Importance Of Ethics In Forensic Investigation

FORENSIC SCIENCE can be defined as the application of science to civil and criminal law. It is a field that is grounded in applied ethics. The identification, collection, and preservation of any piece of forensic evidence will ultimately involve numerous individuals. At any step within the process, evidence can be deliberately or accidentally mishandled.

This risk begins at the scene of the crime, where there is the possibility of evidence planting, destruction, or mishandling. After the scene has been processed, evidence is then sent to a forensic laboratory for analysis. Here, it can be subject to contamination through poor testing methods, excess consumption, mislabelling, and even loss or destruction. After the analysis has been performed, those analyzing the evidence must then report on their findings.

Personnel must be accurate and honest when reporting their examination results. There have been instances uncovered where individuals trusted with such reporting have

This, coupled along with the fact that their skills and knowledge in the forensic investigation may assist in establishing the innocence or guilt of a defendant, mandate that professional ethics and integrity be essential to a forensic investigator’s decisions and efforts.

A forensic practitioner’s ultimate obligation is to the truth. He or she must never be biased for or against a suspect in an investigation. Legal, scientific, and ethical values can become tangled in the courtroom; however, the most important aspect of the trial is that the guilty are convicted and the innocent are exonerated (Fish, Miller, & Braswell, 2007). The sole obligation must be to serve the aims of justice. Of ultimate importance is that the forensic practitioner conducted their efforts in a thorough, competent, unbiased