Forensics - The Science of Crime

The detection rate for capital crimes in most Western countries is over 90 percent. Much of this high rate is due to the different areas of forensics. Experts from many forensic disciplines support the police and judiciary in solving crimes. The entomologists specialize in insect science. Flies, maggots, beetles found on a crime victim provide information about the time of death - often important details when investigating a crime.

Crime scene investigation in the laboratory: molecular biologist Dr Harald Schneider extracts DNA from very small traces. Already 0.5 square millimetres are enough to uniquely identify genetic material. At first you could only tell whose DNA you found. In the meantime, the methods have been refined so that you can draw conclusions about the colour of a person's eyes, hair and skin from a DNA sample. Is that the future? And will there soon be genetic identikit pictures?

A weapon is found at the scene of a crime. Important question for the investigators: Was the victim shot with this weapon? Molecular ballistics can make a decisive contribution to clarification. Organic material from the victim is thrown back into the weapon in the event of gunshot wounds. Molecular biologists such as Cornelius Courts study these traces. He not only finds out who was shot with the gun, but also where the person was hit.