ABSTRACT
The role of forensic science has been limited to the laboratory examination of physical objects. This limitation does not stem from the fact that the traditional forensic sciences are the only sciences available in criminal investigation. The situation is that forensic science serves the criminal investigation. These investigations have two main purposes: determining if a crime has been committed, and identifying the perpetrator of that crime. Traditionally, forensic science examinations have been limited to the evidence from specific criminal cases, and no comprehensive approach of comparing evidence from different crimes was extensively used. Historically, in the sphere of criminalistics, forensic science has stressed the already existing disciplines of chemistry and biology, although other fields of knowledge such as botany and zoology have not been totally ignored. Forensic science has developed its own specific scientific disciplines. Fingerprint comparison is not usually a subject learned in university.
