FORENSIC SCIENCE: The Application Of Science To Criminal And Civil Laws.

Forensic science is the application of a broad spectrum of sciences to answer questions of interest to the legal system. Forensic science uses highly developed technologies to uncover scientific evidence in a variety of fields. The word forensic comes from the Latin word forensic (meaning “public”) and currently means “used in or suitable to courts of judicature or to public discussion or debate.” Forensic science is science used in public, in a court or in the justice system; so any science, used for the purposes of the law, is a forensic science.
The Eureka legend of Archimedes (287 to 212 B.C.E.) can be considered an early account of the use of forensic science. By examining the principles of water displacement, Archimedes was able to prove that a crown was not made of gold (as it had been claimed) by its density and buoyancy. The use of fingerprints as a means to establish identity occurred during the seventh century. The use of medical evidence to determine the mode of death began as early as the 11th century in China and flourished in 16th-century Europe. The combination of a medical and legal approach to dealing with crimes used in the United States today had its origin in England in the 12th century, when King Richard I established the Office of the Coroner. The American colonists instituted the coroner system, which still exists today. There is no federal law requiring a coroner to be a licensed physician.
Modern forensic science has a broad range of applications. It is used in civil cases such as forgeries, fraud or negligence. It can help law enforcement officials determine whether any laws or regulations have been violated in the marketing of foods and drinks, the manufacture of medicines or the use of pesticides on crops. It also can determine whether automobile emissions are within a permissible level and whether drinking water meets legal purity requirements. Forensic science is used in monitoring the compliance of various countries with such international agreements as the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the Chemical Weapons Convention and to learn whether countries are developing secret nuclear weapons programs. However, forensic science most commonly is used to investigate criminal cases involving a victim, such as assault, robbery, kidnapping, rape or murder.
The medical examiner is the central figure in an investigation of crimes involving victims. It is the responsibility of the medical examiner to visit the crime scene, conduct an autopsy (an examination of the body) in cases of death, examine the medical evidence and laboratory reports, study the victim’s medical history and put all that information together in a report to the district attorney, the public prosecuting officer within a defined district. Medical examiners usually are physicians specializing in forensic pathology, the study of structural and functional changes in the body as a result of injury.