The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan required that forensic science was used beyond the traditional law enforcement and criminal justice goals and applied to military operations. The 9/11 terror attacks in the United States (US) inspired further attacks in the Western World and highlighted the importance of national and international intelligence sharing for counterterrorism operations. Following the 9/11 attacks, anthrax was disseminated in the US mail system, demonstrating a successful modern use of biological agents.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFor years, forensic science has been criticized for its lack of scientific foundations, explaining its methodological drawbacks. Notwithstanding recommendations to upgrade quality management and counter cognitive biases, the ontology of the trace and the very nature of forensic science amplified by its decision context is rarely invoked as sources of inescapable errors. Understanding what (forensic) science is could even reconcile the prescriptive approach and the descriptive cognitive reality, through an unexplored pathway, Peirce's semiotics.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe extraordinary capabilities of the canine nose are increasingly being used by law enforcement agencies in many countries to solve and reconstruct crimes. As a result, this type of forensic evidence can be and is still being challenged in the courts. So far, only a few publications have addressed the jurisprudence concerning mantrailing.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF