A forensics expert follows the historic evolution of CSI through a century of serial killers.
"Katherine Ramsland has brilliantly captured the insights and drama of some fascinating cases" (Dr. Henry Lee) in her previous bestselling books. Now she examines the case histories of twelve of the most notorious serial killers of the last one hundred years, and answers the questions: What clues did they leave behind? How were they eventually caught? How was each twist and turn of their crimes matched by the equally compelling weapons of science and logic?
From exploring the nineteenth century's earliest investigative tools to remarkable twenty-first century CSI advances, "The Devil's Dozen" provides a fascinating window into the world of those who kill-and those who dedicate their lives to bringing them to justice.

Reflecting on a career that spanned twenty-five years and four continents, Special Agent I.C. Smith gives you the inside story of the Bureau's greatest takedowns and biggest screw-ups. This intrepid G-man has seen it all.

From China to the South Pacific, from East Berlin to Arkansas, I.C. Smith is one of the FBI's most storied figures.

In this riveting new book about the Bureau, Smith brings a fresh, insider's perspective on the FBI's most well known triumphs and failures of the past three decades. Robert Hannsen. Morris and Eva childs. Larry Wu-Tai Chin. Aldrich Ames. Smith offers unique insights into how these monumental investigations were handled, or often mishandled, in alarming detail. He also confronts head-on the string of errors inside the FBI―in management and in the field―that directly led to the attacks of September 11th.

Filled with startling new information, including more than seventy never-before-published findings, Smith tracks his incredible rise from street agent in St. Louis to special agent in charge of Arkansas―where he took on the corrupt political system that produced President Bill Clinton.

The bestselling forensic psychologist examines the true crimes that inspired the television smash hit, C.S.I.
Katherine Ramsland follows the evidence and revisits some of the most absorbing episodes of the phenomenally popular C.S.I. television franchise, and explores the real-life crimes that inspired them. She also looks into the authenticity of the forensic investigations recreated for the dramatizations, and the painstaking real-life forensic process employed in every one of the actual cases?from notorious mass-murderer Richard Speck, to the massacre of Buddhist monks in an Arizona Temple, to a baffling case of apparent spontaneous combustion.

How are forensic investigations conducted? What are the latest techniques in forensic methods? This book provides a comprehensive resource for the study of forensic science and its approaches to the investigation of death, disaster, and abuse. Editor Marc Oxenham has drawn together scientists and practitioners from the Asia-Pacific region with a range of specialties who provide a context to understand how their various approaches and processes in forensic investigation contribute to a successful outcome. The book has been structured into four sections comprising: forensic archaeology, techniques of human identification, determining time, manner and cause of death, legal, ethical and procedural issues. As a background to understanding the main issues, problems, solutions, debates, controversies and everyday practical approaches to the practice of forensic science, Forensic Approaches to Death, Disaster and Abuse is an invaluable aid to students, academics and practitioners.

'Indecently entertaining.' A Daily Mail Book of the Week An Amazon US Best Book of 2022 'A fascinating tale of poisons and poisonous deeds which both educates and entertains.' - Kathy Reichs As any reader of murder mysteries can tell you, poison is one of the most enduring - and popular - weapons of choice for a scheming murderer. It can be slipped into a drink, smeared onto the tip of an arrow or the handle of a door, even filtered through the air we breathe. But how exactly do these poisons work to break our bodies down, and what can we learn from the damage they inflict? In a fascinating blend of popular science, medical history, and narrative crime nonfiction, Dr Neil Bradbury explores this most morbidly captivating method of murder from a cellular level. Alongside real-life accounts of murderers and their crimes -some notorious, some forgotten, some still unsolved - are the equally compelling stories of the poisons involved: eleven molecules of death that work their way through the human body and, paradoxically, illuminate the way in which our bodies function. Drawn from historical records and current news headlines, A Taste for Poison weaves together the fascinating tales of spurned lovers, shady scientists, medical professionals and political assassins, showing how the precise systems of the body can be impaired to lethal effect through the use of poison. From the deadly origins of the gin & tonic cocktail to the arsenic-laced wallpaper in Napoleon's bedroom, A Taste for Poison leads readers on a fascinating tour of the intricate, complex systems that keep us alive - or don't.

