blog

This broadly comprehensive textbook is a well-designed reference that should enable teaching of all aspects of forensic science to undergraduates. Its last chapter is dedicated to the court system in England and Wales, but the previous chapters establish apparently universal bases.

The program is ambitious. Two chapters in this edition have been contributed and updated by guest authors: a new section on digital evidence hidden in such devices as telephones, laptop computers and other devices, and a very thorough chapter devoted to the details of DNA profiling. This part has been brought up to date with a discussion of the implication of direct and high-throughput sequencing technologies, and the use of molecular markers as currently applied in laboratories.

The format of the textbook makes for dense but engaging reading as the authors have a clear style of presentation. The repetition of a small segment on Bayesian statistics at the end of chapter three and then a truly excellent and thorough discussion of statistics as they apply to scientific investigation in chapter 13 is a minor problem. A corollary problem may be that this chapter, though well presented, through its very thoroughness and position in the book may not engage the student as much as could be desired, and the importance of understanding the concept of data could have been underlined earlier.

Other chapters are devoted to crime scene processing, recognizing and acquiring trace and contact evidence, examinations possible with respect to different body fluids, forensic toxicology with ample coverage of analytical techniques, investigations of paper documents, and recovery of human remains. Somewhat briefer coverage than to biological and chemical forensics is given to the physics of firearms, explosives and fires. Nonetheless, this is a book for the complete scientist.

The textbook is well illustrated with diagrams and photographs that are effective in conveying its messages, and accompanied by appropriate legends. The case study boxes are welcome for bringing the theory presented in each chapter into context. The chapter devoted to bloodstains and their geometry was particularly exemplary in this regard, though all chapters are abundantly leavened with these boxes, some of which are devoted to more in-depth technical information. Each chapter is accompanied with definitions, a summary and references for further reading, rendering the book a potential reference for years after course completion as well as an exemplary tool for instructors.

Overall, a good textbook, and if the stats part were not in English I would use it with my students. I may yet.

---

Heather Corbett Etchevers earned a joint Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley (USA) and the Université Pierre et Marie Curie (France) in 1999. She has been a tenured scientist with the French Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale since 2004, and currently conducts research at the University of Aix-Marseille into the genetic bases of congenital malformations of the face, skin and heart.