Description
Your essay assignment will be on CSI certification and competency and its ethical implications.
You are the Captain of the Sheriff’s Department Forensic Science Laboratory that provides professional forensic analysis of physical evidence on a 24-hour, seven-day a week basis. To assist in making this possible, the laboratory operates a mobile crime laboratory that will respond to any crime scene. The crime scene investigators collect, preserve and tag evidence, document the scene with photographs, video tape, crime scene sketching, and analyze evidence.
In addition to processing the scene of the crime, crime scene investigators also aid in crime scene shooting reconstruction and blood spatter interpretation. The Sheriff’s Laboratory provides crime scene processing to any requesting agency in the county. You want all your trained crime scene staff to be certified. Write a 600-word or more essay on CSI certification and competency and its ethical implications. Consider the following:
• From the Crime Scene Investigation section above, it states, “there remains great variability in crime scene investigation practices, along with persistent concerns that the lack of standards and proper training at the crime scene can contribute to the difficulties of drawing accurate conclusions once evidence is subjected to forensic laboratory methods”. Does this present an ethical issue?
• Is there a lack of standards for crime scene investigations? Is this a problem?
• What are the elements of a certification program?
• What are the elements of a bloodstain pattern training program?
• What about the cost and time of such a certification process?
• Is it worth the cost? Should states or the Federal government mandate certification?
• Should it require an associate, baccalaureate, or no degree?
• Should it require training programs? How long? How often?
• Annual proficiency tests?
• Moot court training?
Read the below selections found in the Reading & Study folder for Module 4: Week 4 and then complete the essay assignment:
• Read: Gardner: pp. xv.
• Read: Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States: A Path Forward: pp. 56 – 57, 208 – 210
INSTRUCTIONS
• This essay (at least 600 words excluding Title page, Abstract page, Content pages, and Reference page) is based on the material provided below.
• Your essay should follow the current APA format of Title page, Abstract page, Content pages, and Reference page.
