Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States

Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States
Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 348
Release: 2009-07-29
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0309142393

Scores of talented and dedicated people serve the forensic science community, performing vitally important work. However, they are often constrained by lack of adequate resources, sound policies, and national support. It is clear that change and advancements, both systematic and scientific, are needed in a number of forensic science disciplines to ensure the reliability of work, establish enforceable standards, and promote best practices with consistent application. Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States: A Path Forward provides a detailed plan for addressing these needs and suggests the creation of a new government entity, the National Institute of Forensic Science, to establish and enforce standards within the forensic science community. The benefits of improving and regulating the forensic science disciplines are clear: assisting law enforcement officials, enhancing homeland security, and reducing the risk of wrongful conviction and exoneration. Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States gives a full account of what is needed to advance the forensic science disciplines, including upgrading of systems and organizational structures, better training, widespread adoption of uniform and enforceable best practices, and mandatory certification and accreditation programs. While this book provides an essential call-to-action for congress and policy makers, it also serves as a vital tool for law enforcement agencies, criminal prosecutors and attorneys, and forensic science educators.

DNA Technology in Forensic Science

DNA Technology in Forensic Science
Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 199
Release: 1992-02-01
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0309045878

Matching DNA samples from crime scenes and suspects is rapidly becoming a key source of evidence for use in our justice system. DNA Technology in Forensic Science offers recommendations for resolving crucial questions that are emerging as DNA typing becomes more widespread. The volume addresses key issues: Quality and reliability in DNA typing, including the introduction of new technologies, problems of standardization, and approaches to certification. DNA typing in the courtroom, including issues of population genetics, levels of understanding among judges and juries, and admissibility. Societal issues, such as privacy of DNA data, storage of samples and data, and the rights of defendants to quality testing technology. Combining this original volume with the new update-The Evaluation of Forensic DNA Evidence-provides the complete, up-to-date picture of this highly important and visible topic. This volume offers important guidance to anyone working with this emerging law enforcement tool: policymakers, specialists in criminal law, forensic scientists, geneticists, researchers, faculty, and students.

Autopsy of a Crime Lab

Autopsy of a Crime Lab
Author: Brandon L. Garrett
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 261
Release: 2021-03-23
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0520976630

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.

Forensic Science Evidence

Forensic Science Evidence
Author: Donald E. Shelton
Publisher: Criminal Justice: Recent Schol
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2012
Genre: Law
ISBN: 9781593325176

Shelton describes the startling questions that have arisen about the reliability of many forms of scientific evidence which were traditionally regarded as reliable and have been routinely admitted to prove guilt. The exonerations resulting from the development of DNA have exposed the lack of truswortiness of much of the "scientific" evidence that was used to convict people who turned out to be innocent. The Congressionally commissioned report of the National Academy of Sciences documented the lack of scientific basis in many of these areas. Nevertheless, Shelton discloses that many courts continue to routinely admit such evidence in criminal cases, in spite of the obligation of judges to be the "gatekeepers" of forensic science evidence. He explores reasons for that phenomenon and describes whether and how it might change in the future.

Global Forensic Cultures

Global Forensic Cultures
Author: Ian Burney
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
Total Pages: 357
Release: 2019-05-21
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1421427494

Carrier, Simon A. Cole, Christopher Hamlin, Jeffrey Jentzen, Projit Bihari Mukharji, Quentin (Trais) Pearson, Mitra Sharafi, Gagan Preet Singh, Heather Wolffram

Forensic Science in Court

Forensic Science in Court
Author: Donald Shelton
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Total Pages: 198
Release: 2010-10-16
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1442201894

Forensic Science in Court explores the legal implications of forensic science—an increasingly important and complex part of the justice system. Judge Donald Shelton provides an accessible overview of the legal aissues, from the history of evidence in court, to "gatekeeper" judges determining what evidence can be allowed, to the "CSI effect" in juries. The book describes and evaluates various kinds of evidence, including DNA, fingerprints, handwriting, hair, bite marks, tool marks, firearms and bullets, fire and arson investigation, and bloodstain evidence. Assessing the strengths and limitations of each kind of evidence, the author also discusses how they can contribute to identifying the "who," "how," and "whether" questions that arise in criminal prosecutions. Author Donald Shelton draws on the depth of his experiences as courtroom prosecutor, professor, and judge, to provide a well-rounded look at these increasingly critical issues. Case studies throughout help bring the issues to life and show how forensic science has been used, both successfully and not, in real-world situations.

