Ebook: Forensic Science

L.: Pearson Education Limited, 2011. 545 p.Forensic science is the application of science in the resolution of legal disputes. Science is valuable in this context because it has the potential to provide reliable, pertinent and often definitive information about a given case. Furthermore, the information that it supplies frequently cannot be obtained by other means. Science can be used to identify individuals, objects and substances. Importantly, it can provide evidence of contact between an individual and the items or people that he or she has encountered. It may also reveal other types of information that could be pivotal in a given case, such as the amounts or concentrations of particular substances present in a given sample, or details about the timing or sequence of events that occurred during an incident. The role of the forensic scientist is to provide the justice system with impartial, scientifically rigorous information. Such information can be crucial in establishing whether a crime has been committed and, if so, by whom. It can be used, for example, to test eyewitness accounts of the events that occurred during a particular incident, or to provide the investigating authorities with new leads or intelligence information. This book was written to provide a clear and authoritative introduction to forensic science. It strives to describe and explain the principal features of forensic science as it is applied at all stages of the process, from the collection of physical evidence at the scene to the presentation of scientific findings in court. The book includes a guest chapter on the rapidly developing technique of DNA profiling, written by Dr Harry Mountain, a geneticist and lecturer in forensic genetics. Through this text, the reader is introduced to the basic concepts and vocabulary necessary for an in-depth understanding of modern forensic science. However, although this book contains details of forensic methods, it does not contain specific information about risk and consequently it should not be used as an instruction manual. It should be noted that those parts of the book that are necessarily specific to a particular legal system are written from a UK perspective, with a particular emphasis on England and Wales. However, a conscious effort has been made to avoid allowing such jurisdictionspecific information to permeate throughout the book. Consequently, most of the text is equally valuable to all readers, irrespective of the legal system operated by their country. This text will primarily be of use to first-year undergraduates studying forensic science, either as a single subject or in combination with another discipline. However, it will also be of value to students of related disciplines, such as law, and those who undertake forensic science as a subsidiary or elective subject. Furthermore, professionals, such as the police and lawyers, who routinely work with forensic scientists, may also find it useful as a reference book. The text is constructed in a concise and coherent manner, making extensive use of boxes to provide additional material on forensic techniques, further information and illustrative case studies. In order to enhance the reader’s learning experience further, both chapter objectives and end of chapter problems are provided. In addition, there is a glossary giving definitions of more commonly used specialised forensic science terms.