The Portuguese Association of Forensic Sciences Model for Forensic Expert Certification: An Urgent Need and Regulation Proposal

Abstract

A certification for Forensic Specialists is urgently needed. Indeed, with the “CSI Effect”, assorted education in this field flourished in many countries, resulting in discrepancies in experts’ skills and quality that may compromise judicial decisions. Our technical proposal aims to pragmatically establish a Regulation of the Professional Practice of Forensic Specialists (RPPFS) by defining the general requirements for its recognition, which must include appropriate experience/training/pedagogical processes for each of the five certification levels. This regulation has been approved by the Portuguese Association of Forensic Sciences and is advocated and recommended to reduce divergence among experts’ skills. This general regulation can be easily applied to major forensic specialties such as clinical forensic and basic medicine and those working within the framework and intersections of biology, chemistry, physics, mathematics, among others. Further guidelines for certification must be produced for each forensic area.