With the introduction of forensic science, the battle between the police and the perpetrators of crimes has become ever more tactical. Each side has developed more sophisticated ways of committing, and solving, crimes.
Forensics allows police to use a tiny skin sample, a blood splatter, a clothing fibre – all invisible to the naked eye – to identify a culprit. But are these techniques as infallible as they first seem? How can the innocent sometimes be found guilty? How do the criminals sometimes walk away unpunished?
From the study of explosives and fire, to dentistry, DNA or blood spatter analysis, the clues left at a crime scene can take many forms and provide the police with the ability to understand the truth of some seemingly unexplainable ‘accidents’. It was the teeth marks on a victim that led to the conviction of infamous American serial killer Ted Bundy, who was responsible for the murder of more than 30 women; and blood spatter analysis helped police discover that in a brutal attack in a Florida furniture store, it was the only surviving victim that was the perpetrator – murdering his family and a shop worker before shooting himself to make it look as though he was also wounded.
This 13-part series focuses on the history of forensic science, from its early introduction to the latest cutting-edge techniques. Each episode looks at a specific method and the famous and seemingly unsolvable crimes that they have helped to crack – bringing some of the most evil minds to justice
Genre: Documentary
