Individual Topical Review Outline

Crime Scene Investigation: The Evolution of Forensic Technology

Rationale for Selection: For my paper, I have chosen the Evolution of Forensic Technology in the investigation of crime scenes. The technology used by police departments today is ground breaking in terms of being able to identify criminals by analyzing minute pieces of evidence. Present-day technology helps to prove suspects guilty beyond reasonable doubt, thereby reducing the chances of wrongful convictions. I chose this topic, to trace the evolution of forensic technology from the past, and predict likely developments of the future.

Executive summary: In this paper I will talk about how the evolution of technology in forensics has helped improve the investigation of crime scenes; from ancient times when there were no established methods of evidence collection and processing, and technologies to aid these processes, to present day scenarios where there are innumerable methods to investigate every possible piece of evidence from a crime scene.

Introduction: Forensics is the science of gathering evidence to support the facts related to a criminal investigation. It aims at establishing details such as the approximate time and cause of death, weapons used, identities of people involved, and all the facts needed to tie lose ends together and zero-in on those guilty of committing the crime. This information is used by legal authorities either to clear the names of innocent suspects or to convict those who are guilty. This paper will cover the developments in forensic technology that have been used in crime scene investigations. 

Historical Perspective: In the past, investigators didn’t have much to work with and the techniques they used were quite primitive. They didn’t know how to collect evidence, or process it, to deduce information about the crime scenes. The conviction of criminals largely relied on confessions, and testimonies by witnesses. In this section, I will go over a timeline of developments leading to the technologies that are used in present day investigations.

• ·         Methods and processes used to identify suspects in the past

• ·         Why these methods were inefficient and unreliable

• ·         Historical developments in forensics (early milestones)

• ·         Timeline of developments leading to present-day forensic technology

Current Situation: At present, forensic labs are able to process evidence and re-create crime scenes through techniques like DNA analysis, fingerprinting, ballistics and firearm identification, blood-spatter analysis, processing of trace evidence, like soil particles, gun powder residue, dust, etc, and many other processes. This section will cover explanations of present day technologies and how they are applied in crime scene investigations.

• ·         Technologies used at present, in the investigation of crime scenes

• ·         What makes these practices revolutionary

• ·         Shortfalls, if any

Future Considerations: Taking into consideration, the enormous progress that DNA analysis has enabled investigators to make in various cases, the development of hand-held DNA analysers is definitely a possibility. The devices could probably use a principle similar to that used in infrared photochemical breath testers (breathalyzers) that estimate the level of alcohol in a person’s blood. It could speed up the process of identifying various fluids found at a crime scene, and who it belongs to.

I think the full potential of such technology could be used more effectively, if police departments worldwide have up-to-date criminal databases with DNA samples from people who have been held for various offenses.

Conclusion: Forensic technology has really helped improve the efficiency and speed of investigations, as well as the incarceration of criminals. Judging from where we were, to where we are today in this field, there is definitely room for further improvements.

References:
http://www.ehow.com/about_5071014_forensics.html

http://investigation.discovery.com/

http://www.forensicscienceresources.com/index.htm

Week 4

The theme for this week’s session was ‘change’.

Changes are constantly taking place in the world, which makes it important to adapt in order to survive. The ones who are the most adaptable are the ones who end up being the most successful.

Change can occur in many ways: through climate change, new technology, shifts in economic power, resources, and so on.

Changes brought about by ‘shifts in economic power’ reminded me of discussions that we had in week 2, about China, India, and some countries in Africa becoming the richest in the world around the year 2050. This was quite surprising to me, and I mentioned it in my blog 2 weeks ago, but I really had no explanation as to how or why this would happen.

The readings this week again mentioned this shift in economic power from the West to the East, and somewhat explained how it would unfold.

In the next 20 years, most of the global population growth will take place in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, and less than 3% will occur in the West. The large population in these countries will enable their economic influence to grow as GDP per person rises; and economic power will eventually lead to dominance in other areas as well. On the other hand, developed countries will find it hard to maintain strong growth rates because of an aging-population problem, where the size of their working populations will decrease.

