Critical to the successful apprehension and prosecution of criminals, the job of collecting evidence at a crime scene requires knowledge, technical skills, patience, and perseverance. Often this task falls on just one individual - the officer on routine patrol duties who is the first to arrive at the scene of a crime. Written by an expert with seventeen years experience in law enforcement, CSI for the First Responder is a succinct guide on how to secure, search, identify, document, collect, and preserve physical evidence essential for solving a case and making the evidence stand up in court. A practical, hands-on resource to all aspects of crime scene investigation, this book covers: The approach to the scene Securing the scene Searching for and identifying evidence Documenting the evidence through notes and reports Photography and videotape Sketches and diagrams Collection and preservation The investigative value of different types of evidence Testimony and presenting evidence in court Enhanced with real-life examples, the book presents case studies implementing the described techniques. The case studies include examples of successful scene security and documentation as well as cautionary tales of erroneous practices with lessons learned. Also included with this book is a Quick Reference Guide on the downloadable resources, which can be downloaded to patrol car laptops or printed and kept in a pocket for easy access. Spanning the entire scope of a case from initial discovery of evidence to courtroom presentation, this one-stop resource enables law enforcement to nail down the evidence they need to prove the crime and get the conviction.

Good Laboratory Practices for Forensic Chemistry acknowledges the limitations that often challenge the validity of data and resultant conclusions. Eight chapters examine current practices in analytical chemistry as well as business practices, guidelines and regulations in the pharmaceutical industry to offer improvements to current practices in forensic chemistry. It discusses topics ranging from good manufacturing practices (GMP), good laboratory practices (GLP), the International Conference on Harmonisation (ICH), quality assurance (QA), and quality risk management (QRM), among others. This book is a guide for scientists, professors, and students interested in expanding their knowledge of forensic chemistry.

In the wake of the Daubert ruling, the use of forensic toolmark evidence in court has been problematic, in that the conclusions of forensic scientists as to toolmark origin often lack scientifically sound statistical proof. In the Color Atlas of Forensic Toolmark Identification, noted forensic expert Nicholas Petraco helps move toolmark examination from an art to a science. The first part of the book contains an anthology of tried and true methods, procedures, and traditional techniques used by practitioners of this discipline for over a century. It contains rationales and methodologies for casework, discussion of the use of new materials and techniques for preparation of known standards, and the application of various methods of statistical proof to further establish toolmark examination as a sound scientific endeavor. The second section contains a compilation of commonly used hand tools and the marks they typically produce. Provides clear instruction on how to: Use lenses and microscopes to view images of toolmarks Make accurate and precise measurements of tools on macroscopic and microscopic scales Properly photograph toolmark evidence Compare a subject tool with the questioned toolmarks to determine toolmark origin Examines marks made by a range of tools, including: Screwdrivers Crowbars and prybars Handsaws Hammers Hatchets and Axes Wrenches Vise grips Pliers Wire cutters Metal snips Crimping tools Knives and scissors Chisels and punches Drill bits More than 400 color photos enhance the text, and numerous case studies describe evidence found and conclusions drawn from the evidence. This unique atlas empowers law enforcement professionals to capture the evidence they need to solve the case. About the Author Nicholas Petraco earned a B.S. in chemistry and an M.S. in forensic science from John Jay College of Criminal Justice, the City University of New York. He served as a detective/criminalist at New York City's Police Laboratory from 1968 to 1990 and held the position of senior forensic microscopist of the laboratory's trace section between 1982 and 1990, when he became a private forensic consultant. Mr. Petraco has helped educate thousands of forensic scientists, worked on more than 5000 death investigations on behalf of prosecution and defense attorneys, and testified as an expert in more than 500 trials conducted in local, state, and federal criminal and civil courts.

