Forensic science has grown significantly in the contemporary criminal and civil litigation sector over the last two decades. The primary purpose of forensic science is to assist legal representatives or attorneys to make compressive legal decisions. This thesis ideally seeks to conduct an assessment of the ethical issues surrounding forensic evaluations. Ethics is itself a branch of philosophy concerned with the rules of behavior that are acceptable within a given society. However, in this case, the forensic science professionals work within an outlined code of conduct in the medical ethics. The sector of forensic science requires high consideration of ethical standards concerning diverse issues ranging from confidentiality to clarification of the roles played by both the profession and the client. Also, ethical standards in forensic science require considerations of legal standards, adherence to professional ethics codes, and the forensic specialty guidelines. Regarding all this consideration, this thesis clearly provides a well defined ethical approach in forensic science.
Ethical issues start from the identification of the client requiring forensic science assistance. Traditionally, identification of client used to be a straightforward procedure, but in the recent development, identification of client’s identification requires the practitioner to identify a client through his or her attorney or through the court. Then the other issues are concerned about informed consent and disclosure of information. Informed consent is basically concerned about sharing information with the client before the actual decisions are made by the court. On the other hand, disclosure refers to notifying or informing clients without obtaining their consent. Informed consent is illegal according to the law, therefore; forensic practitioners are prohibited from disclosing information to the clients before decisions are made unless the evaluation is ordered by the court or the statutory body. Therefore, at this scenario, practitioners are expected to provide the information that is easily understandable. Also, there are some limitations as far as confidentiality is concerned. Professions are expected to provide the limitations on confidentiality and make relevant details that involve financial responsibilities available to clients. These clarifications include the fee for services, areas that might bring personal and professional conflicts, and effects of consulting other professionals about the same issues. Therefore, the process of informed consent and confidentiality involves an informed dialogue between the client and the practitioner seeking to clarify on their roles, expectations, adherence to the contract, and information regarding the entire process. It is ethical for both sides to provide information openly and confidentially which means both should be able to trust one another with personal information.
In forensic science, practitioners are obligated to provide their services and conduct their performances under the basis of their competence, which is essentially based, on their level of education, training, and experience in forensic science practices. Moreover, evidence provided should be based on the assessment made rather than witness since they also can be biased. Other than their education, practitioners conducting assessment are mandated to be emotionally stable since emotions affect validity, reliability, or confounding factors. Therefore, specialty in the specific areas requires the practitioners to acquire appropriate competencies so as to perform their duty effectively. For instance, a person holding a doctorate and specifies in counseling or school psychology is expected to have an additional doctorate so as to be competent in the area. Therefore, it is unethical for forensic scientist to perform tests with instruments or information that they are not acquainted. Instead, scientists performing forensic practices and test should be conversant with the instrument and information concerning their area of specialty. Also, persons giving testimony should also have adequate education so that the information they provide can be reliable, valid, standardized, and specific. Moreover, professionals should be able to understand the different measurement strategies including variance, inferential statistics, and descriptive statistics.
Persons conducting assessment are also expected to use instrument appropriately meaning that they should understand how to use an instrument for the appropriate test. In case of confusion concerning the same, professionals are allowed to consult other profound professionals or basically conduct peer reviews. Also, the medical ethics expects the professional to be alert concerning issues that might affect a test capability to serve the basic purpose. Some of the issues that affect tests include emotion disorders, mental disorders, and neuropsychological impairments. Therefore, it is ethical for the specialist obtain relevant information concerning the patient that might make him or her unfit for a particular test. Also, evidence is due to change over time, therefore; it is the responsibility of the specialist to provide the recent development in the test that is due to provide further evidence. It is also mandatory to revise a test so that the information provided originally can be updated and also ensure the validity of the recent test. In the same way, an instrument is fit for a particular test; it is the same way the appropriate test should be used on an appropriate individual. It is also proposed by the ethical code that numerous tests should be conducted so as to provide reliable information that can be used in making informed decisions. It is also within the duty of a forensic science to conduct an assessment using the appropriate tools and methods that are fit for a specified geographical coverage particularly where the sample is obtained. The issues of ethnic and racial bias though not profound are known to affect forensic practices and issuance of the results. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the practitioner to provide information and results of the tests without any ethnic, racial, gender, religion, or sexual orientation bias. Other form of bias that mostly influenced the result of a test includes socio-economic status of the client, language, and national origin of the client. Therefore, practitioners are ethically responsible to conduct tests on the appropriate individual while using appropriate tools and methods suitable for the geographic location and the entire testing process including issuance of the results should be devoid of any form of biases or discrimination with regard to ethnicity, religion, gender, and other issues.
