Fascinating Forensics - an overview about forensic science, forensic science degree and institutes offering forensic science courses including forensic science courses in Chennai

          

Information about forensic science and  forensic science colleges in India including details about Forensic science courses in Chennai.

     If you are a fan of investigative thriller movies you might definitely come across a term called 'Forensics'. In movies it is usually shown that the cases are solved with the help of forensic department.

                   Solving a crime case with the help of forensic science not only involves fingerprints, blood samples and bullets. It involves much more than that.

               In this modern technologically advanced world, unlike other fields forensic science has also been upgraded. 

                  In this article, we tried to give you an insight about the techniques involved in this field. We also quoted some solved crime cases in real life using these modern techniques in forensic science. We also listed some forensic science colleges that have forensic science degree including forensic science courses in Chennai.

                 Apart from this, we also listed out some career opportunities in this field. 

Let's dig in.

What is Forensic Science?

                 The word 'forensic' is derived from the Latin word 'forum' which means a place where public meet and debate. 

                  

                 Generally, forensic science is the science used to solve a crime by associating people, things and places involved in the crime with the help of some technology.

What are areas in Forensic Science?

                 As we seen in movies that solving a crime using forensics mostly involves collecting fingerprints, bullets and blood samples. But apart from this, there are so many areas in this field.

                In real, these fingerprints and bullets are least helpful in crime solving. There are many areas in Forensic Science. 

Criminalistics:

               This area of forensic science involves dealing with the physical evidences collected from the crime scene.

Forensic Pathology:

                This involves examination of dead body by a medical examiner to find out the reason, time and manner of death in a crime.

Forensic Odontology:

                 This involves the application of dental knowledge to solve a crime. 

                 For example, A victim was burnt alive in a crime. If the second molar teeth of the victim is well developed, we can conclude that the victim's age is around 16 years and if the third molar teeth is well developed, we can conclude that the victim's age is around 18-21 years.

                Similarly, from attrition of teeth can also been analysed to determine victim's details.

               This also involves analysing bitemarks in a murder case. The killer's identity can be found.

Forensic Anthropology:

               This involves dealing with the study of humans and their ancestors by examining their bones. This area focuses on examining skeletal remains of victims to identify their age, sex, height and other characteristic features.

Forensic Engineering:

               This involves examining things, products or structures which failed to work as they designed to do. This area particularly focuses on finding out the reason of accidents and why such products or structures failed. 

               For example, if a car accident happened and we don't know the reason behind that accident. Using forensic engineering techniques, we can find the reason for that accident by examining the car involved in that accident.

Toxicology:

              This involves performing chemical analysis of fluids and tissues in the victim's body to find whether there is drug or poison present. 

               It's mainly useful when a victim murdered in a mystical way to find out whether the victim is poisoned to death or whether any drug present in his or her body which will give investigators a lead.

Behavioural science:

               This area of forensic science focuses on studying human psychology. This will play a major role in courtroom investigation to bring out the truth about a crime.

               This also helps to find out the state of mind of the killer while committing the crime so that the reason behind a crime can be found.

Questioned documents:

               This involves examining suspicious documents to find out whether it is legal or not. This is helpful in finding out whether a document is fake or not.

               This is also helpful in solving a illegally sold plot case by examining the documents and also helpful in identifying fake currencies.

What are the technologies used in forensic science?

              There are many fascinating technologies that are being used in forensic science. We listed some interesting stuffs below.

Laser Ablation Inductively coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry ( LA-ICP-MS)

             This is really helpful when broken glass is involved in a crime as broken glass pieces can be useful to find out many leads in a crime scene. 

                        This machine breaks glass pieces into size of an atom and scientists will work on it to find many things like speed of bullet when it hit glass, direction of bullet and even the convicts identity can be found by examining glass pieces using this machine. This is a very useful equipment in a crime that involves glass.

DNA Sequencer:

                          In some cases, the sample collected may be highly damaged or degraded such that only bones, teeths are left. 

                          In such a case, the bones or teeth can be analysed by using a DNA Sequencer which has the ability to obtain a unique DNA pattern. With the help of this, investigators can find the convict whose DNA matches with the obtained DNA pattern.

Alternative Light Photography

                      Usually it's easy to examine visible injuries of victims in a crime scene to find some lead.