This brief explores wildlife crime and its international and culture-specific combat in South Africa from a green psychology perspective, focusing on a specific method of forensic trace recovery by analysing and evaluating the use of gelatine lifters. It provides theoretical and applied insight into visualising and sequential processing of finger-, shoe- and footprints, and environmental traces. It allows the reader in-depth insight into effective methods of international wildlife crime combat, based on the South African perspective. This brief gives theoretical and applied recommendations for international, regional and local actors for successful cooperation on wildlife protection. As global and local programs, actions and law enforcement strategies to combat wildlife crime are gaining strength, forensic trace evidence is a useful method for investigative and preventive success. This brief will be useful for students and researchers in forensic science, wildlife crime, green criminology, as well as for law enforcement and international actors combating wildlife crime practically on both international and local levels.

This authoritative text/reference presents a comprehensive review of algorithms and techniques for face recognition (FR), with an emphasis on systems that can be reliably used in operational environments. Insights are provided by an international team of pre-eminent experts into the processing of multispectral and hyperspectral face images captured under uncontrolled environments. These discussions cover a variety of imaging sensors ranging from state-of-the-art visible and infrared imaging sensors, to RGB-D and mobile phone image sensors. A range of different biometric modalities are also examined, including face, periocular and iris. This timely volume is a mine of useful information for researchers, practitioners and students involved in image processing, computer vision, biometrics and security.

The interpretation and evaluation of scientific evidence and its presentation in a court of law is central both to the role of the forensic scientist as an expert witness and to the interests of justice. This book aims to provide a thorough and detailed discussion of the principles and practice of evidence interpretation and evaluation by using real cases by way of illustration. The presentation is appropriate for students of forensic science or related disciplines at advanced undergraduate and master's level or for practitioners engaged in continuing professional development activity. The book is structured in three sections. The first sets the scene by describing and debating the issues around the admissibility and reliability of scientific evidence presented to the court. In the second section, the principles underpinning interpretation and evaluation are explained, including discussion of those formal statistical methods founded on Bayesian inference. The following chapters present perspectives on the evaluation and presentation of evidence in the context of a single type or class of scientific evidence, from DNA to the analysis of documents. For each, the science underpinning the analysis and interpretation of the forensic materials is explained, followed by the presentation of cases which illustrate the variety of approaches that have been taken in providing expert scientific opinion.

A desperate phone call from an old acquaintance plunges forensic psychiatrist Claire Roget into an explosive situation with echoes in her own past. Forensic psychiatrist Dr Claire Roget finds it impossible to refuse when she receives a desperate phone call from an old acquaintance, obstetrician Charles Tissot. One of his patients, Heather Kimble, alleges that Tissot seduced her at a party and that he is the father of her unborn child. His career on the line, Charles begs Claire to expose Heather's fragile mental state and discredit her wild claims. With a history of making similar false allegations, her two previous babies having suffered unexplained cot deaths, Heather's accusations would appear to be nothing more than the result of a damaged mind. But as Claire delves further, it becomes clear that Charles hasn't been telling her the whole truth. Could Heather's story possibly have some merit? And is her unborn child in danger.?

This book provides an in-depth understanding of big data challenges to digital forensic investigations, also known as big digital forensic data. It also develops the basis of using data mining in big forensic data analysis, including data reduction, knowledge management, intelligence, and data mining principles to achieve faster analysis in digital forensic investigations. By collecting and assembling a corpus of test data from a range of devices in the real world, it outlines a process of big data reduction, and evidence and intelligence extraction methods. Further, it includes the experimental results on vast volumes of real digital forensic data. The book is a valuable resource for digital forensic practitioners, researchers in big data, cyber threat hunting and intelligence, data mining and other related areas.

The analysis of plants, insects, soil and other particulates from scenes of crime can be vital in proving or excluding contact between a suspect and a scene, targeting search areas, and establishing a time and place of death. "Forensic Ecology: A Practitioner's Guide" provides a complete handbook covering all aspects of forensic ecology. Bringing together the forensic applications of anthropology, archaeology, entomology, palynology and sedimentology in one volume, this book provides an essential resource for practitioners in the field of forensic science, whether crime scene investigators, forensic science students or academics involved in the recovery and analysis of evidence from crime scenes.

