Attorneys Awareness of Forensic Science: A Survey Conducted in Lebanon

Forensics is the application of science to serve the law. Many forensic evidence types are used in the criminal justice system like DNA, toxicology, GSR, fingerprint, and firearm. To better implement forensic investigation procedures, the attorneys’ awareness of forensic science is vital. Thus, this study evaluates the level of awareness among Lebanese attorneys. A cross-sectional study was conducted with over 60 Lebanese lawyers of both genders residing in the five governorates. The survey questionnaire was well designed and carried on from May 2022 to October 2022 with an 83% as responsive rate. The participants’ characteristics were studied as well as their views and needs to investigate their relative association through an independent t-test. Accordingly, it revealed that the majority of the participants were unaware of forensic science notions. As to the participants’ features, results showed that there is a significant difference in technology advances awareness among participants who underwent past training and those who did not. However, there is no significant difference in the participants’ intention to participate in future trainings with 85% of the volunteers are willing to participate in future trainings. In addition, DNA evidence was picked as the preferred topic to be covered in the upcoming training due mainly to its high accuracy. Although this survey identified that Lebanese lawyers who accomplished past training were more aware of some forensics concepts, larger sample size is needed. Thus, it is very early to decisively predict the level of forensics awareness among Lebanese attorneys. In conclusion, training to increase Lebanese attorneys’ awareness regarding the importance of forensics is necessary.