Forensic Scientist

Forensic scientists play a large part in many investigations as it is their job to take the evidence that was found at the scene by the scenes of crime officers and research and analyse this evidence so that it can be linked to the crime that had occurred. There are many different types of specialist forensic scientists who deal with specific types of evidence such as biological pieces of evidence and physical pieces of evidence. A forensic scientist rarely has to leave the laboratory as the evidence is sent directly to them to analyse and research. However some forensics scientists can specialize in visiting a crime scene and briefly analyzing the evidence at the scene before they thoroughly analyse the evidence at a laboratory, by doing this they can get an overview and a better idea of the evidence which will help when they actually start to look into and research the evidence. If a forensic scientist attended a different investigation their roles and responsibilities would stay the same as they are only their to research and analyse the evidence, the only thing that would change would be the types of evidence sent in from each case.

Fire Investigation
Forensic scientists take part in most criminal investigations including fire investigations. They will never actually visit the scene of a fire investigation because this is not where they are needed, there main role is to examine the evidence that is found at the crime scene, not to collect it, the collection process is left to the scenes of crime officers. Once the scenes of crime officers have collected all of the evidence they possibly can from the fire scene, the bag and tag the evidence in the appropriate bags, these packages of evidence are then sent back to the lab so that the forensic scientist can analyse it. According to http://www.firstforensic.co.uk/ the evidence is then analysed using a variety of techniques such as spectroscopy which the forensic scientist would use to find out what compounds were used to create this fire, as well as basic tests such as fingerprint comparisons if any are found at or near the scene of the crime. Their findings are then presented in court as evidence when trying to prosecute the suspect of the crime. A forensic scientist links the evidence that was found at the scene of the crime to law and then links the evidence that has been previously analysed by a forensic analyst to the potential suspects that the police have found from their time investigating. Forensic scientists work very closely with forensic analysts and receive information hourly about the analysts findings on the evidence that has been sent in, the forensic scientist would also perform their own tests on the evidence but their aim would be different, they would perform such tests as fingerprint analysis and blood analysis to see if any of the evidence found can be linked to any potential suspects. Forensic scientists would also work very closely with the police, this would be to find out new information about suspects so that they can compare the evidence and the tests that they have done with suspects to see if there is a match. Overall i think that they play a very important role in a fire investigation as they are the people who provide the link between the evidence and the suspect, they also work very well with other organisations such as the police, this can result in investigations being completed at a faster and more efficient rate. However, a downside would be that a forensic scientist relies heavily on other organisations such as forensic analysts and the police, for example if a forensic analysts sends in results that are not correct then it can result in all the further work done by a forensic scientist being useless as the results that they receive are false, this could have an after effect on the police as they could have a suspect who is guilty of the crime but it will not be shown in the evidence.