By 2025, China will most likely be the new economic superpower, followed by India. No other countries are projected to rise to their level, or match the impacts that they will have globally.

The second half of the lesson focused on ‘Change Management and Change Leadership’. When it comes to organizational change, it becomes very important for leaders and managers to take risks and make changes, or else nothing will ever get done. There are some people who don’t change, unless there is an absolute need to do so, which results in a “burning-platform” problem.

This is exactly what Nokia went through, and resulted in it being left behind in the market for smart phones.

Nokia was once the leading producer of mobile phones in the world. They mainly specialized in hardware and customization of their handsets. Eventually, companies like Samsung and Apple started making smart phones, and they focused on software, and applications. People wanted applications, not customized handsets, so Nokia’s sales started dropping. Eventually they started making smart phones as well, but the problem was that, since their handsets were so different from each other, developers had to come up with different versions of applications to support all their devices, making it expensive and inconvenient. Nokia was also late in upgrading their Symbian operating system, and eventually partnered with Microsoft. So Nokia just kept running into problems at every corner, all because they were too late in adapting to changes in the market.

Both the examples, of China and India becoming global superpowers, and the fall of Nokia, reiterate the main points of the lecture:

-Change is constantly taking place

-It is important to take risks

-The ones who adapt are the ones who succeed

I rate the session an 8 out of 10.

Week 3

We started off the session with a discussion on developments in healthcare and their adverse effects. Improvements in health care have helped decrease death rates, thereby causing an explosion in populations around the world. Prof mentioned how this is a “Malthusian Nightmare”. The Malthusian theory (recalling some 11^th grade Economics) basically states that global food supply is increasing at an arithmetic rate, whereas global population is increasing at a geometric rate. This means that the increasing population is putting more and more pressure on existing resources.  As more developments are made, improving the longevity of people around the world, this pressure on food and other resources will keep increasing.

This would potentially increase inequalities and regional disparities around the world. In developing countries, like India, there is a lack of sufficient space, resources, and infrastructure to support this increase in population. I think curbing the birth rate is essential to reduce this growing pressure on such countries, and many other factors need to be considered in order to achieve equality between them and the developed countries.

The session was focused on Industrial Development. Most countries adopt a rather flawed approach to achieving industrialization. Though industrial development leads to massive wealth generation, there are definitely many negative impacts involved, such as environmental degradation.

Prof talked about how we need to stop thinking “linearly” and think in a “cyclical” manner instead.  When industrialization occurs ‘linearly’, it means that all that is taken into account is the life cycle of the product: from extraction of raw materials, to disposal by consumers. It completely disregards other factors, other externalities, such as methods to ensure the safe disposal of the product, recycling wastes to save raw materials, and other actions that would promote sustainable development.

Thinking back on the topic, I remember reading about “environmental management” in high school, where there were many suggestions on what people could do (as producers and consumers), to limit waste generation, and to promote industrial ecology and sustainable development. One such approach was for producers to adopt a “life-cycle-perspective” for their products, where they would be required to consider the impacts of their products, at various stages, on the environment. In case their products contained toxic materials, they should undertake the responsibility to safely dispose of them.

Speaking of waste generation, something new that I had no idea about was the ‘Great Pacific Garbage Patch’, also known as the ‘Pacific Trash Vortex’. I YouTubed it, and it’s pretty much a patch of garbage in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, and twice the size of Texas apparently. ‘Patch’ is probably an inadequate word to describe it. It’s pretty mind blowing as to how much trash is floating around in the Pacific, and the adverse effects it could have on marine life.

Long story short, we need to stop thinking “linearly”, and take into account all the surrounding factors (such as, dealing with the wastes that you produce), and thereby think “cyclically”. 

We also talked about the advantages of being backward, or the advantages of starting late, where you can make use of technologies that are already available.  You can jump to technology of the future without having to go through everything in between.  Although it seems like this could benefit developing countries, I’m not too sure of how easy it will be for them to adopt this advanced technology when they already lack basic infrastructure and so on. So it’s rather difficult to say, how it could reduce inequalities. 