A behind-the-scenes look at death in New York City. For almost a century, New York City's Office of the Chief Medical Examiner has presided over the dead. Over the years, the OCME has endured everything- political upheavals, ghastly murders, bloody gang wars, the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and non-stop battles for power and influence-and remains the final authority in cases of sudden, unexplained, or violent death. Founded in 1918, the OCME has evolved over decades of technological triumphs and all-too human failure to its modern-day incarnation as the foremost forensics lab in the world, investigating an average caseload of over 15,000 suspicious deaths a year. This is the behind-the-scenes chronicle of public service and private vendettas, of blood in the streets and back-room bloodbaths, and of the criminal cases that made history and headlines.

Fascinating in-depth forensics from the author of "The Forensic Science of C.S.I."
How do investigators get from crime to conviction?
For the astonishing answer, Ramsland covers the latest cutting-edge techniques in crime scene investigation. Inspired by episodes from the factbased C.S.I. television franchise, she illustrates the use of computers and toxicology in forensics, explores interrogation strategies, and revisits history's most notorious crimes. And in considering the shows' locales-Las Vegas, New York, and Miami-Ramsland divulges ways in which crimes are dependent on location, climate, and population and discloses ways of solving them in the twenty-first century.
"NOTE: This book was not authorized, prepared, approved, licensed, or endorsed by any entity involved in creating or producing the C.S.I. television series."

Forensic science laboratories' reputations have increasingly come under fire. Incidents of tainted evidence, false reports, allegations of negligence, scientifically flawed testimony, or - worse yet - perjury in in-court testimony, have all served to cast a shadow over the forensic sciences. Instances of each are just a few of the quality-related charges made in the last few years.
" Forensic Science Under Siege " is the first book to integrate and explain these problematic trends in forensic science. The issues are timely, and are approached from an investigatory, yet scholarly and research-driven, perspective. Leading experts are consulted and interviewed, including directors of highly visible forensic laboratories, as well as medical examiners and coroners who are commandeering the discussions related to these issues. Interviewees include Henry Lee, Richard Saferstein, Cyril Wecht, and many others.
The ultimate consequences of all these pressures, as well as the future of forensic science, has yet to be determined. This book examines these challenges, while also exploring possible solutions (such as the formation of a forensic science consortium to address specific legislative issues). It is a must-read for all forensic scientists.
* Provides insight on the current state of forensic science, demands, and future direction as provided by leading experts in the field
* Consolidates the current state of standards and best-practices of labs across disciplines
* Discusses a controversial topic that must be addressed for political support and financial funding of forensic science to improve

The FBI that failed on 9/11 is the creation and captive of its spectacular and controversial past. Its original mission -- the investigation and prosecution of only the most serious crimes against the United States -- was forsaken almost from the beginning. This abandonment of purpose has been accompanied by a long history of political pressure, both from within and without. This sorry and scandal-ridden path culminated in a twenty-five-year run-up to 9/11 in which predictable and preventable lapses became hopelessly entrenched.

In "Broken," Richard Gid Powers, one of the country's leading historians of national security and law enforcement, offers a definitive and provocative study of the Bureau from its origins to the present. Combing through the archives, and interviewing more than 100 past and current agents, he unearths stories behind some of the most famous cases and characters in our history. Powers, who attended new-agent training classes at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia, was granted access to restricted FBI facilities. His research included visits to the scenes of controversial FBI cases across the country, including Ruby Ridge, Waco, and the Indian reservation at Pine Ridge.

Powers did not set out to write a muckraking attack, and he gives the Bureau its due for many triumphs. Nonetheless, his story features an astonishing range of political abuses, misdirected investigations, skewed priorities, and sheer intelligence failures.

From the Bureau's outrageous participation in the anticommunist Palmer Raids and their successors, to its abuses of civil liberties during the Cold War, to its flagrant acts of domestic political interference during the civil rights era, it has often seemed to be consumed by feuds with such opponents as Harry Truman, Martin Luther King Jr., the Kennedys, and Bill Clinton. With the discovery of turncoat spies within its own ranks, and with the severe intelligence failures of 9/11, the Bureau has finally proven itself incapable of spotting the true enemies of our country within our borders.

Richard Powers's account is a searing indictment of failure, yet it is also strong evidence that the Bureau could be returned to its original mission of detecting the most serious crimes against the United States: terrorism, political corruption, corporate crime, and organized crime. Readers must decide for themselves whether America should mend it or end it.

