Across the nation, headlines tell the story of evidence that has been mishandled, misplaced, lost, or destroyed. Often the blame for these mishaps is directed toward property and evidence custodians housed in law enforcement agencies nationwide. Many law enforcement agencies do not properly address, recognise, or support the efforts of their property rooms. Although these agencies bear ultimate responsibility for maintaining the integrity of the evidence, the real problem lies with a systemic failure to properly account for evidence from collection through final disposition. This failure reduces the public's confidence in the criminal justice system to produce just results in criminal and civil proceedings. This book discusses the best practices for evidence handlers; the use of DNA in solving cold cases; the effects of DNA advances on police property rooms; and provides insight on what every law enforcement officer should know about DNA evidence.

How can a plant as beautiful as the foxglove be so deadly and yet for more than a century be used to treat heart disease? The same is true of other naturally occurring molecules as will be revealed in these three books which examine poisons, both natural and man-made, and the crimes committed with them, not from the point of view of the murderers, their victims, or the detectives, but from the poison used. Molecules of Murder: Criminal Molecules and Classic Cases, More Molecules of Murder and Poisons and Poisonings: Death by Stealth throw new light on how these crimes were carried out, how the perpetrators were uncovered and brought to justice and information about how forensic analysis is conducted. Appealing to scientists and non-scientists alike, these enthralling books will entertain and educate and bring the reader up to date with how important chemical analysis is in crime detection.

Fingerprints have provided a valuable method of personal identification in forensic science and criminal investigations for over 100 years. Fingerprints left at crime scenes generally are latent prints -- unintentional reproductions of the arrangement of ridges on the skin made by the transfer of materials (such as amino acids, proteins, polypeptides, and salts) to a surface. Palms and the soles of feet also have friction ridge skin that can leave latent prints. The examination of a latent print consists of a series of steps involving a comparison of the latent print to a known (or exemplar) print. Courts have accepted latent print evidence for the past century. However, several high-profile cases in the United States and abroad have highlighted the fact that human errors can occur, and litigation and expressions of concern over the evidentiary reliability of latent print examinations and other forensic identification procedures has increased in the last decade. This book discusses latent print examinations in detail, and provides methods to improving the practice through a systems approach.

The lives of kings, poets, authors, criminals and celebrities are a perpetual fascination in the media and popular culture, and for decades anthropologists and other scientists have participated in 'post-mortem dissections' of the lives of historical figures. In this field of biohistory, researchers have identified and analyzed these figures' bodies using technologies such as DNA fingerprinting, biochemical assays, and skeletal biology. This book brings together biohistorical case studies for the first time, and considers the role of the anthropologist in the writing of historical narratives surrounding the deceased. Contributors theorize biohistory with respect to the sociology of the body, examining the ethical implications of biohistorical work and the diversity of social theoretical perspectives that researchers' work may relate to. The volume defines scales of biohistorical engagement, providing readers with a critical sense of scale and the different paths to 'historical notoriety' that can emerge with respect to human remains.

In addition to supplementing existing analysis techniques in serious crime cases, trace DNA can allow investigation of volume crime cases such as burglary or vehicle theft, where previously DNA evidence was not considered usable. However, despite the widespread use of trace DNA, at present there are very few specific validated methods. This has lead to controversy in the use of trace DNA, and particularly the low copy number amplification technique. It has been established that the use of existing methodology (developed for high-copy number samples) leads to significant levels of artefacts with trace DNA, including allele drop-out and drop-in, stutter, and allelic/locus imbalance. To minimise these, there are numerous modifications that can be made to existed methods to increase the success of trace DNA analysis. This book presents advances in the field of DNA research as an aid in Forensic studies and Genetics.

