A forensic sketch artist is a trained individual who interviews witness from a crime scene or the victims themselves in order to gather information about the physical appearance of the offender, after which he proceeds to draw his portrait. These portraits have often been invaluable to law enforcement efforts worldwide, helping identify hardened criminals and putting them to justice before they had [...]
The illegal harvesting of wood resource is a major global problem, which affects the economy, local fauna, and most importantly our climate. In developing countries where poverty is rampant, this practice is even more present. Since they can’t afford to pay for legally harvested wood resources or don’t have a natural gas link in their homes, most residents take it [...]
In the past, we’ve written rather extensively on what forensic pathology entails and what requirements should a individual looking to become a forensic pathologist fulfill. Like any field of science, however, many times it’s advised to turn to its roots, see how it was first described and what we can learn from its history. Forensic pathology is probably the most [...]
Confessions are considered a highly important piece of evidence in any court of law in the world, however, in the US at least, it’s not enough to grant a conviction. If someone admits to a crime, you’d think that would be enough – it’s not. Independent evidence which corroborates the confessions are required, for a sound verdict to be announced. Apparently however, confessions aren’t [...]
Forensic taphonomy is a new, emerging field, which originated as a subfield of forensic anthropology. The word ‘taphonomy’ derives from ancient Greek, where ‘tapho’ is ‘burial’ and ‘nomos’ is ‘laws’, so it is the study of the laws of burial. It emerged as a science in the 1940s, as a support for paleontology to explain how and why animals become [...]
If you’d look at today’s movies, you’d be tempted to think that every big city has at least one superhero taking care of it and fighting of bad guys. But if you look at the facts, there really aren’t any heroes to go around; except for Seattle. Seattle has its own self proclaimed super hero: Phoenix Jones. Phoenix Jones doesn’t [...]
As climate change events intensify, leading to an increase of flooding, hurricanes and other cataclysmic related phenomena, the industry of forensic meteorology can only grow. Forensic meteorology is the process of reconstructing weather events occuring at a certain time and location. This is achieved by retrieving and analyzing archived meteorological data (local reports, radio and satellite imaging, eye-witness reports) and re-creating a time line [...]
AI2-3D is a Canadian firm which specializes in crime scene reconstructions and 3D forensic animated visualization. Using modern technology like laser scanning and photogrammetry, the company has helped forensic scientists, crime scene investigators, lawyers or detectives to visually piece together information for over 60 cases worldwide. If you’re a fan of the popular TV shows CSI or Law and Order, [...]
As I already explained in a previous post, forensic anthropology is one of the most interesting fields in all forensic sciences, and if you’re on this post, the odds are you already want to find out which schools offer programs which can prepare you for this branch of anthropology. However, it is practically impossible to be a major in forensic [...]
Forensic psychology is the branch of psychology which is applied to the criminal justice sector. It provides a bridge of interaction between the study of psychology and law, as a forensic psychologist will often be asked to testify in a courtroom and provide assessment of the defendant’s sanity or insanity, for that matter, all in a legal setting, which requires [...]