"Forensic Ecology: A Practitioner's Guide" includes information not only on the search, location, recovery and analysis of evidence, but includes sampling strategies for diatom analysis, pollen and soils samples and entomology and provides guides for good practice. Each chapter provides background information on each discipline and is structured according to pre-scene attendance (what questions should the scientist ask when receiving a call? What sort of preparation is required?), scene attendance (including protocols at the scene, sampling strategies, recording), scientific examination of analysis of the evidence up to the stages and guidelines for witness statement and presenting evidence in court.

The book is written by specialists in all fields with a wealth of experience who are current forensic practitioners around the world. It provides an essential and accessible resource for students, academics, forensic practitioners and police officers everywhere.

This book presents a general introduction to the computational aspects of forensic science, covering the different tools needed for forensic investigations, the importance of forensics and biometrics, and the use of Benford's law for biometrics and network traffic analysis. It specifically focuses on the application of these techniques in Africa, and how they can be of benefit in the investigation of crime in Nigeria in particular.

This volume serves to provide an international overview of personal injury compensation in different geographical areas (15 countries already included), with a special focus on the methods used to ascertain the injury and the related damages. It also goes on to clarify the logical and methodological steps required for a sequential, in-depth ascertainment of any traumatic event and the related personal damage, both pecuniary and non-pecuniary. Personal injury is a legal term for an injury to the body, mind or emotions suffered by the plaintiff under tort and/or civil law regulations. Damages related to the injury can be pecuniary or non-pecuniary in nature. Although several comparative studies and research projects on tort and civil law and personal injury claims aimed at developing new tools for promoting harmonization of private law have been performed at an international level, heterogeneity and divergences still exist in the definition and compensation of personal injury and damage across different national legislative systems. The starting point for any awarding procedure should be a medical, or rather a medico-legal, assessment to gain evidence on the trauma or event causing the injury, the mechanism of injury, the pre-existing health status of the injured party, and the health consequences of the injury (temporary and permanent impairment, work incapacity, etc.). In order to pursue the ultimate goal of an international harmonization of personal injury compensation, it is of upmost importance to define the quality requirements for the medico-legal ascertainment methodology, which are essential for guaranteeing the objectivity, rigor, and reproducibility of the data and the evidence collection procedure. Currently, there are no supra-national medico-legal guidelines dealing with the ascertainment methodology of personal injury and damage under tort and civil law.

This introductory volume to a new series on Soil Forensics gives a kaleidoscopic view of a developing forensic expertise. Forensic practitioners and academic researchers demonstrate, by their joint contributions, the extent and complexity of soil forensics. their reports exemplify the broad range of sciences and techniques applied in all stages of forensic soil examinations, from investigations at crime scenes to providing evidence that can be used in court proceedings. Moreover the necessity is depicted of co-operation as a condition for any work in soil forensics between scientists of different disciplines, but no less between scientists and law enforcers.Soils play a role in environmental crimes and liability, as trace evidence in criminal investigations and, when searching for and evaluating, buried human remains. This book shows soil forensics as practiced in this legal context, emerging and solidifying in many countries all over the world, differing in some respects because of differences in legal systems but ultimately sharing common grounds.

As scholars have by now long contended, global neoliberalism and the violence associated with state restructuring provide key frameworks for understanding flows of people across national boundaries and, eventually, into the treacherous terrains of the United States borderlands. The proposed volume builds on this tradition of situating migration and migrant death within broad, systems-level frameworks of analysis, but contends that there is another, perhaps somewhat less tidy, but no less important sociopolitical story to be told here. Through examination of how forensic scientists define, navigate, and enact their work at the frontiers of US policy and economics, this book joins a robust body of literature dedicated to bridging social theory with bioarchaeological applications to modern day problems. This volume is based on deeply and critically reflective analyses, submitted by individual scholars, wherein they navigate and position themselves as social actors embedded within and, perhaps partially constituted by, relations of power, cultural ideologies, and the social structures characterizing this moment in history. Each contribution addresses a different variation on themes of power relations, production of knowledge, and reflexivity in practice. In sum, however, the chapters of this book trace relationships between institutions, entities, and individuals comprising the landscapes of migrant death and repatriation and considers their articulation with sociopolitical dynamics of the neoliberal state.

