Forensic science research: societies, standards, funders and data

Forensic science applies scientific methods to questions that courts and investigators must answer. Its research covers criminalistics (biological, trace, impression, firearms and seized-drug evidence), digital and multimedia forensics, toxicology, document examination, anthropology and pathology. What sets the field apart from its parent sciences is that every method has to be validated, standardised and defensible in court.

The professional layer is societal and international. The American Academy of Forensic Sciences was founded in 1948, has sections including Criminalistics, Toxicology, Questioned Documents, and Digital & Multimedia Sciences, and publishes the Journal of Forensic Sciences. ENFSI, founded in 1995, links forensic laboratories across Europe through expert working groups on DNA, drugs, fingerprints, firearms and other areas. Forensic Science International (Elsevier, 1972), its Genetics sister journal and Science & Justice carry much of the peer-reviewed literature.

Standards and oversight shape the work. The NIST-administered Organization of Scientific Area Committees (OSAC), created in 2014, drafts discipline-specific standards and keeps the OSAC Registry. Laboratories commonly work to ISO/IEC 17025. In England and Wales the Forensic Science Regulator Act 2021 made the Regulator a statutory body. In US courts, Daubert v. Merrell Dow (1993) frames how scientific evidence is tested for admissibility, including error rates and peer review.

Funding and data come from a few public sources. The National Institute of Justice runs a forensic science research and development programme under a 2022-2026 strategic research plan. CSAFE at Iowa State University supplies statistics, software and data. The FBI CODIS system holds DNA profiles, and NamUs holds missing and unidentified persons cases. Specialisation hubs below cover each evidence type in depth.