From Sherlock and CSI to the high-profile trials that get reported in the media, we know that forensic evidence can be the key to unlocking cases and getting a conviction. What the TV shows don’t tell us is that, while the technological capabilities to detect forensic evidence are increasing all the time, there is still a significant gap in our knowledge that makes interpreting what evidence means highly problematic.
To interpret forensic evidence properly requires a significant and systematic research base to refer to — and this is something that Dr Ruth Morgan, Director of the UCL Centre for the Forensic Sciences, is passionate about developing.
Morgan and her colleagues set up the centre in 2010 — just as the coalition government announced its decision to close the Forensic Science Service, a national provider of specialist services and a significant source of research and development.