""This is a must-have work for anybody in information security, digital forensics, or involved with incident handling. As we move away from traditional disk-based analysis into the interconnectivity of the cloud, Sherri and Jonathan have created a framework and roadmap that will act as a seminal work in this developing field.""- Dr. Craig S. Wright (GSE), Asia Pacific Director at Global Institute for Cyber Security + Research. ""It's like a symphony meeting an encyclopedia meeting a spy novel.""-Michael Ford, Corero Network Security On the Internet, every action leaves a mark-in routers, firewalls, web proxies, and within network traffic itself. When a hacker breaks into a bank, or an insider smuggles secrets to a competitor, evidence of the crime is always left behind. Learn to recognize hackers' tracks and uncover network-based evidence in "Network Forensics: Tracking Hackers through Cyberspace."Carve suspicious email attachments from packet captures. Use flow records to track an intruder as he pivots through the network. Analyze a real-world wireless encryption-cracking attack (and then crack the key yourself). Reconstruct a suspect's web surfing history-and cached web pages, too-from a web proxy. Uncover DNS-tunneled traffic. Dissect the Operation Aurora exploit, caught on the wire. Throughout the text, step-by-step case studies guide you through the analysis of network-based evidence. You can download the evidence files from the authors' web site (lmgsecurity.com), and follow along to gain hands-on experience. Hackers leave footprints all across the Internet. Can you find their tracks and solve the case? Pick up "Network Forensics"and find out.

A crime scene. A murder. A mystery. The most important person on the scene? The forensic scientist. And yet the intricate details of their work remains a mystery to most of us. Silent Witnesses looks at the history of forensic science over the last two centuries, during which time a combination of remarkable intuition, painstaking observation and leaps in scientific knowledge have developed this fascinating branch of detection. Throwing open the casebook, it introduces us to such luminaries as 'The Wizard of Berkeley' Edward Heinrich, who is credited with having solved over 2000 crimes, and Alphonse Bertillon, the French scientist whose guiding principle 'no two individuals share the same characteristics' became the core of identification. Along the way, it takes us to India and Australia, Columbia and China, Russia, France, Germany, Spain and Italy. And it proves that, in order to solve ever more complicated cases, science must always stay one step ahead of the killer.

The ability to work with, and retrieve images, is vital to forensic and criminal case work. During a five-decade-long career, author John C. Russ has taught methods for image processing and measurement to thousands of students. Forensic Uses of Digital Imaging, Second Edition distills his classroom and workshop material to present the information most relevant to forensic science. Since the publication of the first edition, there have been many significant changes in technology that have revolutionized the ways digital images are used in forensic investigations. Fully updated, the second edition: Covers the widespread advancements of digital imaging photography and processing Discusses the increased power, storage capacity, and use of digital cameras, laptop computers, tablets, and cell phones in forensic science Gives real-world examples to illustrate comparisons between different processing options Includes hundreds of full-color images that demonstrate technologies and techniques Addresses issues of admissibility of forensic investigation results under Frye and Daubert rules Provides guidelines and suggestions for effectively presenting and explaining results Forensic Uses of Digital Imaging, Second Edition explains concepts with minimal jargon, and the methods and tools described in this book can be implemented in a broad spectrum of available computer programs. By demonstrating how these methods can be applied to a variety of images, this book helps readers develop the ability to understand when and how specific techniques should be used. It will be of particular use in casework for practicing photography and imaging police and forensic professionals who need to verify and explain both interpretations and processes to legal professionals, judges, and juries.

Forensic Podiatry: Principles and Methods, Second Edition has been completely updated to reflect the latest developments and advancements in this changing field. New additions to the book, from the previous edition, include all new chapters on the expert witness, Frye Test, and Daubert Standard, as well as revised theories on gait analysis, bare footprint identification, and footwear examination. The new edition includes extensive case studies and an international compilation of current best practices. Since this text's first publication, the field of forensic podiatry has rapidly developed from relative obscurity to a dynamic, internationally recognized discipline. Forensic podiatrists have been able to advance improvements in the field, both in widening the range of applications and deepening the practice through improved techniques to strengthen evidentiary conclusions. Written by two pioneers in the field, Forensic Podiatry includes over one hundred detailed illustrations to serve as an invaluable resource for students, practicing forensic podiatrists, legal professionals and those new to the profession.

Digital forensics and multimedia forensics are rapidly growing disciplines whereby electronic information is extracted and interpreted for use in a court of law. These two fields are finding increasing importance in law enforcement and the investigation of cybercrime as the ubiquity of personal computing and the internet becomes ever-more apparent. Digital forensics involves investigating computer systems and digital artefacts in general, while multimedia forensics is a sub-topic of digital forensics focusing on evidence extracted from both normal computer systems and special multimedia devices, such as digital cameras. This book focuses on the interface between digital forensics and multimedia forensics, bringing two closely related fields of forensic expertise together to identify and understand the current state-of-the-art in digital forensic investigation. Both fields are expertly attended to by contributions from researchers and forensic practitioners specializing in diverse topics such as forensic authentication, forensic triage, forensic photogrammetry, biometric forensics, multimedia device identification, and image forgery detection among many others. Key features: * Brings digital and multimedia forensics together with contributions from academia, law enforcement, and the digital forensics industry for extensive coverage of all the major aspects of digital forensics of multimedia data and devices * Provides comprehensive and authoritative coverage of digital forensics of multimedia data and devices * Offers not only explanations of techniques but also real-world and simulated case studies to illustrate how digital and multimedia forensics techniques work * Includes a companion website hosting continually updated supplementary materials ranging from extended and updated coverage of standards to best practice guides, test datasets and more case studies

