence withheld from a defendant because of continual public and political pressure to gain convictions; and scientific evidence that is far from certain, but which has been argued persuasively by prosecution experts. Each of these people known to be free when the killing occurred, and living within some arbitrary geographic area—the city, the county, or whatever—could be contacted, interviewed, and investigated. A large number of forensic professionals will help to improve the quality of services provided (Fisher, 2000).
Some critics claim that modern technology and computerization will help to reduce the number of forensic professionals and scientists. On the other hand, both the technology itself cannot solve all problems and the increasing complexity of research investigations. As computers become more complex, they also become more prone to error. Further, the more people who have access to these computers, the greater the chances that human error, political bias, or just plain curiosity will endanger our liberties. When the often disparate facts of one’s life are collected and collated, the data become information that can be used to identify, track, and even judge a person (Fisher, 2000).
Today, as the twenty-first-century approaches, even three-and four-officer rural departments have computers in police cars. Computerized crime-analysis reports are not difficult programming feats; essentially, data are logged by patrol area or beat, time of day, day of the week, type of crime, and any details about the M.O. (modus operandi, or method of operation). The computer then can simply break down daily, weekly, monthly, or annual crime statistics by these various factors. The need to increase the number of forensic scientists is caused by the complexity of technology and testing procedures (Horswell and Edwards 1997).
Crime might be lessened, criminal convictions might be made easier, and positive identification would be enhanced, but on the other hand, such a “universal identifier” would create a civil-liberties jungle. Despite notification on numerous documents that the Social Security number is not to be used for identification purposes, it is used in such a way extensively—for instance, on driver’s licenses, school records, and medical records (Horswell, 2000).
This identifier can be used to compare and match computerized records by governmental agencies in order to create lists of people who fit a number of criteria—the creation of computer profiles. Any third-level bureaucrat, with access to a personal computer and networking equipment, can call up information about a person from dozens of federal agencies just by flagging a Social Security number—such confidential information as tax returns, loan applications, and participation in government grants and social-welfare programs. Beyond government, these records are used by insurance companies, credit-checking agencies, and even advertising and marketing companies. An increasing number of professionals will help to improve service quality and daily operations of law enforcement (Siegal et al 2000).
The mass of criminal-justice data that must be entered, even in a modest-size police department, often puts a strain on resources. Frequently, the fact that someone has been arrested is entered into the computer within minutes, but the facts that charges were dropped or that the person was found not guilty take days or months to be entered, or are never entered at all. A number of people have sued the police for arresting them using out-of-date, incomplete, or false data, and police officers have even sued NCIC administrators for putting them at risk in civil suits.
Courts often have ruled in favor of people arrested falsely, and many data-integrity cases are settled out of court; either result often takes months or years and has a high financial and emotional cost. In this case, an increased number of forensic scientists will help to improve data analysis and reduce the number of claims (Siegal et al 2000).
In sum, an increased number of forensic scientists will help law enforcement to improve its productivity and performance. Solving routine crimes is one of the most difficult tasks for law enforcement. Forensic scientists may help in training young detectives; they also may, by organizing information and forcing a person who enters data to follow a logical sequence of questions, get better data from uniformed officers who make reports, and give detectives better information to work with.
References
- Carvey, H. (2004). Windows Forensics and Incident Recovery (The Addison-Wesley Microsoft Technology Series). Addison-Wesley Professional.
- Fisher, B. A. J. (2000) Techniques of Crime Scene Investigation, 6th edn, CRC Press.
- Horswell, J. and Edwards, M. (1997) Development of quality systems accreditation for crime scene investigators in Australia, Science and Justice, 37 (1), pp. 3-8.
- Horswell, J. (2000) Suspicious deaths, in Siegal et al. (eds), Encyclopaedia of Forensic Sciences, Academic Press, London, pp. 462-6.
- Siegal et al. (eds), (2000). Encyclopaedia of Forensic Sciences, Academic Press, London.