While discussing the opportunities and challenges of innovation, we looked at a quote by Tom Peters. He said:

“Life is pretty simple: You do some stuff. Most fails. Some works. You do more of what works. If it works big, others quickly copy it. Then you do something else. The trick is the doing something else.”

This quote got me thinking. I feel like it’s linked to the concept of “backwardness having advantages”. I think when it comes to innovation, trying to produce something that would help backward/developing countries could be a really good opportunity. If the innovation happens to be successful, not only are the developing countries being helped, but the innovators would be greatly benefitted as well. 

One of the final topics discussed was the RDA Translation Process, where RDA stands for research, development, and application. A large number of ideas are generated, but very few of them are translated into practical applications. I think increasing the number of ideas that are applied is rather important, and maybe it can be achieved by shaping ideas to meet market needs, and whatever the situation is at that point in time.

Aside from the new facts and approaches to development that I learnt this week, a key takeaway from this lesson for me, was the potential that technology has to bridge the gap between the countries of the world, in various aspects, through industrial development.  There is also potential to bridge gaps between present and future generations through sustainable development.  

I rate the session a 7 out of 10.

Week 2

Week 2 of TWC really struck me as to how much technology has really contributed to change in the world.

What is technology? Not just electronics and fancy gadgets, but ideas, methods and processes that can make a change, that can help people solve their problems, overcome challenges, and so on. 

The world is constantly changing and it’s difficult for us to predict things beyond a certain period of time due to uncertainty.

We saw a chart of the richest countries in the world at different points in time. I found it really interesting that India, China, and certain African countries, will be some of the richest countries around 2050, whereas others like the USA and various countries in Europe won’t hold such economic power anymore. 

This was also reinforced by the video by Hans Rosling, illustrating progress over the past 200 years where almost all the countries in the world have progressed from being poor and sick, to rich and healthy. I guess one of the contributing factors would be developments in technology that enabled this progression.

Technology aids human development by maximizing the potential of individuals. When this is pushed too far, I think the meaning of “human development”, in some ways, could possibly get warped. Using technology to do things like attack enemy camps, or detonate bombs is rather questionable. 

Despite all the changes that technology is bringing about, it could most definitely have negative uses in the hands of the wrong people. We may tend to lose sight of the fact that we’re dealing with other humans.

I think one of the key takeaways from this lesson, for me, is the fact that technology certainly has the ability to transform lives in all possible aspects. However, the same technology could be misused for not so “rational” or “ethical” purposes. For example: the present-day use of gun powder in weapons and explosives, after its initial use by the Chinese to simply make fireworks.

Something to think about would be, where to draw the line between ethical and unethical use of technology. Is it even possible to draw a line of separation between the two?

Should we let technology get so advanced to the point where humans are not required to do anything at all?

Overall, I’d rate our session an 8 out of 10.

Week 1

TWC was my first class of the semester on Monday, 7^th January. It was a pretty good session, despite Prof forgetting to ask our row to introduce ourselves at first (a bit awkward, haha). After the first half of the class, we started discussions on 'Technology and the Rise of Civilizations', which reminded me a lot of my 7^th and 8^th grade History lessons about Ancient Civilizations, the Industrial Revolution, etc. We watched a couple of thought provoking videos, and checked out a pretty interesting timeline that went all the way back to the start of time.

One of the points that really caught my attention was the possibility that a certain number of years from now, computers could be much smarter than human beings. In certain ways, this is quite likely to happen, but I still feel that there are other aspects in which a computer cannot surpass the capabilities of humans. For example: making decisions requiring not only logic, but also the “understanding of emotions”.

Another point that Prof mentioned, that stood out to me was the importance of ‘Sustainable Development’. (Development which meets the needs of present generations without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs) This would be an important concept to remember and make use of.

All in all, it was a good start to the semester, and I’d rate the session a 7 out of 10.