Primary Tooth Development in Infancy: A Text and Atlas describes the initial phase of human dentition. It includes more than 1,500 photographs of fetal and infant teeth up to the age of one year. The book presents each step in the developmental phases in photographs accompanied by concise explanatory text. The teeth are photographed from six different aspects: labial, lingual, mesial, distal, incisal, and from the root direction and includes CT images in some cases. Topics covered include morphology and development of primary dentition, discrimination criteria for human dentitions, forensic importance of direct and indirect measuring techniques, dental identification and age estimation from teeth, achieving dental evidence from oral autopsy, and age estimation formulae. The book also discusses the neonatal line concept of intrauterine life accompanied by corresponding scanning electron microscope photographs. A supplementary software program for age estimation from dental measurements can also be used in conjunction with the material in this text. Meticulously prepared by a team of experts, this atlas is a valuable tool for odontologists, pediatricians, pedodontists, forensic scientists, and dental anthropologists.

A concise, robust introduction to the various topics covered by the discipline of forensic chemistry

The "Forensic Chemistry Handbook" focuses on topics in each of the major chemistry-related areas of forensic science. With chapter authors that span the forensic chemistry field, this book exposes readers to the state of the art on subjects such as serology (including blood, semen, and saliva), DNA/molecular biology, explosives and ballistics, toxicology, pharmacology, instrumental analysis, arson investigation, and various other types of chemical residue analysis. In addition, the "Forensic Chemistry Handbook"

Covers forensic chemistry in a clear, concise, and authoritative way

Brings together in one volume the key topics in forensics where chemistry plays an important role, such as blood analysis, drug analysis, urine analysis, and DNA analysis

Explains how to use analytical instruments to analyze crime scene evidence

Contains numerous charts, illustrations, graphs, and tables to give quick access to pertinent information

Media focus on high-profile trials like those of Scott Peterson or Kobe Bryant have peaked a growing interest in the fascinating subject of forensic chemistry. For those readers who want to understand the mechanisms of reactions used in laboratories to piece together crime scenes--and to fully grasp the chemistry behind it--this book is a must-have.

As elected coroners were replaced by medical examiners with scientific training, the American public became fascinated with their work. From the grisly investigations showcased on highly rated television shows such as "CSI" to best-selling mysteries that revolve around forensic science, medical examiners have never been so visible - or compelling. They, and they alone, solve the riddle of suspicious death and the existential questions that come with it. Why did someone die? Could it have been prevented? Should someone be held accountable? What are the implications of ruling a death a suicide, a homicide, or an accident? Can medical examiners unmask the perfect crime? "Postmortem" goes deep inside the world of medical examiners to uncover the intricate web of social, legal, and moral issues in which they operate. Stefan Timmermans spent years in a medical examiner's office following cases, interviewing examiners, and watching autopsies. While he relates fascinating cases here, he is also more broadly interested in the cultural authority and responsibilities that come with being a medical examiner. How medical examiners speak to the living on behalf of the dead is Timmermans' subject, revealed here in the day-to-day lives of the examiners themselves.

An explanation of the basic principles of data

This book explains the basic principles of data as building blocks of electronic evidential matter, which are used in a cyber forensics investigations. The entire text is written with no reference to a particular operation system or environment, thus it is applicable to all work environments, cyber investigation scenarios, and technologies. The text is written in a step-by-step manner, beginning with the elementary building blocks of data progressing upwards to the representation and storage of information. It inlcudes practical examples and illustrations throughout to guide the reader.

"We are sure that DNA: Forensic and Legal Applications will play its part in promoting this most powerful tool in the forensic scientist's armamentarium."
-James Watson, PhD
-Jan Witkowski. PhD

Because it consists of a number of complex steps and procedures subject to both scientific and legal standards, the collection, analysis, presentation, and interpretation of DNA evidence remains a complex process. Any procedural or documentary misstep can potentially render key evidence or testimony useless. To avoid such costly errors, scientists, law enforcement personnel, attorneys, and judges all must possess a detailed knowledge of how forensic DNA works, from the crime scene to the laboratory to the courtroom and beyond.

