Forensic Evidence

摘要

Fresh career opportunities could develop in forensic science, if recommendations in a report from the US National Research Council are adopted, says forensic scientist and co-author Jay Siegel.rnForensic scientists need to prove their competence with recognized qualifications at different levels, says Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States: A Path Forward. Concerned members of Congress had asked the National Academy of Sciences to proposernreforms that would coordinate and improve forensic-science analyses across federal, staternand local jurisdictions. The report recommends mandatory certification for the pathologists,rnbiologists, physicists, chemists and medical officers working in forensics.rnTo set these rigorous standards for the field, it calls for the creation of an independent National Institute of Forensic Science. Without such an institute, says report co-chair Constantine Gatsonis, a biostatistician at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, forensic science will continue to lack the funds needed to mature the field.rnMore thorough scientific evaluation of forensic protocols may generate new jobs, predicts Siegel, director of the forensic and investigative sciences programme at Purdue University in Indianapolis, Indiana.