328 pages · 2024
Ethics and the Practice of Forensic Science
By Robin T. Bowen
- Published
- March 8, 2024
- Imprint
- CRC Press
- Edition
- 3rd Edition
- ISBN
- 9781003375593
Overview
About this book
Integrity and honesty are the hallmarks of science - and especially so in the case of forensic science - making the study and practice of ethics essential to the field. Ethics and the Practice of Forensic Science, Third Edition directly addresses common stressors that can induce, or lead professionals - working in forensic laboratories, law enforcement, the judicial system, and at crime scenes - to commit misconduct.
While forensic scientists, investigators, and experts are intrinsically ethical by nature, the reality is that these individuals face challenges including departmental or political pressures, lack of training, and conflicting standards. The difference, however, is that the work done by forensic professionals has the ability to compromise another person’s freedom, potentially leading to arrest, incarceration, and miscarriages of justice. Police and forensic professionals confront ethical dilemmas every day, some situations that fall within clear protocols or standards and others that frequently have no definitive answers.
Ethics and the Practice of Forensic Science, Third Edition includes updated information and case studies, as well as recent research findings focused on ethics in forensic science. Chapters examine investigation and police culture through the lens of professional challenges, incorporating important information about the history of wrongful convictions, and including recent developments in overturned wrongful convictions, and the work of various innocence projects. Throughout the book, case examples of bias, ethical violations, and instances of tampering with evidence present the dangers of compromising one’s ethical standards. Through such cases, the book sheds light on the problem and offers alternative courses of action - presenting examples of what to do, and what not to do, when faced with ethical decisions in gathering, handling, analyzing, and presenting evidence.
Subjects
Bioscience, Medicine, Dentistry, Nursing & Allied Health, Social Sciences
Inside the book
Table of contents
Select a chapter to read its abstract.
Chapter 1What Is Ethics?
Pages: 20
Most truths are so naked, that people feel sorry for them and cover them up, at least a little bit.
Chapter 2Ethics in Forensic Science
Pages: 23
The temptation for the forensic scientist … is to become a servant of the police and the criminal prosecutor’s office to the extent that truth is sacrificed. … Such forensic scientists improperly join in the chase for a likely suspect and resolve doubts in support of their colleagues in the police department.
Chapter 3An Ethical Approach to Forensic Professionalism
Pages: 17
The concept that we are all human and capable of making mistakes … that is not unethical. … What you do when a mistake is uncovered is the ethical part.
Chapter 4The Ethics of the Criminal Justice Culture
Pages: 15
It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.
Chapter 5Forensic Investigators in Police Agencies
Pages: 18
Many forensic units are housed within state and local police agencies. Therefore, it is important to consider the current events in the field of policing and how they bear on the efficacy and ethics of forensic investigators. It is interesting to note that forensic science has advanced exponentially over the past few decades, but in many local places, this has had little impact on crime clearance rates. 1 When asked about this phenomenon, officers often say that the community will not get involved to help. Many cultures have an understood or spoken culture that cooperating with the police will be punished, which creates fear of giving any form of information even if it will help solve crimes (Woldoff and Weiss, 2010). In areas where police lack legitimacy (Tyler, 1990/2006, 2004), they receive little to no cooperation from the community, and it is often difficult to solve crimes or to prepare cases for trial.
Chapter 6Ethics in the Courtroom
Pages: 18
There is a need to recognize the difference between the “opinion of a scientist” and a “scientific opinion.” The former may have no scientific basis and, if so, is out of place in any scientific report or testimony.
Chapter 7Ethics in Science and Research
Pages: 19
There are no forbidden questions in science, no matters too sensitive or delicate to be probed.
Chapter 8Unethical Behavior
Pages: 24
Know your ethical limits.
Chapter 9Good Examples of Bad Behavior
Pages: 21
Ethics is knowing the difference between what you have a right to do and what is right to do.
Chapter 10Codes of Ethics
Pages: 22
You must question a code of ethics that never impedes your progress.
Chapter 112023 “Ethics in Your Profession” Research Results
Pages: 19
If we knew what we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?
Chapter 12Unjust
Pages: 24
[B]etter that ten guilty persons escape, than that one innocent suffer.