2016/08/08

The Conversation August 3, 2016: Let forensic science help prevent a crime or a disaster

One of the basic principles of forensic science is Locard’s Exchange Principle which says: “Every contact leaves a trace.” It was formulated in the early 20th century, by French criminologist Edmond Locard, and still informs forensic inquiries today.

But the term “trace” is no longer explicit to physical and biological traces. It also includes digital ones where cyber or virtual contacts (emailing, Skyping, surfing the net, and so on) leave digital imprints such as an IP address or the International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) of a mobile phone.

The work of forensic scientists has so far been overwhelmed with identifying, collecting and analysing such traces to see if they map to a suspect in a specific investigation.

But hardly any time, resources or support are used to try to detect certain patterns across those traces. Forensic scientists worldwide are not encouraged or even allowed to be proactive; rather, they are simply reactive. more