The Use of Forensic Evidence in Criminal Proceedings Book Report
The use of forensic evidence in criminal proceedings has resulted in possibilities of deriving meaning from the evidence gathered from the crime scene. The science has enabled the identification of the substance contained in the evidence then further providing for its classification. A fingerprint is first identified as a fingerprint before its classification as belonging to a human (Peterson et al. p.17). The above then results in the identification of the common origin between the suspect in question and the sample identified. The existence of errors in this process has increased challenges for the criminal justice system. Some of the consequences of these errors include wrongful convictions provided by courts resulting in incarceration of innocent people. The errors made by the forensic science techniques have further exposed the weaknesses of the criminal justice system providing those informed on them approaches useful in circumventing justice. Increasing complicated nature of crime is resulting from the understanding of possible errors made using forensic science with criminals complicating crime scenes to result in forensic science errors.
The errors made during the use of forensic science affect the method and make it less of positive impact but the method remains useful in determining cases in the criminal justice system. According to Peterson et al. p.11, the use of forensic science results rests in an “overworked justice system” handled by nonscientists hence increasing the rate of errors that would result in wrongful convictions. Reducing the workload of the criminal justice system by increasing the number of bodies providing support to the system would eliminate the backlog of cases that occasion duress indirectly on the system. Along with this, the introduction of highly scientific equipments based on technology and support from scientific personnel will increase the reliability of the forensic science technique reducing the level of errors made in the process.
Work cited
Peterson, Joseph., Sommers, Ira., Baskin, Deborah. & Johnson, Donald. “The Role and Impact of Forensic Evidence in the Criminal Justice Process.” California State University, 2010. Viewed from …
