Forensic Ballistics

Forensic Ballistics Most of us will have heard the term ballistics at some time or other-more often than not when we have been watching fictionalized accounts of police work on television or in the cinema. When you think of forensics you may think of something like “The Forensic Files”, “NCIS”, or even “Law and Order”. Although, ballistics is a part of forensics first we will look at forensics itself and how it came about. After getting the basics about the foundation in forensics we will look at ballistics and how the specifics of ballistics started, who is the founder as well as what ballistics consist of. To the best of my ability, we will review different types of test preformed by a ballistic analyst. After gaining all of the knowledge of ballistics and forensics itself, we can then look at detailed steps in how to become a forensic ballistics analyst. Without question, the field of forensic science has come a very long way since its recorded beginnings in the 700s, when the Chinese used fingerprints to establish the identity of documents and clay sculptures. This field is one of the few areas of law enforcement where science, technology and crime-solving meet. This combination supports the Theory of Transfer: "When two objects meet, some evidence of that meeting can later be found and verified." A few significant advances occurred in the years prior to 1800. In 1248, a book, Hsi DuanYu (the Washing Away of Wrongs) published by the Chinese, described how to distinguish drowning from strangulation. It was the first recorded application of medical knowledge to the solution of crime. In 1609, the first treatise on systematic document examination was published in France. Then in 1784, one of the first documented uses of physical matching saw an Englishman convicted of murder based on the torn edge of a wad of newspaper in a pistol that matched a piece remaining in his pocket. Throughout the nineteenth century, many developments took place. Ballistics is the