Becca Posten

Mrs. Smith

English 12

5 February 2018

Fighting Crime with Chemistry

“Forensic science is used to help identify victims of crimes and victims of disasters.”

Forensics is the best tool to determine the severity, cause of the crime and how the crime

happened. It plays a major key part in our fight to bring justice and peace to the victims families

and to the citizens of the world. We need forensics to help us as a whole to figure out a crime

scene and what happened when there are no witnesses to tell us what really happened. It will also

help us to figure out what kind of new designer drugs are coming about to help get them off the

street and to determine how we can help people come down off of them.

When a fatal crime has happened the CSI will come out and conduct an analysis of the

body and how long it has been since the crime occured. While they are there the will do as much

as they can before the body is moved. Depending on what happened at the crime scene they can

also look at the blood spatter and figure out how the crime took place and where it started and

where it ended. They can also determine if it actually took place at another location and if the

body was just placed there to look like it was an accident. They will look at the body and figure

out the body temperature to tell what time the crime happened. If there is no identification for the

victim they will also look at the skull and teeth to figure out the age of the victim. Forensic

analysts can also get their dental records to put a name with the victims face.
 When there is a suspect and they get brought into the jail, they will be asked to give a

DNA sample whether it be saliva or blood or even a finger print. We can analyze the DNA to

figure out if the suspect was even at the crime scene at all. That also helps us to get the story of

what really happened. We can also test blood samples to figure out who the victim is. Also if the

suspect cut themselves, it lets us know that the suspect was at the crime scene and it puts them

under pressure to tell us the story of what really happened as well. Fingerprints will be taken to

run through CODIS to figure out if the suspect has been in any trouble in the past and also it may

help us to determine if the victim has had a criminal past and to figure out their name. Also

fingerprinting can also help us to figure out if there has been any problems or issues between

each other.

Forensic toxicologist can also determine how much alcohol or opioids are in your

system. Your urine can also be tested to determine if you have had any drugs within a certain

amount of time or even days. There are so many new drugs going around these days that it is

making people go crazy and even sick and sometimes even killing people. When someone

overdoses on a new drug that has never been out before it will be tested to determine what its

chemical makeup is. For us to help people when they get hooked on these new drugs we have to

figure out what kind of medicine will help so that an addict will come off of the new drugs or

even the older drugs that have been around for a while. When someone is intoxicated and

involved with a crime the best way to find out what kind of drugs they are on is a blood test. It

will give us a more accurate time frame and amount that they have used. Also when it is being

used in a criminal investigation the information that we collect can also be used to determine if

the suspect is guilty or innocent.

 Forensic science has help us in so many ways to help figure out what happened at a crime

scene. If we did not have forensic science or analysts we would not have as many criminals in

jail. Before forensic science we had a lot of suspects go free because we did not have

fingerprinting or DNA testing. We have learned how to be a vital key in how we can test people

blood and urine for drugs and alcohol to figure out how much was consumed. Forensics has help

us out in so many ways it is one of the best things that this country and this world has to offer the

justice system in helping to protect the citizens.

Percent of Labs Likely to Perform All or Most Tests by Type of Crime

Print Analysis Trace Analysis DNA Analysis Firearms
Analysis

Murder 89% 73% 78% 86%

Assault 78% 53% 49% 79%

Rape 86% 64% 63% 78%

Hit and Run 83% 53% 50% 56%

Burglary 71% 44% 40% 73%

Auto Theft 76% 47% 46% 68%

SOURCE: FTS, 27. Values are percentages of those respondents (who had at least some
capacity to perform each type of analysis) who indicated they were likely to perform all or most
of the tests
 Works Cited

“Forensic Science.” American Chemical Society,

www.acs.org/content/acs/en/policy/publicpolicies/science-policy/forensic-science.html.

“Forensic Sciences.” National Institute of Justice, nij.gov/topics/forensics/Pages/welcome.aspx.

“Forensic Sciences.” National Institute of Justice, nij.gov/topics/forensics/Pages/welcome.aspx.

“Journal of Forensic ResearchOpen Access.” Journal of Forensic Research - Open Access

Journals, www.omicsonline.org/forensic-research.php.

“Journal of Forensic ResearchOpen Access.” Journal of Forensic Research - Open Access

Journals, www.omicsonline.org/forensic-research.php.

“Pros & Cons of Forensic Science.” Sciencing, sciencing.com/pros-cons-forensic-science-

8066285.html.