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Books in Criminalistics

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  • Forensic Handwriting Identification

    Fundamental Concepts and Principles
    • 2nd Edition
    • Ron N. Morris
    • English
    Forensic Handwriting Identification: Fundamental Concepts and Principles teaches the law enforcement and legal communities the major principles involved in handwriting and hand-printing analysis as applied to many types of investigations, including fraud, homicide, suicide, drug trafficking/clandest... labs, sexual offenses, threats and extortion, blackmail, arson, bombings, and theft. Lawyers and investigators will learn how to interpret an examiner’s report, the significance of various handwriting opinions and the influencing factors which must be considered.

  • Shooting Incident Reconstruction

    • 3rd Edition
    • Michael G. Haag + 1 more
    • English
    Shooting Incident Reconstruction, Third Edition, offers a thorough explanation of matters from simple to complex to help the reader understand the factors surrounding ballistics, trajectory, and shooting scenes. Forensic scientists, law enforcement, and crime scene investigators are often tasked with reconstruction of events based on crime scene evidence, along with the subsequent analysis of that evidence. The use and misuse of firearms to perpetrate crimes from theft to murder necessitates numerous invitations to reconstruct shooting incidents. The discharge of firearms and the behavior of projectiles create many forms of physical evidence that, through proper testing and interpretation by a skilled forensic scientist, can establish what did and what did not occur. Written by the world's most well-respected shooting scene and ballistics experts, the book addresses the terminology, science, and factors involved in reconstructing shooting incident events to solve forensic cases. It covers the full range of related topics including: the range from which a firearm was discharged; the sequence of shots in a multiple discharge shooting incident; the position of a firearm at the moment of discharge; and the position of a victim at the moment of impact. The probable flight path of a projectile and the manner in which a firearm was discharged are also discussed. Case studies illustrate real-world application of technical concepts, supported by over 200 full-color diagrams and photographs. This book will be of value to practicing forensic scientists (firearm and toolmark examiners), ballistics experts, crime scene personnel, police departments, forensic consultants (generalists), attorneys and judges, medical examiners (coroners), and forensic pathologists.

  • Effective Interviewing and Interrogation Techniques

    • 4th Edition
    • Nathan J. Gordon + 1 more
    • English
    Effective Interviewing and Interrogation Techniques believably answers the question, How do you know when someone is lying? It also provides a guide for interviewing probable suspects and interrogating likely perpetrators on techniques and tradecraft. This book covers topics about searching for truth and revealing lies. It presents forensic assessments based on psychophysiology, and assessments on the basis of non-verbal behavior. The book also covers interview and interrogation preparation, as well as question formulation. It discusses the Morgan Interview Theme Technique or MITT, and the Forensic Assessment Interview or FAINT. The book addresses techniques for interviewing children and the mentally challenged, and offers information about pre-employment interviews. It also explains how to understand aggressive behavior and how to deal with angry people. The 4th Edition adds several Chapters on how to ascertain maximum information from victims and witnesses. The book concludes by presenting future methods for searching for the truth. Law enforcement and security professionals, as well as prosecutors, criminal defense lawyers, and civil litigators will find this book invaluable.

  • Forensic Firearm Examination

    • 1st Edition
    • Chris Monturo
    • English
    Forensic Firearm Examination provides the reader with a thorough understanding of theory, application, and process of firearm comparison. It is essential in the field of forensic firearm examination to not only understand the marks that examiners are observing, but more importantly learn where these marks come from during the manufacturing process. This book explores the various machining techniques utilized in the manufacturing process and the resulting marks left by those tools. This information will equip the examiner with the knowledge to answer questions posed by the legal system regarding the uniqueness or potential similarity of marks on firearms imparted to fired bullets and cartridge cases. Intended primarily for firearm and tool mark examiners, this valuable resource serves as a primary requirement for the training of firearm and tool mark examiners. Other forensic science disciplines who rely on pattern matching as a primary determining factor whether or not two objects may share a common source would also find utility in this work. Finally, it will be a valuable resource for attorneys who are seeking to understand better the scientific aspects of firearm identification. Written by a foremost expert in the field, Forensic Firearm Examination explores specific firearm manufacturing techniques and the resulting marks, which has not been covered in any book publication. Chris Monturo has over 23 years of experience as forensic firearm and tool mark examiner. Additionally, he is a distinguished member of the Association of Firearm and Tool Mark Examiners (AFTE), a past member of the Scientific Working Group for Firearm and Tool Marks (SWGGUN), past member of the Organization of Scientific Area Subcommittees (OSAC) for firearm and tool marks and has instructed courses in machining for the firearm examiner in the United States and Internationally.

  • Firearm and Toolmark Identification

    The Scientific Reliability of the Forensic Science Discipline
    • 1st Edition
    • Ronald Nichols
    • English
    Firearm and Tool Mark Identification: The Scientific Reliability of the Forensic Science Discipline examines the scientific reliability of the firearm and tool mark identification discipline (FATM-ID). It answers two primary questions that are necessary to assess the reliability of FATM-ID, including 1) Do different tools produce different tool marks? and 2) Can a trained examiner reliably distinguish among them? Other books published on the topic have assumed these true and have simply discussed what is involved in the discipline. This book brings together the most recent studies, serving as a well-referenced, single resource that shows that FATM-ID is scientifically reliable. Intended primarily for firearm and tool mark examiners, this valuable resource serves as a primary requirement for the training of firearm and tool mark examiners. Finally, it will be a valuable resource for attorneys who are seeking to better understand the scientific reliability of FATM-ID. Written by a foremost expert in FATM-ID, the book provides a complete and scientific examination for anyone involved in firearm and tool mark identification.

