What is Forensics ?
Etymologically forensics is derived from a latin word forensis which basically means public discussion, technically, by which i mean in the modern context Forensics means application of scientific procedures and techniques for the conviction of suspects.Applications of Forensics:
Forensics is not a new branch it started in the early 16th century. As with the evolution of time forensics also spread its roots across various departments of science and technology. Some of the common applications of forensics are as follows:Digital Forensics : Is the application of proven scientific methods and techniques in order to recover data from electronic / digital media. Digital Forensic specialists work in the field as well as in the lab.
Computational Forensics : concerns the development of algorithms and software to assist forensic examination.
Criminalistics : Is the application of various sciences to answer questions relating to examination and comparison of biological evidence, trace evidence, impression evidence (such as fingerprints, footwear impressions, and tire tracks), controlled substances, ballistics, firearm and toolmark examination, and other evidence in criminal investigations. In typical circumstances evidence is processed in a crime lab.
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Forensic Chemistry: Is the study of detection and identification of illict drugs, accelerants used in arson cases, explosive and gunshot residue.
Forensic DNA analysis: This takes advantage of the uniqueness of an individual's DNA to answer forensic questions such as paternity/maternity testing and placing a suspect at a crime scene, e.g. in a
rape investigation.
There are many more applications of Forensics the above listed are very few applications of Forensics. With that being said now lets focus on the buzz words of forensics.
Forensic Buzz words:
The first term that comes to my mind when i think of forensic terminology is Evidence, which basically refers to information or object that can be submitted to the judge as a support to your argument against the suspect or towards proving the innocence of the suspect. We will focus on types of evidences and admissibility of evidence in court in the subsequent articles.
The next term that i want emphasize is chain of custody, which is nothing but just a piece of paper telling us who is the predecessor of the evidence. chain of custody is mostly created by the incident response team who visits the crime scene in the first place. Chain of custody is mainly does two things 1) Keeps track of the evidence 2) Maintains the integrity of the evidence.
One more term which i want to emphasize is Forensically sound methods, which means nothing the procedure/best practices that has to be followed while gathering the evidence so that there is no loss of integrity and potential evidence from the crime scene which may lead to improper judgement in the case.
One other term is in the forensic world is suspect, which means a person who is likely to to to found guilty of a crime
One term is the First responder, a person who visits the crime scene in first place to gather the evidence.
That's it for today guys. In the future articles i will be focusing on digital Forensics and procedures followed in digital Forensics
