Future of Criminology

Forensics has jumped by leaps and bounds from what it used to be. Before the year 1990 forensics have helped law enforcement with such things as drug testing, firearm examinations, paint chip characteristics, handwriting analysis, finger print comparisons, assessment of tool marks, bullet comparisons, and serology. People who worked in the forensic labs were trained in finger prints and advanced blood stain and bullet patterns as well as evidence collection and crime scene processing. The cost to do this was extremely high so due to this and the time it took to process these tests many of them were not ever done. In the year 1995 the DNA advisory board was formed under a Federal congressional mandate under the DNA Identification Act of 1994 (Schade, Dennis &Reeder, 2007). The goals of the lab were to establish quality standards for forensic DNA testing. There is an increasing continual need for working more efficiently and strict adherence to these standards that have been set up requires commitment of time resources and personnel.

Ethics can be hard word to define, Aristotle was the first person to study ethics and thus formed his own definition stating that ethics was knowledge that actions are accomplished through the betterment of the common good. In the criminal justice system, this definition could be translated to knowing that the action a person is doing is going to better the good of the criminal justice system. There are many new aspects that have been tagged with ethical concerns or violations now that they technologies that the criminal justice system is using are more advanced and changing with the need and times that we are in. Emails, text messaging, spyware, and biometrics could all raise ethical concerns for this use in aiding the criminal justice system is not used properly. Civil Liberties are laws that are put in place for the good of the community; this is most concerned for the freedom of speech and action. Civil liberties are also cause...