What is Forensic Science?

The growing area of forensic science is something many people have heard about from movies and TV series, but they might not be certain what the field entails. Put very broadly, the field of forensics has to do with the wide variety of ways science can be used to discover facts and answer questions in legal, and typically crime-related, matters. The U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics describes the multiple applications of forensic science and the way it assists the legal system in bringing criminals to justice.

Forensic science revolves largely around the investigation of crimes by analyzing physical evidence recovered from the scene or from the bodies of victims. It additionally requires technicians to collect and catalogue evidence and perform tests on such objects as firearms, hair, tissue, body fluids, and fibers to determine whether they’re vital to the ongoing investigation. Thanks to the advances in technology, forensic science plays a key role in criminal investigations and the ability to apprehend and convict the right person. Forensic scientists are also common fixtures in courtrooms — the word “forensic” means “belonging to the court/forum” — and are used to provide expert testimony in legal proceedings, whether it’s verifying the type of fiber left at the scene of a robbery or testifying to the DNA or blood type of an alleged killer.

There are many specialized areas within the larger field of forensic science. Toxicology focuses on the amount of alcohol, drugs, and poisons present in body fluids and tissues. Forensic DNA analysis uses an individual’s blood and DNA to answer a variety of questions, whether it’s an issue of paternity or a question of criminal involvement in which investigators try to place a suspect at crime scene by matching their DNA with some found at the scene. Forensic anthropology is used in the recovery and identified of human remains that have been skeletonized. There’s also the multifaceted area of criminalistics, which covers everything from examining trace evidence recovered from a crime scene to performing ballistics examinations on firearms, as well as fingerprint analysis and investigation of biological evidence. And that’s just the beginning.

Forensic science is ultimately a growing and important part of the legal and criminal justice systems, with a wide array of applications of modern scientific techniques.