With an Updated Epilogue by the Author
"A compelling portrait of seasoned homicide cops at work. This is L.A.'s darkest side: ironic, heart-breaking, stunningly violent, unfailingly human. Riveting."
-Jonathan Kellerman
The mandate for Los Angeles' unique police unit Homicide Special is to take on the toughest, most controversial, and highest-profile cases. In this "literate, unfailingly interesting work of true crime" ("Kirkus Reviews"), acclaimed writer Miles Corwin uses unprecedented access to narrate six of the unit's cases-and capture its newest generation at work.
When a call girl from Kiev dies in the line of duty, detectives Chuck Knolls and Brian McCartin seek her killer among a circle of Russian women who have been sold into white slavery. When a gangster's daughter takes a bullet, veterans Jerry Stephens and Paul Coulter trace clues scattered across the country to a Manhattan real-estate magnate. A cold case is reopened; a mother-daughter drowning and a baffling rape/murder are solved. And, finally, Corwin re-creates the investigation surrounding the late Bonny Lee Blakley, allegedly murdered by her actor-husband, Robert Blake.
With a revised epilogue updating each of these fascinating cases, "Homicide Special "offers a riveting, behind-the-scenes look at one of the preeminent units of homicide detectives in the country.

When detectives come upon a murder victim, there's one thing they want to know above all else: When did the victim die? The answer can narrow a group of suspects, make or break an alibi, even assign a name to an unidentified body. But outside the fictional world of murder mysteries, time-of-death determinations have remained infamously elusive, bedeviling criminal investigators throughout history. Armed with an array of high-tech devices and tests, the world's best forensic pathologists are doing their best to shift the balance, but as Jessica Snyder Sachs demonstrates so eloquently in Corpse, this is a case in which nature might just trump technology: Plants, chemicals, and insects found near the body are turning out to be the fiercest weapons in our crime-fighting arsenal. In this highly original book, Sachs accompanies an eccentric group of entomologists, anthropologists, biochemists, and botanists--a new kind of biological "Mod Squad"--on some of their grisliest, most intractable cases. She also takes us into the courtroom, where "post-O.J." forensic science as a whole is coming under fire and the new multidisciplinary art of forensic ecology is struggling to establish its credibility. Corpse is the fascinating story of the 2000year search to pinpoint time of death. It is also the terrible and beautiful story of what happens to our bodies when we die.

Women in Public and Private Law Enforcement is hands-down the most comprehensive examination of women in law enforcement to date. Most importantly, it fills the current void that exists for texts on this important and growing area of law enforcement. Both public and private sector law enforcement are covered including policing and private security. For policing this includes not only municipal policing, but also state and federal law enforcement. For the security industry, coverage includes not only private security guards but also various other occupations that may be included under private security such as protection specialists.
Women in Public and Private Law Enforcement is intended for academicians and students of sociology, criminal justice, psychology, business, management and loss prevention as a resource on women in non-traditional occupations, specifically law enforcement. It is also intended for professionals in the field today, to apprize them of contemporary issues for women in law enforcement and serve as a reference to guide policy and procedure development.
Authors Pamela Collins and Kathryn Scarborough not only define distinctions in law enforcement and private security but also provide an understanding of the importance of specificity, with regard to this occupational analysis. The authors' diverse background allows them to offer uniquely complementary approach, emphasizing both the importance of understanding the professions from a practical standpoint, while at the same time giving credence to academic analysis.

The book's primary focus is on gender with limited attention paid to race and ethnicity. Some comparisons are made when appropriate, but the ultimate goal is to provide the reader the most comprehensive analysis with respect to gender. Finally, the authors provide women in law enforcement today with detailed analysis and description of how far they have come, the struggles they have faced, the challenges they have overcome, and the achievements they have made.
* The only complete review of women in law enforcement and security
* An ideal text for students in criminal justice and law enforcement courses
* Reviews the current role of women in local, state, and federal agencies

