Forensic Science: Its Relevance Within the Criminal Justice System

Forensic science has, since its inception, had an impact on a number of fields, including education, health, law enforcement (the criminal justice system), to name but a few. Of these, the criminal justice system can be rightly considered the greatest beneficiary of forensic science (Fantino, 2007). Thanks to technological advancement and increased public awareness, all aspects of the justice system today including but not limited to policing, investigations of crime, security efforts and court processes rely, to a large extent, on forensic science (Garrison, 2013). Forensic science in the criminal justice system involves applying "medical knowledge to legal questions" (Garrison, 2013).

The disciplines of forensic science are either based on laboratory testing (such as drug and mitochondrial DNA analyses and toxicology) or on observed patterns (such as specimen analyses, bite marks, and fingerprints) (Garrison, 2013). During criminal investigations, samples of footprints,...
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