Forensic Science and Criminal Investigation Procedures

In a way a crime scene is a message in a language that most people don't know. The purpose of forensic science is to read that message, whether it's the blood on a door frame or the pattern of blood on that door frame, or the bits of a hard drive or the pattern of blood on the liver or the trace of poison. The job of forensic science is to read that message, whether it's the blood on a door frame or the pattern of the blood on a door frame, the bits of a hard drive, the pattern of blood on the liver, or the trace of poison. This paper describes a short history of the practical application of forensic science in the crime-solving process since the birth of scientific criminalistics in the late nineteenth century to the present day, including the DNA revolution of the 1980s and the digital and genetic-genealogy tools of the twenty-first century. It reviews the major disciplines of forensic science, the process used for investigation of crime scenes, the chain of custody, the legal requirements for forensic evidence to be presented to a jury, and the research findings about error, cognitive bias and wrongful conviction in what are considered “objective” forensic fields. The book ends with an evaluation of the forensic infrastructure in India and the statutory landscape – past and present – that regulates the application of forensic science in the Indian courts. It is a central argument that the power of forensic science is based on its empirical grounding and procedural rigor, not on the aura of certainty it often emanates from laboratory coats and technical jargon, and that the credibility of criminal investigation rests on respecting that distinction.