CRM 343: Bodily Fluids As Evidence: e-Books from the Library Collection on Bodily Fluids

Forensic photography plays a vitally important part in the investigation of crime and the subsequent administration of justice. Written by a practitioner with many years professional experience, this book provides an overview of the most common forensic photography techniques in use today for those readers who may not have a detailed understanding of camera techniques and who need to get to grips with the use of light and other key scientific aspects of the job. It covers image capture issues, file handling and relevant equipment, such as lasers and UV lights, and explores how they work.   The predominance of the digital camera has resulted in an increasing trend for police forces across the world to use untrained camera users, rather than expert photographers. Therefore, this book will prove invaluable for those practitioners who need to produce accurate and clear photographic evidence, above and beyond the point and shoot mode on their cameras. 

The Crime Scene: A Visual Guide provides visual instruction on the correct way to process a crime scene. While the primary crime scene comprises the area from which most of the physical evidence is retrieved by crime scene investigators (CSIs), forensic scientists, or law enforcement personnel, this book also covers   secondary and often tertiary crime scenes, all locations where there is the potential for the recovery of evidence. By using photographs and other diagrams to show proper and improper procedures, the reader will learn how to identify the correct principles required to process a scene. The book presents chapters on the investigation, the varying types of documentation, and the tactics used to connect events through crime scene reconstruction using evidence The book's authors have a combined experience of over 70 years in crime scene investigation as primary responders and consultants giving testimony in all levels of the U.S. court system. In addition, both teach forensic science and crime scene investigation at the university level. Coverage of techniques, documentation and reconstruction at a crime scene Shows side-by-side comparison of the correct process versus the incorrect process Online website will host: videos and additional instructional material

DNA testing and its forensic analysis are recognized as the "gold standard" in forensic identification science methods. However, there is a great need for a hands-on step-by-step guide to teach the forensic DNA community how to interpret DNA mixtures, how to assign a likelihood ratio, and how to use the subsequent likelihood ratio when reporting interpretation conclusions. Forensic DNA Profiling: A Practical Guide to Assigning Likelihood Ratios will provide a roadmap for labs all over the world and the next generation of analysts who need this foundational understanding. The techniques used in forensic DNA analysis are based upon the accepted principles of molecular biology. The interpretation of a good-quality DNA profile generated from a crime scene stain from a single-source donor provides an unambiguous result when using the most modern forensic DNA methods. Unfortunately, many crime scene profiles are not single source. They are described as mixed since they contain DNA from two or more individuals. Interpretation of DNA mixtures represents one of the greatest challenges to the forensic DNA analyst. As such, the book introduces terms used to describe DNA profiles and profile interpretation. Chapters explain DNA extraction methods, the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), capillary electrophoresis (CE), likelihood ratios (LRs) and their interpretation, and population genetic models--including Mendelian inheritance and Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. It is important that analysts understand how LRs are generated in a probabilistic framework, ideally with an appreciation of both semicontinuous and fully continuous probabilistic approaches. KEY FEATURES: * The first book to focus entirely on DNA mixtures and the complexities involved with interpreting the results * Takes a hands-on approach offering theory with worked examples and exercises to be easily understood and implementable by laboratory personnel * New methods, heretofore unpublished previously, provide a means to innovate deconvoluting a mixed DNA profile, assign an LR, and appropriately report the weight of evidence * Includes a chapter on assigning LRs for close relatives (i.e., "It's not me, it was my brother"), and discusses strategies for the validation of probabilistic genotyping software Forensic DNA Profiling fills the void for labs unfamiliar with LRs, and moving to probabilistic solutions, and for labs already familiar with LRs, but wishing to understand how they are calculated in more detail. The book will be a welcome read for lab professionals and technicians, students, and legal professionals seeking to understand and apply the techniques covered.

Two leading authors on medical ethics, science policy, and civil liberties take a hard look at how the United States has balanced the use of DNA technology, particularly the use of DNA databanks in criminal justice, with the privacy rights of its citizenry. The authors explore many controversial topics, including the legal precedent for taking DNA from juveniles, the search for possible family members of suspects in DNA databases, the launch of "DNA dragnets" among local populations, and the warrantless acquisition by police of so-called abandoned DNA in the search for suspects. Most intriguing, they explode the myth that DNA profiling is infallible, which has profound implications for criminal justice.