Measuring the Impact of Forensic Science on Homicide Investigation

In January 2020, the Home Office initiated the Impact of Forensic Science Project to develop an approach to measure, quantitatively, the impact of forensic science on the criminal justice system (CJS). The overall objective of developing such an approach is to enhance understanding of the role and impact of a wide range of forensic science at different points of the CJS and in relation to different crime types. In order to achieve these aims and develop a measuring tool, the Home Office collaborated with a number of academics, police services and other CJS stakeholders. This group included Professor Fiona Brookman and Dr Helen Jones from the University of South Wales (USW), who hold a unique and detailed qualitative dataset relating to British homicide investigations. The priority was to develop an approach to measuring ‘impact’ by evaluating the use of a forensic discipline on a series of ‘impact points’. Subsequently, the Home Office commissioned a series of proof of principle studies that applied the approach to different forensic disciplines and crime types, including our homicide dataset.