9781422273449

Forensic Association (AFA), and the Association of Forensic DNA Analysts and Administrators (AFDAA). Throughout their careers, it’s also important for forensic chemists to stay up to date with scientific advances related to the collection or analysis of evidence. Through continuing education and hands-on field work, they can learn how to apply new techniques and methods that become best practices for the industry.

Forensic Chemistry: Fact and Fiction

Using science to solve crimes can be traced back not to a real person but rather a fictional one. In Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s book A Study in Scarlet, his protagonist, Sherlock Holmes, creates a chemical that he uses to determine whether a suspicious stain is blood. Holmes also explains in the course of the book how bloodstains can be used as evidence in criminal trials. In Doyle’s other books, as well as cinematic adaptations of his work, the famous detective frequently can be found applying chemistry and other sciences to investigate and solve crimes. Austrian jurist and criminologist Hans Gustav Adolf Gross is considered to have been the first real-life forensic scientist and is renowned for his contributions to the field. In 1893, he published a treatise that helped establish the practice of applying scientific methods to criminal investigations. His work was especially important for its research on cross-transfers of trace evidence—such as hair, dirt, and fibers—from the criminal to the victim. Other experts continued contributing to the field of forensic chemistry over the next century and a half to establish its important status in the world of criminal law.

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Forensic Chemistry