The rate of criminal activities especially involving homicide, murder and other human rights violation crimes has been prevalent in the United States and Honduras in the recent past. Honduras is currently among the leading countries with the highest violent criminal activities in the world including drug trafficking and homicides. In the last one year, there were over six thousand intentional homicides reported from Honduras. This rate has increased significantly especially after the Peace Corps provided by the United States to Honduras were withdrawn from the country.
The rate of criminal activities is also high in the US and surprisingly, the actual criminals are sometimes not punished due to lack of evidence to prove their involvement in the crimes. This prevalent rise in crime rate call for the government to come up with measures to identify and punish the involved individuals in the criminal activities as a way of reducing the rate of crime. The most efficient method is the use of DNA or forensic science to investigate criminal evidences (Meyer, 13). This paper therefore addresses some of the problems of criminal activities in the United States and Honduras and how the application of biological forensic science can aid the law enforcers to find evidence so as to ensure justice is followed to the latter through punishing the involved criminals.
The rate of criminal activities in the US and Honduras are increasing at an alarming rate because the techniques of identifying the criminals through an accurate and fast method of gathering of evidence are limited. As of the year 2012, there were over 115 massacre killings in Honduras and over 7000 homicide cases reported in the same year yet the investigations to arrest the offenders is limited because the government lacks modern equipment and techniques. In most instances innocent people have been arraigned in court and convicted of crimes they did not commit (Houck, 61). This is because the real criminals take advantage of the ineffective facilitation of the bodies charged with fighting crime by leaving behind traces of evidence that implicates innocent people. This is facilitated by the lack of accurate investigation procedures and the fact that the police officers in Honduras have been reported to make arrest without concrete evidence.
The current situation in the Honduras prisons states that the prisons are overpopulated with a normal prison which has a capacity of eight thousands prisoners accommodating as many as thirteen thousands. This is due to the subsequent rise in criminal activities particularly drug trafficking and murder related crimes. The reason behind overpopulation in the prisons is mainly caused by the insufficient method of coming up with crime evidences that speed up the judgment resulting to most of the suspects to stay for more than two years in remand before their cases are determined (Bertino, 26). This also leads to arraignment of innocent suspects as a way of reducing the population in prisons and this has made the crime rate even worse since the actual law breakers are free to continue with their activities as there is no evidence to link them to any criminal activity.
The use of biological forensic materials is one of the accurate ways that the crime investigation departments in the United States and Honduras can adopt as a way of carrying out successful and accurate evidences hence leading to the arrest of the actual criminals. The biological forensics which is a Deoxyribonucleic Acid technology is an evidence detection technology that can be used by the police officers to detect weapons, drugs and explosives in a crime scene and also by the pathologists in detecting the actual cause of a crime by detecting microscopic biological testing and analyzing nuclear and mitochondrial DNAs hence linking the crime to the actual person who committed it.
Forensics involves carrying out DNA test of any sample collected from the crime scene or in the victim’s body and in items such as drugs and weapons. These samples can be blood, saliva, hair, skin or any part of the body regardless of how small it may be. The forensics investigations are also able to detect patterns inform of the prints left behind either fingers, shoes and even particles obtained from clothes worn by the suspect. The DNA samples of any suspect who had been arrested are taken and the both DNA results are compared to determine if the suspect is the one who committed the crime. If the person’s DNA does not match to that of collected from the crime scene, the pathologists can run a DNA match from the record in the national DNA database for any possible match. This system of identifying the actual criminal has proven successful in the past and this has saved innocent people from going to prison as well as reduce the number of perpetrators and criminals from walking freely hence continuing with criminal activities.
The increased criminal cases in Honduras on rape cases, homicide and massive drug trafficking and illegal handling of deadly weapons needs a fast and a lasting solution in handling such cases. Forensic science which is an accurate way of detecting evidence materials is the suitable technological evidence detection process that the government needs to adopt in an attempt to speed up criminal investigation processes. This will help reduce the rate of crimes and at the same time ensure justice is observed through punishing the law offenders in accordance to their act and not sentencing innocent people for the crimes they did not commit.
Works Cited
Bertino, Antony. Forensic Science: Fundamentals and Investigations 2012 Update. New Tech Park: Cengage Learning, 2010.
Houck, Max. Forensic science: modern methods of solving crime. Westport: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2007.
Meyer, Peter. Honduras-U.S. Relations. CRS report for congress, February 2013. Retrieved from http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/RL34027.pdf.
