Scientific Method and Criminal Justice

To begin with, what type of jobs come to mind when you hear Criminal Justice? Most may say police officer, correctional officer or even judge but there are more intricate careers when dealing with the law. Psychology plays a major part in the Criminal Justice field. Psychology deals with the mind and behavior but it gets more complex when you involve law. There are four discrete roles of Psychology when discussing the law which are applied scientist, basic scientist, policy evaluator, and advocate. They all have important roles in order to complete the mission of case.

On the evening of November 26th, 2000 a sixteen-year-old girl named Leanne Tiernan went missing. She was walking back from shopping with her friend and took a shortcut back home. Not until 9 months later in August of 2001 was her body found. A man walking his dogs in Lindley Woods found her body. Her body was in a shallow grave. Over her was a duvet cover that had a floral pattern. She was wrapped in ten plastic green bags with twine wrapped around them to keep them together. She had three cable ties around her wrists one yellow on one wrist, one black on the other, and a second black tie to connect the other two ties together very much like a daisy chain. She had a plastic bag around her head with a dog collar to hold

Forensic science and law are often seen as two opposing disciplines; forensic science is often presumed to be factual and law can be interpreted in multiple ways. Science and law reach conclusions in different ways which is an issue. Due to these differences, miscommunication is often the cause for miscarriages of justice. In order to address this problem, people working in the criminal justice system should have more knowledge of forensic science. There are many factors that contribute to the lack of understanding between forensic science and the people involved in the court process. Firstly, the adversarial model will be discussed in relation to how these procedures prevent effective communication between forensic evidence and lawyers. Secondly, the role that expert witnesses play in the presentation of scientific evidence and how jurors play a role in interpreting their evidence, will be considered. Thirdly it will be argued that lawyers and judges lack adequate knowledge of forensic science that is needed to conduct accurate trials. Lastly, possible solutions to improve the communication between forensic science and the actors involved in the criminal justice system. Juries, lawyers and judges should be more educated in understanding forensic science.

The crime-control implications for this perspective are basically based upon creating effective punishment to eliminate crime. These measures must be humane and adhere to human rights to successfully keep criminals from committing the

In this paper, the main objective will be to outline the importance of statistics as a method to analyze data in the field of Criminal Justice. Also, this paper will focus on ways in which data is obtained keeping in mind the appropriate statistics to use with the collected data, and how to interpret the findings. In addition, it will review the causes of crimes, the rate at which these crimes occur, predictive outcomes and preventative measure to deal with criminals.

1) There are multiple goal statements (see the highlighted statement in the body of your paper). What is the ultimate goal and thesis statement for this project?

The Classical school of criminology can be known as the free will to act at one’s own discretion, where an individual chooses to break the law upon a desirable choice. The Classical emphasizes how the system was organized, punishments for crime, and how authorities should react to crime. On the other hand, positivist school was created to see what influences an individual to break the laws, based on human beings’ behavior. Positivist school is simply trying to analyze who, what, and how crime is initiated. This study will identify the schools’ argument, and if they complement each other, the advantages and disadvantages, and the different approaches or points of view from multiple criminologist regarding the schools and theories.

The idea of using the science has been started before the debuting of Sherlock Holmes in 1887, who had introduced about the forensic science to help criminal investigation. In history, the work of forensic scientists was performed by medical personnel. Until the end of eighteenth century, the attempts of French medical jurist Antoine Louis, crime solving Chinese book “ Hsi Duan Yu”(the washing way of wrongs), etc gave ideas about determining time of death, analyzing blood stain, identifying chemical used in crime, etc. After eighteenth century, the modern chemistry paved new way of identifying crime like the idea of measuring height, length of right ear and outstretched

Mobley, Alan & Owen, Barbara. 2012. Western Criminology Review. Aug. 2012. Volume 13. Issue 2. p 46-57.

between a cut (an injury that is longer than deep) and a stab wound (an injury

People all around the world are becoming interested in forensic science. Students across the nation are taking courses in this very popular science. Many colleges are adopting classes and majors just for it. Why has this science become so popular? Is it because of the lack of people in the field now, and the overwhelming job opportunities that come with a degree in forensic science? Is it because the field is so interesting, and catchy that everyone is flooding to be in the programs? Or is the recent growth of this field due to the numerous television and media coverage of the subject? One thing is for sure, people really are starting to get interested in this field, and it is getting

Forensic science involves the use of science to solve criminal and civil crimes but mostly lies on the side of criminal investigations. It makes it possible to identify the criminals based on the DNA traces they leave behind. It involves analyses of blood, DNA and other evidences and later on uses the findings as evidence in the court of law. It helps in solving the various crimes in the world and this has been the greatest contributor to the growth of the sector. Cases that were previously considered impossible due to lack of evidenced tracing to the victim can now be solved using forensic science evidences. The essay aims at analyzing the different aspects of forensic science that are used in the process of solving criminal activities. It will also look at the different cases that forensic science was used to solve crimes in a court of law.

When thinking about Criminal Justice it’s obvious that research is involved in solving crime. But it goes much further than that. Research is actually conducted in Criminal Justice itself. Research is done in Criminal Justice for a number of reasons. Research can be conducted in Criminal Justice for three main reasons; social problems, policy and academics. Then a number of other additional reasons are exploration, description, explanation, application, predictive and finally intervening. Within why research is conducted is another important aspect of Criminal Justice is Methodology; which is how the research is being conducted. Each of these topics will further be explained in depth.

What are the three major principles of the Classical School of Criminology? The major principles in the Classical School of Criminology are that humans are rational and that our behavior comes from free will, and our human behavior is derived from pain and pleasure. To deter criminal’s punishment is necessary, which may set an example for others. As well as crime prevention should be implemented with quick regulated punishment for violations of the law.

Figuring out why people commit crimes is one of the central concerns of criminology. Do most criminals act rationally after weighing the costs of crime? Is society ever to blame for an individual to commit a crime? Do mental diseases or even genetics factor into whether a person will live a life of crime. Over the years, many people have developed theories to try to answer these questions. In fact, the number of theories of why people commit crimes sometimes seems to equal the number of criminologists. I explore these questions and much more in the paper that follow.