  • The Science of Crime Scenes

    • 2nd Edition
    • Max M. Houck + 2 more
    • English
    The Science of Crime Scenes, Second Edition offers a science-based approach to crime scenes, emphasizing that understanding is more important than simply knowing. Without sacrificing technical details, the book adds significantly to the philosophy and theory of crime scene science. This new edition addresses the science behind the scenes and demonstrates the latest methods and technologies with updated figures and images. It covers the philosophy of the crime scene, the personnel involved at a scene (including the media), the detection of criminal traces and their reconstruction, and special crime scenes, such as mass disasters and terroristic events. Written by an international trio of authors with decades of crime scene experience, this book is the next generation of crime scene textbooks. This volume will serve both as a textbook for forensic programs, and as an excellent reference for forensic practitioners and crime scene technicians with science backgrounds.

  • Creating Digital Faces for Law Enforcement

    • 1st Edition
    • Michael W. Streed
    • English
    Today, law enforcement requires actionable and real-time intelligence; 24 hours a day, seven days a week to help respond to cases efficiently. When evidence is lacking in a case, law enforcement officers are often times left to rely on eyewitness descriptions. In order to quickly disseminate facial composites to news outlets and social media, law enforcement needs to rely on every tool available; including traditional forensic artists and advanced facial composite software. Creating Digital Faces for Law Enforcement provides the proper foundation for obtaining key information needed to create effective facial composites. There are two main methods to create a facial composite, first through traditional forensic art techniques and second by using commercially developed facial composite software. Traditional forensic art has advanced from pen and paper to more enhanced digital tools. This text reviews the development of digital tools used by the forensic artist describing each tool in detail. Creating Digital Faces for Law Enforcement is the first text of its kind to address the creation of digital sketches for forensic artists and software-driven sketches for non-artist/technicia...

  • Illinois Criminal Trial Evidence

    • 1st Edition
    • Ralph Ruebner
    • English
    Illinois Criminal Trial Evidence is intended to assist the work of trial and appellate lawyers and judges. Illinois rules of evidence find their origins in various sources: English common law, American common law, constitutional law, Illinois statutory law, and Illinois Supreme Court rules. Illinois courts begin to selectively adopt some of the federal rules of evidence. Because Illinois is not yet an evidence code jurisdiction, it becomes more and more difficult for lawyers and judges to become thoroughly familiar with the state's rules of evidence. This book identifies those rules of evidence that are applicable to a criminal trial, explains the rules, and offers constructive criticism whenever necessary. This text also provides a table of cases used as reference on the topics discussed for each chapter. This text serves as a law school textbook or as a supplement to other law school trial and evidence publications.

  • Forensic Epidemiology

    Principles and Practice
    • 1st Edition
    • Michael Freeman + 1 more
    • English
    It is an inescapable fact that causation, both generally (in populations), and specifically (in individuals), cannot be observed. Rather, causation is determined when it can be inferred that the risk of an observed injury or disease from a plausible cause is greater than the risk from other plausible causes. While many causal evaluations performed in forensic medicine are simplified by the fact that the circumstances surrounding the onset of an injury or disease clearly rules out competing causes (eg, a death following a fall), there are many cases that present a more complicated picture. It is these types of investigations, in which an analysis of comparative levels of risk from competing causes is needed to arrive at a reliable and accurate determination of the most likely cause, that forensic epidemiology (FE) is directed at.In Forensic Epidemiology, the authors present the legal and scientific theories underlying the methods by which risk is used in the investigation of individual causation. Methods and principles from epidemiology are combined with those from a multitude of other disciplines, including general medicine, pharmacology, forensic pathology, biostatistics, and biomechanics, inter alia, as a basis for investigating the plausibility of injury and disease exposures and mechanisms. The ultimate determination of the probability of causation (PC) results from an assessment of the strength of association of the investigated relationship in the individual, based on a comparison between the risk of disease or injury from the investigated exposure versus the risk of the same disease or injury occurring at the same point in time in the individual, but absent the exposure. The principles and methods described in Forensic Epidemiology will be of interest to those who work and study in the fields of forensic medicine, epidemiology, and the law.

  • Forensic Evidence Field Guide

    A Collection of Best Practices
    • 1st Edition
    • Peter Pfefferli
    • English
    Forensic Evidence Field Guide: A Collection of Best Practices highlights the essentials needed to collect evidence at a crime scene. The unique spiral bound design is perfect for use in the day-to-day tasks involved in collecting evidence in the field. The book covers a wide range of evidence collection and management, including characteristics of different types of crime scenes (arson, burglary, homicide, hit-and-run, forensic IT, sexual assault), how to recover the relevant evidence at the scene, and best practices for the search, gathering, and storing of evidence. It examines in detail the properties of biological/DNA evidence, bullet casings and gunshot residue, explosive and fire debris, fibers and hair, fingerprint, footprint, and tire impression evidence, and much more. This guide is a vital companion for forensic science technicians, crime scene investigators, evidence response teams, and police officers.