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WHAT DOES A CRIMINALIST DO?
Criminalistics is one of many divisions in the field of forensic science. Forensic science includes forensic pathology, odontology, entomology, engineering, criminology, and other disciplines. All of these are specialized sections in forensic science. Criminalists use techniques learned in chemistry, molecular biology, geology, and other scientific disciplines to investigate and solve crimes. Criminalistics should not be confused with the field of criminology. Criminologists are sociologists, psychologists, and others who study the causes and effects of crime on society.
For the criminalist, crime scene investigation involves the recognition, documentation, collection, preservation, and interpretation of physical evidence which may be as big as a truck or as small as a diatom or pollen grain. Recognition of items out of place, articles improperly located or items added to the crime scene are an important part of crime scene processing. The criminalist collects, preserves, and makes interpretations about the evidence and their relation to the series of events resulting at the crime scene.
The criminalist brings evidence back to the laboratory where examinations will be conducted. Interpretations are made about the relevance of a particular item from the crime scene by associating particular items of evidence to specific sources and reconstructing the crime scene. This means not only associating a suspect with a scene but also the telling of a story about what transpired before, during and after the crime. The criminalist must draw on a wide spectrum of scientific knowledge including chemistry, biology, genetics, molecular biology, physics, statistics and a working knowledge of civil and criminal law. Applying this knowledge, criminalist will associate and identify evidence, interpret the results, reconstruct the crime scene, and write a report summarizing the findings.
Finally, the criminalist testifies in courts of law, teaching the judge and jury about the conclusions reached in the laboratory.
TESTIMONY
The end of the journey is the court room where testimony of the crime scene work, laboratory analysis, the conclusions on the report and interpretation of the evidence will be presented and questioned. The criminalist tells the truth in an unbiased manner, educating the jurors about the techniques that were used, the results obtained and interpretations derived from those conclusions. The criminalist must answer the question posed so that their answer is not misleading the jurors. If the question posed requires a yes or no answer but an explanation is needed to explain the yes or no answer, they are obligated to give an explanation. Professionally, the criminalist does not care whether the defendant is found guilty or not guilty. Presentation of the evidence in a fair and unbiased manner and telling the truth are the primary obligations of the criminalist.