1.1 Concept, Importance, Scope and Fields of Forensic Science

Forensic science — the application of scientific methods-and-knowledge to legal questions (forensis — "of the forum"): the crime's investigation, the evidence's examination, the court's proof. The importance: the truth-finding (the objective evidence against the subjective testimony); the innocence's protection (the exoneration cases); the investigation's direction (the leads from the traces); the justice's reliability (the scientific era's standard). The scope-and- fields: forensic medicine (the death-and-body questions — the Forensic Medicine course's world, LAW5607); forensic toxicology (the poisons-and-drugs); forensic biology-and-DNA; fingerprints-and- prints; questioned documents; ballistics-and-explosives; forensic chemistry (the paints, fibres, soils, glass); digital forensics (the Cyber Law interface); forensic psychology-and-psychiatry; crime scene investigation (the discipline's home base).