The Assessment of Circumstantial Scientific Evidence
| Published date | 01 October 1935 |
| Author | F. G. Tryhorn |
| Date | 01 October 1935 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X3500800404 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
The Assessment
of
Circumstantial
Scientific Evidence
By F. G.
TRYHORN,
D.Sc.
(LIV.),
A.L.C.
Professor of Chemistry, University College,
Hull
THE
current trend toward the increased use of scientific
evidence, in minor as well as in major cases, suggests
that it is not out of place at the present time to review some
of the problems that arise in the use of this type of evidence.
Although circumstantial scientific evidence can never
take the place of what may be called
"ordinary"
police
evidence, it is, however, likely to be employed with increasing
frequency as the knowledge of the possibilities of scientific
aids in detection spreads.
The
establishment of scientific
laboratories by certain country and city police forces, together
with lectures and demonstrations, is helping to foster the
growth of this knowledge.
This knowledge must be
put
into practice primarily by
detective officers themselves, and it is only by the develop-
ment on their part of judgment in the selection of exhibits,
which presupposes a knowledge of the possibilities of scientific
aids, that the police laboratories will be able to operate with
success. Only in exceptional cases is it likely that a scientific
expert, or an officer specially trained in scientific methods,
will be able himself to collect at the site of a crime the material
for examination; in the majority of cases the laboratory will
be dependent on the judgment of the officer in charge of the
case for the collection of the exhibits. It will be evident
that this officer should, and probably will, at any rate in
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