Complete 6 pages APA formatted article: Scientific Method Applied to Forensic Science
The main purpose of a forensic expert is to provide logical interpretation and inferences to the available evidence by scientific analyses which are then presented to the authorities who make a decision independently based upon their own judgment of the facts. The general public is misled by fantastic feats of forensic science as viewed by them in movies and television serials, but actually, forensic science is a difficult and challenging art to practice as it is built upon what scenario is presented after the event has occurred which is very difficult to reconstruct considering fallacies in human judgment. At the best, a near and accurate guess can be made, as it is impossible to emulate the exact sequence of events.
The sequence followed in forensic science ‘consists of preliminaries, followed by documentation, collection and preservation of evidence in order to arrive at a crime reconstruction scenario and final interpretation’ (Nickell Joe & Fischer John F.).
The preliminaries include arriving at the scene of the crime at the earliest and taking control of the situation immediately by identifying the people at the site and eliminating the destruction of evidence by the crowds, media persons, etc. in order to form an appropriate and accurate hypothesis of the situation at hand. Inadvertent destruction of evidence by the police personnel, medical teams, and other well-wishers at the site has to be eliminated at the first instance. Definite duties are then assigned to forensic assistants in order to eliminate duplication of tasks by an overall controlling officer. The main duties of forensic experts are divided between the photographer, measurer, master note taker, and the evidence collector (Nickell Joe & Fischer John F). Each of these activities is to be handled by the expert in the field who has to gather his data in a rapid and accurate manner.
After the preliminaries, the next step is that of documentation which includes the ‘photographs, a crime scene sketch and the notes’ (Nickell Joe & Fischer John F). .