Automated Fingerprint Identification Systems (AFIS)

Automated Fingerprint Identification Systems (AFIS)
Author: Peter Komarinski
Publisher: Elsevier
Total Pages: 310
Release: 2005-01-20
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 0080475981

An easy-to-understand synopsis of identification systems, presenting in simple language the process of fingerprint identification, from the initial capture of a set of finger images, to the production of a Rapsheet. No other single work exists which reviews this important identification process from beginning to end. We examine the identification process for latent (crime scene) prints and how they are identified with these systems. While the primary focus is automated fingerprint identifications, the book also touches on the emergence and use of fingerprints in other biometric systems.Criminal justice administrators, policy makers, and students of forensic science and criminal justice will find a reference to the known limitations and advantages of these systems.This book provides information as to the critical and continual need for properly trained individuals as well as an understanding of the direct and indirect costs associated with maintaining these systems. An understanding of the entire system and what it means will prove invaluable. Why are there missed identifications? Why are identifications made on one database that are not made on another database? Key terms and issues are included, and well as suggestions for improving the overall number of identifications.The book will go beyond process and also discuss issues such as interoperability, management strategies for large databases, contract development, lights out verification and several other issues which impact automated identifications.- The first comprehensive title on this subject area- Outlines in detail the entire process of fingerprint gathering and identity verification - The future of AFIS will is discussed, including national standards in developing multi-agency cooperation/interoperability (U.S.) in addition to the use of AFIS identification world-wide.

Medicolegal Death Investigation System

Medicolegal Death Investigation System
Author: Institute of Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 85
Release: 2003-08-22
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0309167043

The US Department of Justice's National Institute of Justice (NIJ) asked the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of The National Academies to conduct a workshop that would examine the interface of the medicolegal death investigation system and the criminal justice system. NIJ was particularly interested in a workshop in which speakers would highlight not only the status and needs of the medicolegal death investigation system as currently administered by medical examiners and coroners but also its potential to meet emerging issues facing contemporary society in America. Additionally, the workshop was to highlight priority areas for a potential IOM study on this topic. To achieve those goals, IOM constituted the Committee for the Workshop on the Medicolegal Death Investigation System, which developed a workshop that focused on the role of the medical examiner and coroner death investigation system and its promise for improving both the criminal justice system and the public health and health care systems, and their ability to respond to terrorist threats and events. Six panels were formed to highlight different aspects of the medicolegal death investigation system, including ways to improve it and expand it beyond its traditional response and meet growing demands and challenges. This report summarizes the Workshop presentations and discussions that followed them.

Inside the Cell

Inside the Cell
Author: Erin E Murphy
Publisher: Bold Type Books
Total Pages: 399
Release: 2015-10-06
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1568584709

Josiah Sutton was convicted of rape. He was five inches shorter and 65 pounds lighter than the suspect described by the victim, but at trial a lab analyst testified that his DNA was found at the crime scene. His case looked like many others -- arrest, swab, match, conviction. But there was just one problem -- Sutton was innocent. We think of DNA forensics as an infallible science that catches the bad guys and exonerates the innocent. But when the science goes rogue, it can lead to a gross miscarriage of justice. Erin Murphy exposes the dark side of forensic DNA testing: crime labs that receive little oversight and produce inconsistent results; prosecutors who push to test smaller and poorer-quality samples, inviting error and bias; law-enforcement officers who compile massive, unregulated, and racially skewed DNA databases; and industry lobbyists who push policies of "stop and spit." DNA testing is rightly seen as a transformative technological breakthrough, but we should be wary of placing such a powerful weapon in the hands of the same broken criminal justice system that has produced mass incarceration, privileged government interests over personal privacy, and all too often enforced the law in a biased or unjust manner. Inside the Cell exposes the truth about forensic DNA, and shows us what it will take to harness the power of genetic identification in service of accuracy and fairness.

Forensic Engineering

Forensic Engineering
Author: Max M. Houck
Publisher: Elsevier
Total Pages: 330
Release: 2017-04-27
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0128027401

Forensic Engineering, the latest edition in the Advanced Forensic Science series that grew out of recommendations from the 2009 NAS Report: Strengthening Forensic Science: A Path Forward, serves as a graduate level text for those studying and teaching digital forensic engineering, as well as an excellent reference for a forensic scientist's library or for their use in casework. Coverage includes investigations, transportation investigations, fire investigations, other methods and professional issues. Edited by a world-renowned leading forensic expert, this series is a long overdue solution for the forensic science community. - Provides basic principles of forensic science and an overview of forensic engineering - Contains sections on investigations, transportation investigations, fire investigations and other methods - Includes a section on professional issues, such as: from crime scene to court, forensic laboratory reports and health and safety - Incorporates effective pedagogy, key terms, review questions, discussion questions and additional reading suggestions