Criminology Reflection :: Criminology

Over the years I have been a faithful fan of anything crime related; the anatomy of a crime, from the crime itself, to the investigation, and finally the court for trial and sentencing. I enjoyed the process. The internet became an interesting tool for me to learn all the different things I wanted to know about the subject of crime. I would see something in the media or on television but kept a neutral point of view about technology that was used on a program. Logically speaking, if a crime could be solved in 47 minutes and DNA results took weeks or months, not minutes to process than would it not make sense that real life crimes would be solved far quicker in the name of swift justice. This is the reason why I enjoy learning in a real world environment about different aspects of criminology. I must admit I did feel as though I had a good basic grasp of what forensic science is, but this class helped to put some missing pieces in place. There were several areas that piqued my interest and made me want to learn more such as ethics, more importantly, the need to be ethical in the collection of evidence, processing of evidence, and the testimony that is given in trial. The need to be ethical should be expected as part of a person’s character, especially when presenting something that could prove guilt or innocence, naà ¯ve as that might sound. However, we live in the real world and someone’s ethical behavior can come into question. For instance, a first responder who took pictures of a mangled car and a dead body, and suddenly it has gone viral, perhaps even making profit from the photo or video (in this case it was just for sick humor). Dayna Kempson-Schacht had been in a deadly car accident, and a local firefighter had captured video of the victim, which eventually ended up on the internet, going viral, for the entire world to see. The parents eventually viewed to video of their daughter’s last moments. The firefighter was heard saying "Look at that piece of skull right there on the console.† This type of behavior is unacceptable in the realm of public safety (Hayes, 2010). This extends to all aspects of criminal justice. Even cases such as O.J. Simpson (clichà © I know) have raised questions about the ethical behavior at the crime scene about how the evidence was collected and processed, not to mention possible racial bias and planting of evidence as a direct result.