DNA: Forensic and Legal Applications provides the most comprehensive and up-to-date guide to this important and increasingly prevalent legal tool. Designed to reach readers in both legal and scientific fields, this text gives a global view of the practical issues involved in the forensic use of DNA. In clear, nontechnical language, the text covers:

• A scientific overview of DNA and common DNA tests
• Techniques used by criminalists on the path from crime scene to final laboratory analysis
• Procedures used to analyze biological evidence
• Human genetics, population genetics, and statistics in the context of DNA testing and genetic profiling
• Understanding and interpreting DNA evidence with respect to past and present law
• Concepts and procedures used in challenging or defending DNA evidence
• Postconviction appeals based on analysis of existing DNA evidence, including a discussion of The InnocenceProject
• The future of DNA technology with respect to legal evidence gathering and analysis

In a unique combination of legal practice and scientific analysis, DNA: Forensic and Legal Applications provides forensic scientists, potential expert witnesses, and professionals in the criminal justice system with the definitive resource on the methods of DNA analysis as well as the handling, potential, and limitations of DNA evidence.

In an effort to modernize criminal and civil investigations, early Bolsheviks gave forensic doctors-most of whom had been trained under the tsarist regime-new authority over issues of sexuality. Revolutionaries believed that forensic medicine could provide scientific and objective solutions to sexual disorder in the new society. Bolshevik Sexual Forensics explores the institutional history of Russian and Soviet forensic medicine and examines the effects of its authority when confronting sexual disorder. Healey compares sex crime investigations from Petrograd and Sverdlovsk in the 1920s to the numerous publications by forensic doctors and psychiatrists of the prerevolutionary and early Soviet periods to illustrate the role that these specialists played. In addition, Healey presents a fascinating look at how doctors diagnosed and treated hermaphroditism, showing how Soviet physicians revolutionized the standard scientific view in these cases by taking into account individual desire. This study sheds light on unexplored radical and reactionary forces that shaped the Bolshevik "sexual revolution" as lawmakers defined new ways of seeing sexual crime and disorder. Forensic doctors struggled to interpret the replacement of the age of consent with a standard of "sexual maturity," a designation that made female sexuality a collective "resource," not part of an individual's personality. "Innocence," "experience," and virginity played a major role in the expertise doctors furnished in rape and abuse trials. Psychiatrists recoiled from the language of sexual psychology in their investigations of sex criminals. Yet in the clinic, Soviet physicians probed the desires of the two-sexed citizen, whose psychology served as the basis for a distinctly modern approach to the "erasure" of the hermaphrodite. Healey concludes that the vision of men and women as equals after a "sexual revolution" was undermined from the outset of the Soviet experiment. Law and medicine failed to protect women and girls from violence, and Soviet medicine's physiological and biological model of sexual citizenship erased the vision of sexual self-expression, especially for women. This groundbreaking study will appeal to Soviet historians and those interested in gender studies, sexuality, medicine, and forensics.

This book exposes the dangerously imperfect forensic evidence that we rely on for criminal convictions. "That's not my fingerprint, your honor," said the defendant, after FBI experts reported a "100-percent identification." The FBI was wrong. It is shocking how often they are. Autopsy of a Crime Lab is the first book to catalog the sources of error and the faulty science behind a range of well-known forensic evidence, from fingerprints and firearms to forensic algorithms. In this devastating forensic takedown, noted legal expert Brandon L. Garrett poses the questions that should be asked in courtrooms every day: Where are the studies that validate the basic premises of widely accepted techniques such as fingerprinting? How can experts testify with 100-percent certainty about a fingerprint, when there is no such thing as a 100 percent match? Where is the quality control at the crime scenes and in the laboratories? Should we so readily adopt powerful new technologies like facial recognition software and rapid DNA machines? And why have judges been so reluctant to consider the weaknesses of so many long-accepted methods? Taking us into the lives of the wrongfully convicted or nearly convicted, into crime labs rocked by scandal, and onto the front lines of promising reform efforts driven by professionals and researchers alike, Autopsy of a Crime Lab illustrates the persistence and perniciousness of shaky science and its well-meaning practitioners.