The first comprehensive and detailed presentation of techniques for authenticating digital images. Photographs have been doctored since photography was invented. Dictators have erased people from photographs and from history. Politicians have manipulated photos for short-term political gain. Altering photographs in the predigital era required time-consuming darkroom work. Today, powerful and low-cost digital technology makes it relatively easy to alter digital images, and the resulting fakes are difficult to detect. The field of photo forensics-pioneered in Hany Farid's lab at Dartmouth College-restores some trust to photography. In this book, Farid describes techniques that can be used to authenticate photos. He provides the intuition and background as well as the mathematical and algorithmic details needed to understand, implement, and utilize a variety of photo forensic techniques. Farid traces the entire imaging pipeline. He begins with the physics and geometry of the interaction of light with the physical world, proceeds through the way light passes through a camera lens, the conversion of light to pixel values in the electronic sensor, the packaging of the pixel values into a digital image file, and the pixel-level artifacts introduced by photo-editing software. Modeling the path of light during image creation reveals physical, geometric, and statistical regularities that are disrupted during the creation of a fake. Various forensic techniques exploit these irregularities to detect traces of tampering. A chapter of case studies examines the authenticity of viral video and famously questionable photographs including "Golden Eagle Snatches Kid" and the Lee Harvey Oswald backyard photo.

When a skeleton is all that's left to tell the story of a crime, Mary H. Manhein, otherwise known as "the bone lady," is called in. For almost two decades, Manhein has used her expertise in forensic pathology to help law enforcement agents--locally, nationally, and internationally--solve their most perplexing mysteries. She shares the extraordinary details of the often high-profile cases on which she works, and the science underlying her analyses. Here are Civil War skeletons, cases of alleged voodoo and witchcraft, crimes of political intrigue, and the before-and-after of facial reconstruction. Written with the compassion and humor of a born storyteller, The Bone Lady is an unforgettable glimpse into the lab where one scientist works to reveal the human stories behind the remains.

Criminology and Criminal Justice describes and discusses criminology and criminal justice as social foci and as academic disciplines. Its comparative and contrasting nature allows readers to gain a better understanding of both topics as separate entities, but also how they are more intertwined than most might recognize. The book covers the most important aspects of these disciplines, beginning with laying the groundwork of nature and content and ending with a look into the future. At the book's conclusion, the reader should better understand the similarities and differences of the two, as well as recognize their singularly distinctive traits. Discussion questions are included at the end of each chapter to facilitate critical thinking.
M.L. Dantzker is an associate professor of Political Science at Georgia Southern University teaching in the Justice Studies Program. He received his Ph.D. in Administration from the University of Texas-Arlington. Prior to entering academia full-time, Dr. Dantzker was a police officer in Indiana and in Texas. He has researched, consulted, and published in the areas of police stress, police job satisfaction, educational issues, criminal justice statistics, and police chief requirements.
Unique approach to understanding how the disciplines of criminology and criminal justice are related
Discussion questions facilitate critical thinking

This new resource focuses on many recent advances in recycling and reuse of materials, outlining basic tools and novel approaches. It covers such important issues as e-waste recycling, bio-mass recycling, vermitechnology, recovery of metals, polymer recycling, environmental remediation, waste management, recycling of nanostructured materials, and more. Also included is coverage of new research in the use of laser spectroscopy, pyrolysis, and recycled biomaterials for biomedical applications.

The book discusses new scientific developments in analysis of explosives and their applications. The areas of application include law enforcement, aviation security and environmental protection, subjects which are closely related to explosives analysis. The book is organised in six chapters covering explosive compounds and mixtures, chromatographic methods, mass spectrometric methods, analysis of explosives residues, environmental analysis of explosives and detection of hidden explosives. Modern Methods and Applications in Analysis of Explosives is written as a reference book for chemists in analytical and forensic laboratories, and for graduate students in analytical chemistry and forensic sciences.

Originally published in 1982 by Pearson/Prentice-Hall, the Forensic Science Handbook, Third Edition has been fully updated and revised to include the latest developments in scientific testing, analysis, and interpretation of forensic evidence. World-renowned forensic scientist, author, and educator Dr. Richard Saferstein once again brings together a contributor list that is a veritable Who's Who of the top forensic scientists in the field. This Third Edition, he is joined by co-editor Dr. Adam Hall, a forensic scientist and Assistant Professor within the Biomedical Forensic Sciences Program at Boston University School of Medicine. This two-volume series focuses on the legal, evidentiary, biological, and chemical aspects of forensic science practice. The topics covered in this new edition of Volume I include a broad range of subjects including: * Legal aspects of forensic science * Analytical instrumentation to include: microspectrophotometry, infrared Spectroscopy, gas chromatography, liquid chromatography, capillary electrophoresis, and mass spectrometry * Trace evidence characterization of hairs, dust, paints and inks * Identification of body fluids and human DNA This is an update of a classic reference series and will serve as a must-have desk reference for forensic science practitioners. It will likewise be a welcome resource for professors teaching advanced forensic science techniques and methodologies at universities world-wide, particularly at the graduate level.

