Biotechnology: Forensics Science and Criminology

WHAT IS A CRIMINALIST?

A criminalist is a person with a background in science, typically having at least a baccalaureate degree in an area such as chemistry, biology, forensic science, or criminalistics. Some criminalists have degrees in other, similarly related areas. Many criminalists have advanced degrees. For the criminalist, crime scene investigation involves the recognition, documentation, collection, preservation, and interpretation of physical evidence, which may be as big as a truck or as small as a diatom or pollen grain. Recognition of items out of place, articles improperly located or items added to the crime scene are an important part of crime scene processing. The criminalist collects, preserves, and makes interpretations about the evidence and their relation to the series of events resulting at the crime scene. The criminalist brings evidence back to the laboratory where examinations will be conducted. Interpretations are made about the relevance of a particular item from the crime scene by associating particular items of evidence to specific sources and reconstructing the crime scene. This means not only associating a suspect with a scene but also the telling of a story about what transpired before, during and after the crime. The criminalist must draw on a wide spectrum of scientific knowledge including chemistry, biology, genetics, molecular biology, physics, statistics and a working knowledge of civil and criminal law. Applying this knowledge, criminalist will associate and identify evidence, interpret the results, reconstruct the crime scene, and write a report summarizing the findings.

People who are studying to become criminalists learn various forensic techniques and need to be well versed with their biological knowledge. For example: 1) Finger Printing - Why and when they form, the types of fingerprints, what makes them unique to each human being - Fingerprints on palm, toes and soles - Different forms of fingerprint indentations - The different ways to identify and retrieve fingerprints from a crime scene 2) Blood typing - The four blood groups and in-depth explanation of antigen-antibody differences between them - Coagulation patterns - Blood inheritance patterns - Common blood splatter at a crime scene and an explanation of distinctive blood marks when various object hit the artery or the vein 3) DNA analysis - In-depth knowledge of DNA and the different types, bonds and bases. - Explanation on the Central Dogma and its importance in DNA identification - Isolation of DNA in various forms of biological leavings (hair, skin, saliva) - Identifying small and detailed evidence left behind by the suspect - Descriptions of DNA present on a substance due to saliva tracking.