forensic sciense essay question

School of Natural Sciences

SC103A  Forensic Science

Major Essay — 2008 

Due Date:  5.00pm on Tuesday [insert date here] 2008

Word limit:  approximately 2,500 words

Please answer any one of the following essay questions.

1. Explain what evidence integrity is, and why it must be maintained if physical evidence is to be used in court.  Explain some of the ways in which evidence integrity can be protected, and some of the ways in which it can be compromised.  Illustrate your answer with examples from at least two forensic cases, including at least one case that has not been discussed in tutorials.

2. Explain how a forensic scientist might separate a drug from a mixture of other compounds, confirm its identity, and find out how much of the drug is in the overall mixture.  Please explain the physical or chemical processes that are involved in the separation.  Your answer should discuss some of the potential ways in which this method of analysis may be carelessly or incorrectly used, producing invalid or misleading results.

3. Dr Ross Vining (Deputy Director, ICPMR, Division of Analytical Laboratories) has been quoted in the media as saying that “getting a DNA ‘match’ is not part of contemporary forensic science language.  Using DNA to convict criminals is less clear cut than that.”

Explain how the results of forensic analysis can produce a DNA profile that is almost certainly unique to a particular person, but still leaves a small probability that the DNA could have come from another individual.  Your answer should include a discussion of contemporary methods of DNA profiling, including their strengths and weaknesses.

4. Fingerprinting is the most simple and unique way of identifying an individual.

Critically discuss the reasons why fingerprinting has been accepted as a unique way of identifying individuals;
and
Describe and explain some of the ways in which fingerprint evidence may be retrieved from a variety of surfaces, including an introduction to some contemporary developments in this field.

5. Explain what an expert witness is, and why such witnesses are used in court. Discuss some of the ways in which it might be possible to challenge the credibility of an expert witness and the testimony that they give in court.

Submission:  Essays may be submitted in hard copy or electronically.  Please leave enough room on each page for the marker to write brief comments.  Please do not use very small or very large fonts; 11pt or 12pt is usually suitable.

Hard-copy essays should be submitted to (1) Glenn Porter’s assignment box in Building K12 at the Hawkesbury Campus, or (2) the lecturer at the end of Tuesday’s lecture, or (3) the tutor at the end of your tutorial.  Please include a signed assignment cover sheet (as attached), and do not use plastic sleeves, manilla folders, binders, etc.#p#分页标题#e#

Please follow the instructions in the Unit Outline when submitting essays electronically to g.porter@uws.edu.au, and include the appropriate certification that your work is original.   Remember to put  www.ukassignment.org your name and student number on the essay.

Late submission:  Assessment tasks that are submitted after the due date will attract a penalty of 10% of the student's mark per day.  Extensions will be granted, upon request to the Unit Coordinator, in documented cases of misadventure.  Please see the Unit Outline for details.

Referencing:  This essay should be appropriately referenced using either the Harvard (name plus year) system or an accepted version of the Vancouver (numbered references) system.  References should be cited throughout the text.  Web pages must be appropriately referenced, including the date on which each page was accessed.

IMPORTANT:  In scientific writing you may use information or the occasional short quote from a web-based or printed source, provided you reference it in the text.  You must not use longer quotes, or a series of quotes from different sources even if you list the references.  Essays that contain large amounts of quoted or copied text will not be awarded a mark, and will be referred to the Unit Co-ordinator.

Please avoid using lecture notes or Wikipedia as references.  These are useful introductory sources of information, but we expect you to find and use more comprehensive and authoritative references in the forensic literature.

COLLEGE OF HEALTH AND SCIENCE

School of Natural Sciences

ASSIGNMENT COVER SHEET 

STUDENT NAME:

STUDENT NUMBER:

UNIT NAME AND NUMBER: SC103A  Forensic Science

LECTURER: Glenn Porter

TITLE OF ASSIGNMENT: Major Essay 2008

TOPIC NUMBER / TITLE:

WORD COUNT:

DUE DATE: 

DATE SUBMITTED:

CAMPUS OF ENROLMENT: Hawkesbury

DECLARATION:
I hold a copy of this assignment that I can produce if the original is lost or damaged.  I hereby certify that no part of this assignment or product has been copied from any other student’s work or from any other source except where due acknowledgement is made in the assignment.  No part of this assignment/product has been written/produced for me by any other person except where such collaboration has been authorised by the Unit Coordinator.

Signature: ..........................................................

Note: An examiner or lecturer/tutor has the right not to mark this assignment if the above declaration has not been signed.