Aimed at the busy professional who aspires to become certified in the field, Criminal Investigation for the Professional Investigator is a single source guide that details essential techniques a trained investigator will be called upon to perform during the course of a career. Comprehensive and accessible, the book is authored by a veteran of the NYPD who gained extensive training and experience and went on to launch and operate two successful private investigation agencies. The book covers crucial topics such as crime scenes, how to document and secure them upon arrival, how to interact with witnesses and suspects, and how to correctly obtain search warrants; death investigations...how to conduct them when they involve natural causes, suicide, homicide, accidents, and gunshot and stab wounds; the art of interrogation...warrants, techniques, and how to interrogate juveniles; and specific criminal investigations...robbery, burglary, narcotics, and sex crimes. The book also provides important strategies for making arrests and testifying in courtrooms, details the most effective investigative tools to use, and explains the role of criminal defense investigators. Criminal Investigation for the Professional Investigator is part of the Professional Investigators series that is intended to provide all present and future members of the investigative community with the knowledge and insight to reach the height of their profession. Author Warren J. Sonne wrote an article entitled "The Ashley Gang: What Really Happened" in the Fort Pierce-based Indian River Magazine. This article sheds new light on the exploits of one of Florida's most notorious crime families and their shooting deaths on the Sebastian Bridge in 1924. The magazine subsequently won the Best In-Depth Reporting Award for this story during the annual Florida Magazine Association meeting in Orlando.

This Second Edition of the best-selling Introduction to Forensic Science and Criminalistics presents the practice of forensic science from a broad viewpoint. The book has been developed to serve as an introductory textbook for courses at the undergraduate level-for both majors and non-majors-to provide students with a working understanding of forensic science. The Second Edition is fully updated to cover the latest scientific methods of evidence collection, evidence analytic techniques, and the application of the analysis results to an investigation and use in court. This includes coverage of physical evidence, evidence collection, crime scene processing, pattern evidence, fingerprint evidence, questioned documents, DNA and biological evidence, drug evidence, toolmarks and fireams, arson and explosives, chemical testing, and a new chapter of computer and digital forensic evidence. Chapters address crime scene evidence, laboratory procedures, emergency technologies, as well as an adjudication of both criminal and civil cases utilizing the evidence. All coverage has been fully updated in all areas that have advanced since the publication of the last edition. Features include: Progresses from introductory concepts-of the legal system and crime scene concepts-to DNA, forensic biology, chemistry, and laboratory principles Introduces students to the scientific method and the application of it to the analysis to various types, and classifications, of forensic evidence The authors' 90-plus years of real-world police, investigative, and forensic science laboratory experience is brought to bear on the application of forensic science to the investigation and prosecution of cases Addresses the latest developments and advances in forensic sciences, particularly in evidence collection Offers a full complement of instructor's resources to qualifying professors Includes full pedagogy-including learning objectives, key terms, end-of-chapter questions, and boxed case examples-to encourage classroom learning and retention Introduction to Forensic Science and Criminalistics, Second Edition, will serve as an invaluable resource for students in their quest to understand the application of science, and the scientific method, to various forensic disciplines in the pursuit of law and justice through the court system. An Instructor's Manual with Test Bank and Chapter PowerPoint (R) slides are available upon qualified course adoption.

