Police Lab: How Forensic Science Tracks Down and Convicts Criminals
Author: David Owen
Is there such a thing as the perfect crime?
In 1979, US Army captain, Jeffrey MacDonald claimed that three "hippies" broke into his house and attacked him and stabbed his wife and daughters. Despite the Army Captain's careful attempts to conceal evidence, forensic scientists were able to prove that MacDonald himself was guilty. Police Lab shows how forensic scientists gather and analyze evidence, examine weapons and bodies and use DNA testing and other techniques to help solve crime. Twenty real-life case studies show forensic scientists in action and demonstrate the fascinating secrets of police labs.
Police Lab includes:
• analyzing physical evidence and weapons
• fraud and forgeries including handwriting analysis
• DNA testing and the future of forensic science
• "forensic facts" sidebars throughout the book explaining how even the smallest detail and shred of evidence can help solve crime
• 20 real-life case studies including: The World Trade Center bombing, O.J. Simpson trial, assassination of John F. Kennedy and the conviction of serial killer Ted Bundy
• more than 200 color photographs
School Library Journal
Gr 6-8-What with CSI one of the more popular shows around, forensic-science methods have made an entrance into many living rooms around the country, and there has been corresponding activity in the previously placid 363.25s. This addition to the genre discusses current methodology interspersed with actual forensic investigations into crimes as diverse as a brutal murder in 1889 to the causes of the gun turret explosion on the USS Iowa in 1989. Poison, strangulation, burning, drowning, shooting, and stabbing are some of the murderous methods explored in the readable text, as are such forensic tools as facial reconstruction, bite matching, ballistics, DNA screening, and the old standby, fingerprinting. Color photos abound, as do "Forensic Fact" and "Crime File" boxes. This title is on a comparable level with Andrea Campbell's more stolid Forensic Science (Chelsea, 1999) and Brian Lane's Crime & Detection (DK, 2000), and more difficult than Charlotte Foltz Jones's chattier Fingerprints and Talking Bones (Delacorte, 1997). Couple Owen's book with Mark P. Friedlander, Jr., and Terry M. Phillips's competent When Objects Talk (Lerner, 2001) and Donna M. Jackson's superb The Bone Detectives (Little, Brown, 1996) and put CSI on TiVo.-Patricia Manning, formerly at Eastchester Public Library, NY Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Table of Contents:
Foreword
Introduction: The Origins of Forensic Science
Chapter 1: The Crime Files Opens Crime File: Justice Bites Back: Ted Bundy
Chapter 2: Positive ID Crime File: The Ruxton Body Bags: Buck Ruxton
Chapter 3: Pure Poison Crime File: Caroline Grills: Aunt Thally's poisoned tea
Crime File: Georgi Markov and the poisonous pellet
Chapter 4: The Cut of a Knife; the Blow of a Hammer Crime File: Jeffrey MacDonald and the ice pick
Chapter 5: Starved of Air: Strangulation and Suffocation Crime File: A Trunk Full of Clues: Michel Eyraud & Gabrielle Bompard
Chapter 6: Fire and Water: Death by Burning and Drowning Crime File: Robert Maxwell afloat
Chapter 7: The Smoking Gun Crime File: The Kennedy Investigation: one marksman or two?
Crime File: The tragic turret on USS Iowa
Chapter 8: The Flames of Destruction: Fire and Explosives Crime File: Steven Benson a family destroyed
Crime File: The double tragedies of the World Trade Center
Crime File: Ground Zero: World Trade Center
Chapter 9: Unmasking the Criminals: Frauds and Forgeries Crime File: The Hitler Diaries
Chapter 10: Criminal Traces Crime File: High Fiber: Wayne Williams
Crime File: hooded attacker Malcolm Fairley
Chapter 11: Written in Blood Crime File: The Dingo Baby: Lindy Chamerlain
Crime File: The bloody message of Ghislaine Marchal
Chapter 12: DNA: The Ultimate Identifier? Crime File: The DNA Link theconviction of Colin Pitchfork
Chapter 13: The Future of Forensic Sciences Crime File: Richard Ramirez outstalked by a computer
Crime File: O.J. Simpson and the pitfalls of DNA
Glossary
Index
Bibliography and Picture Credits
Interesting textbook: Iscador or Understanding Pain
Activists Beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics
Author: Margaret E Keck
Margaret E. Keck and Kathryn Sikkink examine a type of pressure group that has been largely ignored by political analysts: networks of activists that coalesce and operate across national frontiers. Their targets may be international organizations or the policies of particular states. Historical examples of such transborder alliances include anti-slavery and woman suffrage campaigns. In the past two decades, transnational activism has had a significant impact in human rights, especially in Latin America, and advocacy networks have strongly influenced environmental politics as well. The authors also examine the emergence of an international campaign around violence against women.
The conventions of the nation-state have shaped our contemporary understanding of the process and politics of social movements. Keck and Sikkink sketch for the first time the dynamics of emergence, strategies, and impact of activists from different nationalities working together on particular issues. This eagerly awaited work will alter the way scholars conceptualize the making of international society and the practice of international politics.
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