                      But in some cases, the injuries may not be visible. For example, if victim was murdered by stuffing pillow against face, there will be no injuries found. Before this, if both of them had a small fight, the victim may have some hidden injuries. 

                      In such a case, Alternative Light Photography machine is very helpful in finding out the hidden injuries in victims body under the skin by using a camera called Omnichrome. 

                      This camera uses blue and orange light filters to identify hidden injuries. After the identification of the injuries, it will be helpful in finding any lead.

Crime cases solved using forensic science

                    We quoted few interesting solved cases to know about how forensic science is useful in solving a crime case.

Murder case of 17 year old girl Krystal Beslanowitch

                   This was a famous case as it was solved after 18 years due to the advancement in the field of forensic science. 

                   This murder took place in 1995. Krystal's body was found near a river. At that time, investigators were not able to find any leads so that the case staggered.

                    After 18 years, in 2013 this case was reopened and investigation was again started as the investigators believed that the new development in the field of forensic science will definitely help them in solving this case.

                   As per the investigators' belief, the new technologies in forensic science helped them to solve the case.

                  They extracted Touch DNA from a granite rock near the place of murder with the help of a machine called Forensic Vacuum. Touch DNA is a method of examining DNA samples found at the crime scene. It requires only small samples to reach a conclusion.

                 After examining the DNA sample, it was found that Michael Simpson , who was a bus driver is the culprit. He was arrested by the police in his 46th age.

Murder case of 19 year old girl Sierra Bouziguard

                This murder took place in 2009. Sierra Bouziguard's dead body was found near a country road by cyclist who came across that way.

                It was difficult to identify Sierra's identity as her face was badly beaten but Police somehow identified her with the help of a unique tattoo on her.

                After identification, a DNA sample was collected from the nails of the victim. But the investigators were not able to find a match to the DNA sample they collected even from the database. Because of this, the case stopped there.

              In 2015, Monica Quaal found that we can identify the convict even we don't have a DNA match with the help of a technique called DNA Phenotyping. Monica Quaal was a DNA analyst.

             The use of genetic information to find out the physical and biological characteristics of an organism is called DNA Phenotyping.

             After finding about this technique, Monica reminded of the 6 year old unsolved murder case of Sierra.

              Using DNA phenotyping, some information was found about the murderer. It was found that, the convict's skin was pale, hair was brown and eyes were probably blue or green in colour. 

              It was also found that the murderer was an Northern European. After further investigation using these information, the police found that Blake A. Russell was the murderer.

              Also in this case, advanced techniques of forensics played a crucial part in finding out the culprit.

             Hope the above mentioned things made you interesting. Now we will see about the Career opportunities in the forensics.

What to do to join in forensic science degree?

            The candidate should secure atleast 60% academic marks in his/ her 12th standard Candidates should take physics,chemistry, biology, microbiology, biochemistry,botany and zoology groups in their 12th standard.

What are the forensic science colleges in Tamilnadu including colleges having forensic science courses in Chennai?

BSc., Forensic science - 3 yrs
MSc., forensic science- 2 yrs

1. University of Madras , Chennai.
2. Karunya University , Coimbatore.
3. Madras Christianity College ,Chennai.
4. Stanley medical College, Chennai.
5. Department of forensic science SRM UNIVERSITY, Chennai .

Institutions providing forensic science courses in India are:

1. Indira Gandhi institute of medical science, Bihar.
2. Government institute of forensic science, Aurangabad.   
3.  Institute of forensic science, Punjab University.

Leading private institutions providing forensic science courses

1. Lovely professional University(LPU),Jalandhar.
2. Amity University,Noida
3. Sharda University, Noida
4. University of Mumbai, Mumbai

Some universities conduct entrance examination for admissions.
                                                                

You might think, what is the the scope in this field?

Places where to find a job :

1. Intelligent bureau
2. Central bureau of investigation
3. Central government forensic science labs
4. Private detective agency
5. Hospitals
6. Army
7. Defense
8. Police
9. Banks 
10. Quality control

                    These all some facts we collected from various sources about forensic science and it's uses in crime solving. Hope this will be an informative article to you.

After reading this post, do any one have interest in pursuing your career in this field?

Today's English word

Exonerate

This means relieving a person from a case legally if he is falsely accused.

Sentence Usage

Thomas was exonerated from the murder case after spending 10 years in the prison as the real convict was caught by the police.

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