Monday, March 23, 2009

Standardizing Forensic Labs

Last week we talked about the lack of standardization in forensic labs and how they need to be nationalized. Earlier this week a professor from Brown University spoke on the issue of nationalizing and standardizing forensic labs. Constantine Gatsonis presented his information to Congress over the course of eight meetings. After the meetings they made thirteen recommendations on what should be done to overall the system. Part of their recommendations included establishing a national institution. They hope that the institution would act independent of any law enforcement agency so that it would provide more unbiased results. Another job of the institution would be to certify laboratories, procedures, and technicians. Another problem is that there are no higher education classes available in the field of forensic science, and much of what is studied for the subject doesn’t fit into any of the major science categories. For example, handwriting, bite-mark analysis, and tracing tire marks don’t fit into chemistry or biology. Until then we must make due with the online programs and questionable schools available today.

http://media.www.browndailyherald.com/media/storage/paper472/news/2009/03/03/CampusNews/Prof-Testifies.On.Future.Of.Forensics-3656633.shtml

1 comment:

Natalie Moneit said...

I find this interesting. In a few articles we have read for forensics it says that new programs are being implemented at universities and that even some schools have a masters in forensic science. I also wonder why if the government feels that things need to be changed, why they do not step in and make the change themselves?