Forensic
Science: The Importance of Writing
Forensic
scientists have to communicate with many different kinds of people in many
different kinds of situations. This all requires different types of
communication not all of which are written. I will
be going over some of the forms of communication with a focus on types that are
utilized in court rooms. Hopefully this
will aid you in your decision on whether or not you want to pick forensic
science as your major.
The first form of communication a forensic scientist uses
is photographs. Photographs are used at
crime scenes to document the location of evidence. It also shows how the evidence was
positioned. Forensic scientists can use
this information later when they are trying to piece together how the crime
occurred and the possible timeline behind it. Photographs
can also help keep the integrity of the evidence and the case intact. This
way you can keep track of what evidence is at the scene and what evidence you
have after all of it has been collected. This way you know if you have all the
evidence that you photographed and vice versa. Also later when you are preparing for court
you can make sure that extra evidence isn’t slipped in by an unscrupulous
individual. There is a specific way to
take photographs, but it changes depending on what kind of evidence it is.
Another form of communication is video recreation. Video recreations are used by forensic
scientists to run through scenarios and figure out how exactly a crime was
committed. There are two different types
of videos. One type involves actually
people being used to demonstrate the events and the other type involves using
computer animations. Both types are
used for different reasons. Real people are only used when the scenario
can actually occur without the “victim” ending up dead at the end. Computer
animations are in those cases. This can occur in cases where the victim was
killed due to fall from a high location or if they were hit by a car. Video recreations are also good to use when
cases are taken to trail. They are good way to show a jury how a crime was
committed so they can get a true understanding of what happened and are better
informed so they can make a good decision when they are attempting to come up
with a verdict (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2HvKyx48Qw).
There are also many different types of written
communications. The first type of written communication is
forms that are filled out. These are
filled out when evidence is collected from individuals who might be of interest
in a crime that has been committed. This
evidence can be anything from blood on their clothes from the victim or a cheek
swab that will be compared against DNA that was found at the crime scene to
find out if they were the perpetrator of the crime. This is generally one of the easier forms of
communication since it is mostly just filling out blanks on a paper. They are
very important though because it is used to keep track of what investigator
does what work. This is key when a case
is being taken to court because you need to know when information is collected
and by whom so that you can make sure that there wasn’t any chance of it being
contaminated. It is also how you keep
track of who has had the evidence so that again you can make sure that no one
has had a chance to contaminate it or traded it out with evidence that will
implicate someone else has done the crime or lend support that a certain
individual has done it (“The Writer’s Forensics Blog”).
Another type of written communication are reports. This is the most important type of writing
that can be done in the field of forensic science. Reports are always written after experiments
are done to explain findings. This way
every experiment can be kept track of by the people in charge. These reports are also put in case files to
be used now or later depending on the case.
They usually are what would be considered bland writing. The reports are fact based and have no
opinion in them. They simply tell what
was done to the evidence, what happened during the experiments or what was
observed, and what the final result at the end of the experiment. Another kind of report that is usually
written after is what conclusion is made from the evidence. This more likely what the lawyers will be
reading and using in court. This will be
used to decide whether or not the evidence fits with a current suspect they
have or if the evidence says they are in fact not guilty. This is also generally the same sort of
evidence you might be presenting to a jury in court if a lawyer decides you are
going to testify. There could be multiple ways to explain evidence so there
could also be multiple versions of the same report though usually it will
support the lawyers’ theory on who committed the crime (“Becoming a Forensics
Investigator”). These are also sometimes
read by the jury and are almost always read by the defendant’s lawyer. So what goes into your report is very
important. You want every step you take
to be clearly documented so that is easily understood for everyone. You also need to be careful on how technical
you get since the average everyday person will be reading it. You want to make sure that they can figure
what the point is before they get tired of reading it. This can cause them to choose a verdict that
doesn’t match up with the truth (“Report Writing and Testimony”).
As you can see being a forensic scientist requires a lot
of different types of communication. Learning to master all the different types of
communication in the field of forensic science is very important. If the standards of communication deteriorate
in this field, it can lead to people literally getting away with murder. Hopefully you have not been scared off by this
knowledge and are in fact even more excited to pursue a career as a forensic
scientist.
Works
Cited
Maher, Mark. “Becoming a
Forensics Investigator.” 9 August 2004. 9 March 2014. <https://www.sans.org/reading-room/whitepapers/forensics/forensic-investigator-1453>
Conroy, Mary Alice.
“Report Writing and Testimony.” 2006. 9 March 2014. <http://dev.cjcenter.org/_files/apcj/2_3_Reports_Testimony.pdf>
Kelley, Melia. “Report
Writing Guidelines” 30 May 2012. 9 March 2014. <http://www.dfinews.com/articles/2012/05/report-writing-guidelines#.Ux9CDqSYbIU>
Appelbaum, Kenneth L.
“Commentary: The Art of Forensics Report Writing.” March 2010. 9 March 2014.
<http://jaapl.org/content/38/1/43.full>
Lyle, D. P. “The
Writer’s Forensics Blog.” 5 March 2014. 9 March 2014. <http://writersforensicsblog.wordpress.com/>
