Final answer:
Forensic science is a broad field applying scientific methods to legal questions, encompassing various scientific disciplines, while criminalistics is a subset that specifically analyzes physical evidence from crime scenes.
Step-by-step explanation:
The difference between forensic science and criminalistics can be explained through several key areas. Forensic science is a broader field that applies scientific methods to answer questions related to law. It encompasses a range of scientific disciplines, including biology, chemistry, and physics.
Forensic scientists are involved in examining trace materials associated with crimes and providing scientific evidence for use in courts. Their work includes analyzing samples such as hair, blood, and other body fluids, processing DNA, and analyzing biological evidence like insect larvae or pollen grains. They often have educational backgrounds in chemistry, biology, physics, and may be required to have experience working in a laboratory.
On the other hand, criminalistics is a subset of forensic science that focuses specifically on the analysis of physical evidence. This involves analyzing things like documents, handwriting, firearms, and biological samples to understand a crime and identify suspects through DNA isolation, sequencing, sequence analysis, and short tandem repeat (STR) loci amplification. Both forensic scientists and criminalists may have to present their findings in court, and typically work in government crime labs.