This illustrated guide to the role of the forensic anthropologist in investigating child abuse is an essential resource in one of the most contentious areas of forensic pathology. Not only does it supply a review of the literature in this field, but it illustrates the material with photographs from real cases investigated by the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences, which serves a population of four million people. Broken down into body regions and skeletal elements for ease of reference, the atlas facilitates the vital work performed by forensic anthropologists, who bring to the autopsy table a store of specialist knowledge that can turn a case. Despite the frequency of child fatalities (in America, 2.3per 100,000) attributed to physical abuse, merely recognizing the offense is a major forensic challenge. The tell-tale signatures of non-accidental injury can be very subtle, making it difficult to differentiate between accidental and non-accidental injury. Yet successful adjudication of a child abuse case often rests on the correct interpretation of skeletal injury. In this volume the authors guide the reader through published data regarding the mechanics and interpretation of injuries,including the agencies they indicate. The material includes discussion of the limitations faced in interpreting some injuries, where making a judgment on cause is tricky. In addition, a chapter on natural diseases affecting the bones provides a good overview of several conditions that are often invoked as 'mimics' of child abuse. Finally, this publication evinces the value of collaboration between the pathologist and the anthropologist.

This work introduces the reader to the world of digital forensics in a practical and accessible manner. The text was written to fulfill a need for a book that introduces forensic methodology and sound forensic thinking, combined with hands-on examples for common tasks in a computer forensic examination. The author has several years of experience as a computer forensics examiner and is now working as a university-level lecturer. Guide to Digital Forensics: A Concise and Practical Introduction is intended for students that are looking for an introduction to computer forensics and can also be used as a collection of instructions for practitioners. The aim is to describe and explain the steps taken during a forensic examination, with the intent of making the reader aware of the constraints and considerations that apply during a fo rensic examination in law enforcement and in the private sector. Upon reading this book, the reader should have a proper overview of the field of digital forensics, starting them on the journey of becoming a computer forensics expert.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 16th International Workshop on Digital Forensics and Watermarking, IWDW 2017, held in Magdeburg, Germany, in August 2017. The 30 papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 48 submissions. The contributions are covering the state-of-the-art theoretical and practical developments in the fields of digital watermarking, steganography and steganalysis, forensics and anti-forensics, visual cryptography, and other multimedia-related security issues. Also included are the papers on two special sessions on biometric image tampering detection and on emerging threats of criminal use of information hiding : usage scenarios and detection approaches.

Written by the world's leading expert on the Tokyo sarin attacks, Chemical and Biological Weapons and Terrorism is a comprehensive examination of the use, detection, and prevention of chemical and biological attacks. Divided in two parts, one devoted to chemical and the other biological weapons, this book emphasizes defense, decontamination, detection, treatment, mechanism of toxic action, and pathological effects in the case of each. Covering a diverse range of substances, chapters draw on detailed case studies on the US anthrax attacks, the Tokyo sarin gas attacks, as well as an entire chapter devoted to the Iran-Iraq War co-authored with Dr. Sayid Abbas Foroutan, a former Iranian military surgeon who actively participated in the treatment of Iranian soldiers suffering from gas poisoning. Features include: A case study of the Tokyo sarin gas attacks from the leading expert on the subject A detailed case study on the U.S. anthrax attacks A chapter on the Iran-Iraq War and controversial weapons co-authored with an Iranian military surgeon with first-hand knowledge of the subject Details on the various ways chemical and biological weapons can be constructed and deployed Applicable defense strategies, including detection of materials and decontamination in the event chemical/biological weapons are deployed Featuring over 100 unique photographs and detailed chemical structures, Chemical and Biological Weapons and Terrorism is essential reading for counterterrorism experts, first responders and medical professionals, security consultants and military personnel seeking to expand their knowledge of preventative strategies. The book also will serve as a great resource for students in homeland security, public administration, and criminal justice programs.

In this innovative and engaging history of homicide investigation in Republican Beijing, Daniel Asen explores the transformation of ideas about death in China in the first half of the twentieth century. In this period, those who died violently or under suspicious circumstances constituted a particularly important population of the dead, subject to new claims by police, legal and medical professionals, and a newspaper industry intent on covering urban fatality in sensational detail. Asen examines the process through which imperial China's old tradition of forensic science came to serve the needs of a changing state and society under these dramatically new circumstances. This is a story of the unexpected outcomes and contingencies of modernity, presenting new perspectives on China's transition from empire to modern nation state, competing visions of science and expertise, and the ways in which the meanings of death and dead bodies changed amid China's modern transformation.