HOW NATURE HELPS US SOLVE CRIMES
Forensic science isn’t just concerned with utilising the expertise of DNA profiling, toxicology, ballistics, fingerprinting, lie detection analysis and questioned documents. It also has the scope to make use of botany, ecology, entomology and the environment in forensic investigation. However, to further enhance the use of nature in forensics, we must be informed about its possible applications in legal matters.
Following are some of how nature serves us through this exciting and promising field to help solve crimes.
The role of insects
Insect life cycles and behaviour can be used to interpret evidence and detect crimes. Entomological evidence can be relevant in both land and water crime scene investigations. The insects especially relevant in these investigations include flesh flies, rove beetles, clown beetles, hide and skin beetles, blowflies, etc. Some of these insects feed on the decomposing tissue or body parts in only their juvenile stages whereas others feed during both juvenile and adult stages. Other insects (parasites) feed on insects that consume dead bodies (necrophages).
The insects feeding on the corpse are molecularly identified by molecular biologists and the actual morphological identification along with the identification of the stage of its life cycle is carried out by an entomologist. Often, a combination of both molecular methods and morphological identification is used to determine the post mortem interval, i.e. the time between death and discovery of the body.
The role of plant ecology
Fragments of plant material found on the victim’s body, inside a suspect’s vehicle, or embedded in their clothing can link them to particular types of habitat where those plant materials are originally present. Whole or parts of the leaves, stems, flowers or seeds found can be identified by their species and traced back to a specific habitat.
The role of plant cells
In homicide cases, determining the victim’s time of death is of importance in reconstructing the sequence of events leading up to the crime and following it. One way of estimating it, is through the examination of stomach contents of the victim for plant materials, provided there is information from witnesses regarding what was consumed in their last known meal for matching purposes. This would limit the window of time of death as contents of a meal reside in the stomach for two to six hours depending on several factors. The collected stomach or intestinal samples are microscopically examined by forensic scientists and are compared to known reference samples of plants for identification.
The role of pollens
In the same way plant material identification and comparison is performed for establishing a link between a crime scene or a victim and a suspect, pollen from the source and items of evidence can be linked. Pollen is microscopically examined and characterized using a light microscope, however, the exact species identification is quite detailed and labour intensive and may require a scanning electron microscope to produce a 3D image for comparison with images of reference samples.
The role of diatoms
Diatoms are pretty popular in the world of forensic science with their examination also prevalent in Indian forensic settings in cases of a possible drowning. Diatoms are unicellular, colonial algae that reside in fresh, marine and brackish waters. Their two cell walls made up of silica, together form frustules that protect living tissues within. Different combinations of species of diatoms are typically present in different water bodies. Diatoms are inhaled into the lungs along with water in cases of drowning and their presence in lungs, bones or stomach is an indication of the person being alive before the body entered into the water body. Their absence, on the other hand, could indicate that they had already died possibly due to some other unknown reason and were later immersed in the water body, or that they simply didn’t inhale diatoms during drowning.
To Conclude
The above mentioned are only a few of the many scientific applications of nature in the field of forensics. The branches of this vast interdisciplinary field are constantly on the lookout for innovations in science to find unique ways to make use of and examine various types of evidence and hopes to attract scientists to collaborate and study the implications of these evidence types in the court.
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