For six decades, Pittsburgh-based forensic scientist Cyril Wecht has been an outspoken authority when horrible things happen to everyday people-murders, childhood deaths, tragic accidents and police brutality. His expertise and testimony have been called upon in high-profile cases, including the deaths of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., Elvis Presley, JonBenet Ramsey, Laci Peterson and others. As a criminal defendant, in 1979, he was acquitted on charges of personally profiting from his office as Allegheny County Coroner; a federal public corruption charge was dismissed in 2008. Both cases, his attorneys argued, were politically motivated. Wecht's memoir describes his work on famous cases, his life in the public eye and his legal battles with determined and powerful authorities, from his hometown DA to a U.S. Attorney and the FBI.

Forensic science is in crisis and at a cross-roads. Movies and television dramas depict forensic heroes with high-tech tools and dazzling intellects who-inside an hour, notwithstanding commercials-piece together past-event puzzles from crime scenes and autopsies. Likewise, Sherlock Holmes-the iconic fictional detective, and the invention of forensic doctor Sir Arthur Conan Doyle-is held up as a paragon of forensic and scientific inspiration-does not "reason forward" as most people do, but "reasons backwards." Put more plainly, rather than learning the train of events and seeing whether the resultant clues match those events, Holmes determines what happened in the past by looking at the clues. Impressive and infallible as this technique appears to be-it must be recognized that infallibility lies only in works of fiction. Reasoning backward does not work in real life: reality is far less tidy. In courtrooms everywhere, innocent people pay the price of life imitating art, of science following detective fiction. In particular, this book looks at the long and disastrous shadow cast by that icon of deductive reasoning, Sherlock Holmes. In The Sherlock Effect, author Dr. Thomas W. Young shows why this Sherlock-Holmes-style reasoning does not work and, furthermore, how it can-and has led-to wrongful convictions. Dr. Alan Moritz, one of the early pioneers of forensic pathology in the United States, warned his colleagues in the 1950's about making the Sherlock Holmes error. Little did Moritz realize how widespread the problem would eventually become, involving physicians in all other specialties of medicine and not just forensic pathologists. Dr. Young traces back how this situation evolved, looking back over the history of forensic medicine, revealing the chilling degree to which forensic experts fail us every day. While Dr. Young did not want to be the one to write this book, he has felt compelled in the interest of science and truth. This book is measured, well-reasoned, accessible, insightful, and-above all-compelling. As such, it is a must-read treatise for forensic doctors, forensic practitioners and students, judges, lawyers adjudicating cases in court, and anyone with an interest in forensic science.

The fascinating field of forensic science can be challenging to understand. Written for non-scientists, or those with limited scientific knowledge, this book covers the three main areas of an investigation where forensic science is practised: at the scene of the crime, in the forensic laboratory and at court. The fourth edition of this popular book features a new chapter on identifying an individual, including biometrics and a new chapter covering digital crime. The book has been updated throughout, keeping readers at the forefront of current practices across the forensic disciplines. Ideal for anyone studying forensic science or law, this book details how crime scene and forensic examinations are conducted in the United Kingdom, courtroom procedures and the role of the expert witness. It is an excellent source of information for anyone with a role in an investigation, including the police and crime scene investigators.

Lie detection, offender profiling, jury selection, insanity in the law, predicting the risk of re-offending , the minds of serial killers and many other topics that fill news and fiction are all aspects of the rapidly developing area of scientific psychology broadly known as Forensic Psychology. Forensic Psychology: A Very Short Introduction discusses all the aspects of psychology that are relevant to the legal and criminal process as a whole. It includes explanations of criminal behaviour and criminality, including the role of mental disorder in crime, and discusses how forensic psychology contributes to helping investigate the crime and catching the perpetrators. It also explains how psychologists provide guidance to all those involved in civil and criminal court proceedings, including both the police and the accused, and what expert testimony can be provided by a psychologist about the offender at the trial. Finally, David Canter examines how forensic psychology is used, particularly in prisons, to help in the management, treatment and rehabilitation of offenders, once they have been convicted. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.