AC 1.1 Evaluate the effectiveness of the roles of personnel involved in criminal
Investigations
There are many types of personnel that are involved in criminal investigations who have a
range of different knowledge and skill sets. I will be evaluating the following roles: forensic
pathologists, forensic scientists, police officer, SOCO’s (scene of crime officers) and the CPS
(crown prosecution service)
Forensic Pathologists
A forensic pathologist’s role in criminal investigations is to discover the causes of death of
individuals and to carry out autopsies. They are specialised medical doctors who are able to
use examinations from dead bodies and tissues to find out and calculate the cause of death
during post mortem examinations. They are able to provide detailed reports about deaths of
individuals, and this means that they are able to give evidence in court as an expert witness.
Pathologists are able to provide a 24/7 service when a homicide is suspected which can help
the police find the time of death quicker. Furthermore, the police are able to use this 24/7
hour service if they believe that a death has been suspicious and need to find the cause of
death quickly.
Some strengths of pathologists are that they are highly trained, and so have all of the expert
knowledge that is needed to carry out autopsy, write reports, etc. Furthermore, another
strength is that they are able to produce these high value reports which can then be used in
court as evidence to explain causes and time of death. Another strength is that pathologists
can be used as an expert witness in cases and may be able to sway the jury with their
knowledge, which could lead to juries being able to establish guilt or innocence easier from a
professional with more knowledge and experience than them. Another strength of
pathologists are that they are highly skilled and have been to school for medicine and had a
further 4 years to study pathology as a specialist subject, meaning that they are highly
knowledgeable and have the expertise that not many others have, making them a reliable
and trustworthy source in some situations.
However, there are some limitations of pathologists. For example, one limitation of
pathologists are the fact that there are limited numbers of them around the UK, being only a
small number of them, this due to the fact that the education and training to become a
pathologist is very difficult, as well as the fact that there are not a lot of job openings for
them. Another limitation of pathologists is that they are expensive, as their salary starts from
£80,000 to £100,000+. Another limitation is that their job is very emotionally demanding due
to the fact that they are exposed to dead bodies and are required to do autopsies which may
be traumatising. Another limitation is the fact that the work is very demanding and extreme,
and so therefore can be an emotional strain on them. Another limitation is that there is room
for human error - although they have been in training for many years, there are still mistakes
that can be made.
Pathologists have limited availability as there are only 35-40 home office registered
pathologists who would be able to carry out their duties. This does cause concern as there is
clearly a small number of pathologists, causing concerns about future numbers. Pathologists
have high expertise, however there is still a chance for mistakes to be made, which could
ultimately lead to miscarriages of justice. A case where this happened was the case of
, Anthony Hardy, in which pathologist Freddy Patel had claimed that a victim had died of
natural causes, although Anthony had clearly murdered the victim. The police did not
investigate it further, and consequently 2 more women were murdered. Anothony was later
convicted, and Freddy Patel was suspended from his role as he was irresponsible and did
not keep up to his standard.
Forensic Scientists
A forensic scientist's role in criminal investigations is to use their scientific knowledge and
apply it to criminal cases by reviewing evidence, analysing evidence and being able to give
evidence in court using their specialist knowledge. Some types of evidence that they may
analyse in a lab, away from the crime scene, will be things like DNA, bodily fluids like blood
and semen, etc. They will make a report of their findings which they can present in court as
evidence as an expert witness, which can help decision making and come to a guilty or not
guilty verdict. All 43 police forces around the UK have their own in-house forensic scientists
who are able to carry out fingerprints and other forensic tasks which may be needed to
analyse crime scene evidence. The police have a budget for their spending on their forensic
scientists, and in recent years, this budget has been cut, and consequently, the spending on
forensic science has been cut by 50% since 2008. If a forensic scientist is needed outside of
the police force, then this work can be provided by the government owned FFS (forensic
Science Service).
Some strengths of forensic scientists are that there are many different areas that they are
able to specialise in. For example, there are many different different areas such as: dentistry,
anthropology, psychology, toxicology, etc. This makes them highly knowledgeable in one
particular area which others may not be. Another strength is that they have been to school
for a very long time, and with a further development in one particular of study, this makes
them very knowledgeable and credible in court, as their expertise may be needed to decide
whether a guilty or not guilty verdict is reached
However, a limitation of forensic scientists is that they are expensive, with their salary being
from £20,000 to £45,000 per year. Furthermore, another limitation of forensic scientists are
that there could be room for human error, which could cause mistakes in the courtroom and
miscarriages of justice, such as with the case of Adam Scott, who was wrongly accused of
rape. Adam was wrongly accused of the rape of a woman who he had never met, and was
wrongly held in custody for 5 months. The forensic scientist at the case was at fault for
mishandling the evidence and disposing of the evidence wrong. Another limitation of forensic
scientists is that both the prosecution and defence can call for the same forensic scientist to
be an expert witness, which may cause some contradictions and be confusing for a jury.
Additionally, some forensic scientists may not agree with each other, which could cause
some contradictory statements in court to be made. Another limitation of forensic scientists is
that 80% of all forensic scientists operate within police labs and carry out their work there to
save resources, and this could cause concern for cognitive biases, and could lead them to
being more rushed. Furthermore, the amount of evidence that is analysed by a forensic
scientist is dependent on what the police officers select to be tested, and with the
subsequent budget cuts, this means that evidence may be missed out of testing, and as a
result could lead to miscarriages of justice if vital discoveries are made.