The other crucial sector that requires ethical consideration is the assessment of the reporting factors that might affect the relevance and significance of test findings. A forensic report should include the distraction that might have occurred during the entire process. For instance, a practitioner can indicate that the client was under heavy medication during the testing process. Other factors noted in the report include characteristics of the client that might affect professional judgment or reduce the accuracy of the professional to interpret results of the tests. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the persons providing the report to ensure the report expose information that may prevent misunderstanding. Some other factors include the motivation factors that might affect the meaning of the report. Either way, the report provided should be reliable and credible since it is the basis with which the final decision is made hence practitioners should be careful in providing a report that considers all aspects that might affect the credibility of the report.
However, the entire process of forensic assessment is affected by certain ethical dilemmas especially concerning the issue of agency. Agency forms the basic contract and financial arrangements relevant in defining an individual client’s relationship with an expert. However, agency experience pressures either to act in favor of the criminal legal system or the client. For instance, in such a case including child custody, the forensic expert may be influenced to act on behalf of the court, as a parent, or as an attorney. Therefore, the information provided by the expert is vulnerable to personal deception and misinterpretation due to his personal view of the most relevant client in the evaluation process. It’s the responsibility of the court and the attorneys involved to investigate the report on the basis of positivity and the negativity of the reported characteristic of the client. The second issues that brings ethical dilemma include the expert’s attitude towards evaluatees or clients. This sector includes the motivations driving the expert to perform the complex evaluation. Some of the motivations that might affect the credibility of the decision made by experts include physical attractiveness, social likeability, and interpersonal adeptness. The ethical responsibility outlines that a research should be conducted regarding the extra clinical factors to ensure that experts provide objective and unbiased information. Also, there is an existing dilemma regarding the extent of confidentiality and consent. Regarding this issue, expert should provide the client with comprehensive information concerning the available alternatives and the benefits and risks associated with each alternative. Lastly, the process is affected by personal opinions in the decision making process. On the issue of ethical dilemmas, the experts are expected to act professionally through providing credible information devoid of personal attachment, attitudes, and opinions.
In few words, forensic science is a research based sector that considers several medical approaches to help the legal body to make informed decisions concerning a specific criminal case. This sector is expected to adhere to legal and medical ethics outlined by different legal and medical bodies to ensure that the professional in forensic assessment acts ethically in their practices. The foremost ethical consideration is ensuring personal competence in the areas of education, training, and experience. Also, forensic experts are obliged to be conversant with the existing legal considerations in their practices. In the discussion above, it is also within the ethical responsibility of the expert to be aware of appropriate testing procedures including use of appropriate method and instruments on the appropriate client with regard to the geographical suitability. The information provided should be devoid of biases on the basis gender, ethnicity, race, or other form of biases. It is also relevant for experts to provide a comprehensive informed consent and disclosure prior to evaluation and ensure that clients fully understand the extent of confidentiality, privilege, and the possibility and right of refusing charges. Also, the entire process should be clearly documented to include rules, limitations, and methods used. Forensic experts should overcome ethical dilemmas through acting within the professional boundary other than developing personal attachment with the client. Considering all these approaches the entire evaluation system is due to be ethical and effective in providing credible, valid, accurate, and standardized information.
References
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Nordby, J. J. (2003). Basic Ethics for Forensic Scientists. Boone: Taylor & Francis Group.
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