What Does a Forensic Scientist Do?

If you are thinking about becoming a forensic scientist, one of the first questions you may come across will be, “What does a forensic scientist do?” Forensic scientists have made their way onto a lot of popular TV shows, but most people don’t know what these special lab workers actually do. Before you can decide if you want to become a forensic scientist, you need to know what your job duties are going to be in the near future. Here is a look at some of the tasks you may handle if you decide to pursue a career in forensic science.

Examining Evidence

The biggest part of a forensic scientist’s job is examining evidence. This can be done in many different ways, depending on the crime and the evidence at hand. Forensic scientists can use scientific tools to detect fibers, chemicals, and foreign substances in evidence samples that they get in the lab. Common tools used in forensic science include:

• Cotton swabs: Mostly used to collect DNA samples for analysis.
• Microscopes: Used to look at fibers, tissue samples, and fluids that are too small to analyze with the naked eye.
• Gunshot residue kits: Mostly used at a crime scene to determine if a gun has recently been shot in the area. Other versions of the kits may be used in the lab for more extensive testing.
• Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) machines: Used to identify the components of complex compounds, often associated with pinpointing the presence of drugs in a sample of blood.
• Glass refractive index measurement (GRIM) machines: Used to compare glass fragments from different pieces of evidence to determine if they came from the same source, like glass from a broken window and glass on a person’s clothing.
• Fuming cabinet: Used to show fingerprints on pieces of evidence by increasing humidity levels in an airtight chamber. Superglue is introduced, and then the prints are revealed.
• Scalpels: Used to cut samples of evidence for analysis in multiple departments.
• Ultraviolet lamps: Used to identify chemicals that do not show up under normal lighting. These lamps are otherwise known as black lights.

If you decide to work as a forensic scientist in the future, you will be expected to be familiar with all of those tools for your job. You will also need to know about the tools used in criminal investigator jobs in case you have to do any work outside of the lab. You may be called in to examine evidence on site, so you need to know about the tools you will use to do so. This, along with the work you do in the lab, will be the biggest part of your day to day work.

Testifying in Court

Forensic scientists are often called on to testify in court because they have the expertise to explain what may have happened in a crime. They essentially have to tell the judge and jury about the findings of various tests they have performed on the evidence. They cannot give any opinions on the events that happened in a crime, and they cannot testify as if they were eye witnesses. They just have to present the facts and allow someone else to interpret them.

If you are commissioned to testify in a court of law, you will most likely be contacted by an attorney representing one side of the case or another. A prosecuting attorney may want you to testify about evidence that supports the defendant being at the scene of a crime, and a defending attorney may want you to testify about evidence that suggests there is no possible way a person could have done a crime in the manner the prosecutions is claiming. You may work out answers to questions with the attorney before you speak in court, but then you will have to answer questions from both parties. As long as you speak honestly at all times, you should be able to execute your job duties properly.

Conclusion

What does a forensic scientist do? Just about everything. He or she is responsible for examining evidence and reconstructing a crime as closely to reality as possible. If you decide to become a forensic scientist, you will need to understand how to operate many different pieces of lab equipment in order to conduct tests on evidence for a crime. You can go to school to learn about that, and then you can begin your work as a forensic scientist.

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