Forensic Week Day 1

What is forensic evidence? Forensic evidence is evidence obtained by scientific methods such as ballistics, blood tests, and DNA test and then used in court. Forensic Evidence often helps to establish the guilt or innocence of possible suspects. Analysis of forensic evidence as used in the investigation and prosecution of civil as well as criminal proceedings. Simply put, any item considered to be of evidentiary value that can be examined by a person of specialized training to give an opinion about it. Some examples of forensic evidence would be death investigation/crime scene, forensic pathology, DNA blood/saliva/bodily fluids (biological/serology), ballistics, fingerprints, and digital forensics (phones/computers). Digital forensics can include computers, cell phones, vehicles, banking, and all social media sites. In a homicide case, you determine, through physical and circumstantial evidence: WHY + HOW = WHO. Forensic evidence can help you determine one, or all, of the 3 components. Be willing to think outside the box, but also think as four people, detective, suspect, prosecutor, and an attorney. Some myths about forensic evidence are that there are always fingerprints, always DNA, everyone who commits suicide leaves a note, must have forensic evidence to prove your case, time of death, and every death case has the same evidence.