In forensic science, your ethics are essentially about properly analyzing a case, handling the evidence properly, and testifying in the best possible manner, and not ignoring, misrepresenting or misusing scientific evidence in your testimony especially (Bowen, 2009, Chapter 3). The following are the guiding principles involving ethics for a forensic scientist, “…should have technical competence and employ reliable methods of analysis… should maintain honest with respect to qualifications and should confine examinations to their areas of expertise…scientists should partake in intellectual honesty concerning the scientific data on which their conclusions and opinions are based…and finally objectively review evidence and the delivery of expert
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Furthermore, forensic scientists have an ethical duty to define their area and level of expertise, not testify beyond that level, and to volunteer any information they think ethically is necessary to know (Bowen, 2009, p. 62). Also, they should acknowledge any contradictory evidence when it exists and inform the attorneys and jury any limitations of the evidence and their findings. One of the most important part of a forensic scientist’s job is testifying to their results and conclusions to a jury in court. While testifying, they have a duty to not oversell the value of their conclusions or the evidence and also to answer al questions honestly but only after they are sure they truly understand the question to be sure not to answer incorrectly or give more information than needed (Bowen, 2009, p. 63). I think the biggest problem involving ethics and forensic science is that there is no set ethical standards or rules for analysts or labs. If there was a standard set of rules or guidelines for everyone to follow, there would likely be less instances of unethical behavior in the …show more content…
Some of these behaviors have caused analysts to go to jail for their crimes. Performing unethical work in forensic science could cause an innocent person to be imprisoned, a guilty person to go free, or once the news got out of the unethical behavior, it can put hundreds of other possibly good cases that didn’t have errors in jeopardy because of the actions of the analyst. One example of an analyst who performed unethical behavior by falsifying results on cases was New Jersey State Police lab technician Kamalkant Shah (Macdonald, 2016). He was caught recording results as being a marijuana sample without actually doing testing on it. He was suspended, and then decided to retire. The almost 8,000 cases he worked on over his 10 year career were now up in question as his work could have been falsified then too. Another example of this same dry-labbing error was found in the work of Garry Veeder (Seiler, 2009). He worked in trace evidence and routinely provided trace evidence results without performing any analyses on them. Sonja Farak was a chemist in the Amherst Crime Lab in Massachusetts (Anderson, 2013). She tested drug samples, but then replaced them with counterfeits so she could use them for personal use. These are just a few of many examples of unethical analysts who have cast a negative light on the field of forensics with their
Furthermore, forensic scientists have an ethical duty to define their area and level of expertise, not testify beyond that level, and to volunteer any information they think ethically is necessary to know (Bowen, 2009, p. 62). Also, they should acknowledge any contradictory evidence when it exists and inform the attorneys and jury any limitations of the evidence and their findings. One of the most important part of a forensic scientist’s job is testifying to their results and conclusions to a jury in court. While testifying, they have a duty to not oversell the value of their conclusions or the evidence and also to answer al questions honestly but only after they are sure they truly understand the question to be sure not to answer incorrectly or give more information than needed (Bowen, 2009, p. 63). I think the biggest problem involving ethics and forensic science is that there is no set ethical standards or rules for analysts or labs. If there was a standard set of rules or guidelines for everyone to follow, there would likely be less instances of unethical behavior in the …show more content…
Some of these behaviors have caused analysts to go to jail for their crimes. Performing unethical work in forensic science could cause an innocent person to be imprisoned, a guilty person to go free, or once the news got out of the unethical behavior, it can put hundreds of other possibly good cases that didn’t have errors in jeopardy because of the actions of the analyst. One example of an analyst who performed unethical behavior by falsifying results on cases was New Jersey State Police lab technician Kamalkant Shah (Macdonald, 2016). He was caught recording results as being a marijuana sample without actually doing testing on it. He was suspended, and then decided to retire. The almost 8,000 cases he worked on over his 10 year career were now up in question as his work could have been falsified then too. Another example of this same dry-labbing error was found in the work of Garry Veeder (Seiler, 2009). He worked in trace evidence and routinely provided trace evidence results without performing any analyses on them. Sonja Farak was a chemist in the Amherst Crime Lab in Massachusetts (Anderson, 2013). She tested drug samples, but then replaced them with counterfeits so she could use them for personal use. These are just a few of many examples of unethical analysts who have cast a negative light on the field of forensics with their