The Forensic Casebook: The Science of Crime Scene Investigation (Paperback)
Review
‘The Famous Five would have cracked their cases sooner if they had packed this in their haversacks. The budding crime writer will reach for it when writing a police procedural.’, The Times .’The ultimate guide to the art of detection’, Crime Time
Product Description
Filled with intriguing true stories, and packed with black-and-white illustrations and photographs, The Forensic Casebook draws on interviews with police personnel and forensic scientists – including animal examiners, botanists, zoologists, firearms specialists, and autopsists – to uncover the vast and detailed under workings of criminal investigation. Encyclopaedic in scope, this riveting, authoritative book leaves no aspect of forensic science untouched, covering such fascinating topics as securing a crime scene, identifying blood splatter patterns, collecting fingerprints, and feet, lip and ear prints and career paths in criminal science. Lucidly written and spiked with real crime stories, The Forensic Casebook exposes the nitty-gritty that other books only touch upon.
Buy The Forensic Casebook: The Science of Crime Scene Investigation (Paperback) at Amazon
This is a ‘how to’ book: how to secure a crime scene; how to collect fingerprints (and feet, lip, and ear prints); how to identify blood splatter patterns, etc. It’s not quite detailed enough to be considered a text book, unless the teacher uses supplementary material, but it is packed full of real-life examples, which is why I read it.
This book is divided into five sections:
“The Scene of the Crime”–some crime scenes are impossible for the first responder to completely protect, e.g. the Alfred P. Murrah Building in Oklahoma City after it had been bombed. For one thing, people had to be rescued from the ruins. Some of the more interesting examples in this book involve the movement of evidence off of the scene, e.g. a bullet that passed through a victim and lodged in a passing bicycle.
I was also interested to discover that many states employ ‘civilian’ forensic technicians (it’s cheaper than paying for another police officer). The swab-wielding cop is slowly fading from the American crime scene.
“Working the Scene: the Evidence”–One of the best prints from a nightmarish crime scene came from a Christmas chocolate. Evidently the murderer didn’t like nuts and put the chocolate back into the box, along with a beautiful print of his thumb.
Criminals who stage crime scenes are often the easiest ones to catch. One man murdered three people, then dressed up in a gorilla costume and wrecked the house, just the way he imagined an enraged gorilla would have wrecked it, including a swing from the ceiling fan that ripped it to the floor.
At first, the ident officer, Patricia McGuire was puzzled by the print of a four-inch finger tip. After the murder scene was thoroughly analyzed, it became obvious to her forensic team that it had been staged. They checked with the local costume shop, found out who had recently rented a gorilla suit, and arrested him for murder.
“Working the Scene of the Body Human”– One of the most surprising items in this section is how little DNA is still extracted and processed from crime scenes. Hopefully, as DNA becomes quicker and easier to process, it will become a major focus of a crime scene. One challenge of processing DNA from a crime scene is that it is so easy to contaminate the surroundings with the forensic team’s DNA.
Forensic Odontology is another fascinating tool. Be sure to check out the anecdote of the perp who bit himself in an effort to mislead the police.
“Working the Scene: Different Stages”–A short section covering explosives and computers. Even as DNA can reveal a criminal’s physical presence, so his computer can reveal the presence of his shoddy little mind, whether it be through pornographic photographs, bomb making instructions, or internet scams.
“Working the Scene: Different Skills”–Another short section which includes the contributions of K-9 units and forensic photographers. Digital photography has actually made a criminalist’s job harder because of the ease by which digital photographs can be altered.
This book’s numerous appendices delve into the qualifications needed, and types of jobs that are available to people who are interested in a career in forensics. “The Forensic Casebook” is a good overview for future criminal investigators, and could also be considered supplemental reading for TV ‘true crime’ fans (Hint: Columbo and the various CSI programs really take a beating for their sloppy investigative work).