The scope of forensic science

If forensic science means science applied to criminal and civil law, we may wonder which of the sciences are forensic sciences. The answer may surprise you. Any science can be a forensic science if it has some application to justice. The most common areas of science that have forensic applica­tions are described below. This will give you an idea of the "big tent" that is forensic science.

Criminalistics

Criminalistics is an old term first coined by Paul Kirk, the father of forensic science in the United States. In some quar­ters, criminalistics is synonymous with forensic science. The term can be used to describe the comparative forensic sci­ences such as fingerprints, questioned documents, firearms, and tool marks. Most commonly, however, criminalistics refers to the myriad of types of physical evidence generated by crime scenes. This includes illicit drugs, blood and DNA, fire and explosive residues, hairs and fibers, glass and soil particles, paints and plastics, fingerprints, bullets, and much more.

Pathology

When some people think of forensic science, they envision dead bodies, autopsies, and blood everywhere. Not all of forensic science is like this, but forensic pathology is. The forensic pathologist is a medical doctor who has special­ized in pathology and then in forensic pathology. Forensic pathologists determine the cause and manner of death in cases where someone dies under suspicious or other circum­stances as prescribed by state law. Many people are also confused by the terms cause of death and manner of death. The cause of death is the event that directly caused death. It could be, for example, a heart attack or bleeding to death from a knife wound to a major artery. There can be many causes of death. The manner of death is the type of death. There can be only four of these: homicide, natural, acciden­tal, and suicide.