Solving the crimes.

Forensic science has come a long way recently and it is wonderful to see people being punished for heinous crimes they committed many years ago and thought they had got away with, mainly due to the use of DNA. DNA profiling and testing are one of the most significant advances in the history of forensic science and the use of DNA matching as an evidential tool has supported many successful prosecutions and has proved of particular value in enabling police to gain important new leads in many unsolved cases, were there was no other evidence available.

DNA exists in all living human cells and is absolutely unique to each individual in its make-up and so this basically means that samples taken from a crime scene or an individual containing DNA can be of great value in identifying a perpetrator, or ruling suspects out of an investigation. I am all for giving my DNA into a DNA database and I feel that to achieve one would make the majority of crimes very quickly solvable. Of course there will be as many people crying that it is a loss of freedom, but how important is that if a potential serial killer can be taken off the streets after his first victim is found, not after his 10th.

As it is now DNA samples are routinely obtained from crime suspects and people who have been arrested and these are then analysed and added to the national database by the Forensic Science Service, at its laboratory in Birmingham.
Samples taken from the scene of a crime, or from a victim, are compared against the DNA profile of a suspect to see if a match can be made.

It is even possible to detect and extract DNA from old or decomposed material or human remains and also analyse crime scene samples such as bodily fluids found at the scenes, such as burglaries or in stolen cars. This work is undertaken at the Forensic Science Service’s London laboratory and includes DNA newly retrieved from unsolved crimes where previously profiling was not available, or the sample size was too small to be of help. The Forensic Science Service is the largest provider of samples from people and crime scenes for the national database and it handles between 40,000 and 50,000 mouth swabs a month.

The Forensic Science Service also has other methods of detecting crimes and textile fibre examination is the second most utilised evidence type. It is useful when person to person or person to item contact is disputed, for example during a violent or sexual crime, theft or traffic incident.
Evidence is recovered by ‘taping’ the item in question, and the lifts are then examined under microscope for colour, structure and type. These tests are highly discriminating and are able to distinguish between similar garments.

As well as DNA, fibre examinations have a high evidential value in corroborative cases and fibres that are found on the clothing of murder victims can give indications of the environment in which the victim last had contact, which can be highly valuable in cases where the victim has been moved.

In cases of terrorism, the presence of fibres on adhesive tapes can be used to substantiate the construction of explosive devices and even have the potential to provide information leading to the identity of the factory. In cases such as terrorism or robbery where the perpetrators have discarded balaclavas or similar used to disguise identity, the presence of fibres can be used to demonstrate contact with the item.