This document summarizes a research study analyzing how a country's history of systemic racism is reflected in its forensic science procedures. The study used content analysis to examine forensic codes of ethics from 7 countries. It found that while some countries had histories of racial laws and eugenics, their current codes did not mention race. This supported the hypothesis that past racism can influence present institutions. However, the study was limited by time and lack of digital data from all countries. Future steps proposed expanding the sample size and continuing literature reviews.

1. “How Past Hatred Matters Today: An
International Comparative Analysis
of Forensic Procedures”
By Fabian Vera
SOCIL 8– Social Science
Research Methods

2. Introduction

3. How do national Forensic Science professional associations reflect
the level of systemic racism in that society?
● I had created my question with the thought that over the history of the
United States criminal cases, you hear about the constant cases of
people being released from prison due to new forensic evidence
procedures in places that reveal that the forensic evidence that was
used to put them in jail was false. A common factor with most of these
cases was that the people who were falsely incarcerated were majority
people of color. From this thought Sprung the idea that the forensic
procedures in place in this country were created with the purpose of
discriminating agianst people of color. I decide to see if this was the
same situations for different countries.

4. My Study
● The reason why I think that my research study is important
because it not only puts it into perspective, but also buts in the
depth the true problem with systemic racism within the institutions
we are supposed to have faith in.
● It helps us understand that how far deep this problem goes down to
the roots and shows us how big it is.
● I am studying the different Forensic Procedures of different
countries and determining whether or not the countries past
influences their forensic procedures.

5. Methods
● The main primary method that I
chose to use was Content Analysis.
With this Method it takes factors
from both quantitative and
qualitative methods. This method
allows the studying and reviewing of
already existing data
● The main sampling method that I
decided to go with was cluster
sampling as with many counties
available, I could group them in
clusters

6. Instrument
● I coundcuted my research and gathered my data with a code sheet
With the code sheet, I was able to determine the different variables of
my research as well as use it to determine all variables

7. Secondary Research
● With my instrument, the main data sources that I
looked for data was through websites, National
Forensic Organizations around the world publish
their Forensic Procedures on their website for
public access

8. Expectations
● Going right into this research for this topic my expectations that I had before
I started to look for data was that countries that have had a history of racism,
discrimination, and eugenics, would seep through into their Forensic
Procedures as they are closely linked to one another. However, I also had
expected that each country's procedure would not reflect these thoughts

9. Findings
Once I had finished my collection of the data, what I found was that all of the
county's code of ethics for Forensic Procedure did not mention race or eugenics, if
the country had a history of it however there is seems to an absent mention of
Race, Religion, and ethnicity. Within all of the codes of ethics of countries from 7
country sample.

10. Chart for Findings
● Here is a chart with
some of the countries
that I used from my
sample
● On the top are the
variables I used for the
countries past

11. Implications of Findings
● With the findings it shows that countries with a past of racial laws, racism,
those factors do not show amongst the country's code of ethics
● However with the findings ended up supporting my expectation that
countries that had a past of eugenics, racial laws, and racism, would seem
void of all those factors within their codes of ethics for Forensic Procedures

12. Limitations
During my time on the research the main Limitations that I had were:
1. Time constraint, there are currently 195 different countries that
each have their own different Forensic Procedures that there isn't
enough time to go through all of them
1. The other major limitation was the lack of digital data sources, most
countries do not have a publish Forensic Procedures therefore
making it impossible to view it

13. Steps for the Future
● The next steps is to expand this research in order to get the full
results, gathering data from all countries due to time not being a
problem
● Continue to review and find more existing research on this topic

14. Researcher Bio
I will be graduating Woodland Community College with a
associates degree in Biochemistry and plan to transfer to UC Davis
for my Bachelor's degree. My goal is to become a forensic
technician

15. Works Cited
Kahn J. (2008). Race, Genes, and Justice: A Call to Reform the
Presentation of Forensic DNA Evidence in Criminal Trials. Brooklyn law
review, 74(2), 325–375.
Smalarz, L., Madon, S., Yang, Y., Guyll, M., & Buck, S. (2016). The perfect
match: Do criminal stereotypes bias forensic evidence analysis? Law and
Human Behavior, 40(4), 420–429.