In the third of the series, the next questions to be answered from the blogpost a-forensic-scientist-tells-it-like-it-is-free-book-to-give-away, these ones from EvilTwit: Do you find yourself getting excited about facets of the case that would normally freak other people out (and editing these sentiments out of conversations)? Short answer: yes. Long answer: In the spirit of the (read more)
“Police armed with keyboards can be as effective as those with truncheons” – discuss
Tuesday, August 23rd, 2011
Regardless of what people think about Big Brother and the nanny state, there’s no denying that in a country fed up with troublemakers, England has used the myriad of CCTV cameras to deal to rioters. The Breat British Public have, of course, added their own version of looters by photoshopping them: PhotoShop Looters. These are (read more)
How scientists see each other
Thursday, August 11th, 2011
This was on Sciblogs earlier this week but it was also sent to us independently so is worth a re-showing. Any scientists out there will, I think, be able to see some truth in this…..
Honesty in forensic science, Gary Bowering
Tuesday, August 2nd, 2011
When the science changes in such as way as to lower the validity of the original conclusion, should the forensic scientist be proactive in declaring this to impacted parties (as opposed to leaving it to defence lawyers to discover and act upon as they see fit)? Well, Gary Bowering, my take on it is that (read more)
Digging into some of the worst results of human behaviour – why?!
Tuesday, August 2nd, 2011
The second question about forensic science is answered: following on from forensic science: how it is, Kiwiski asked, “As fascinating as the science is I think I’d still want to know how someone dealt with digging into some of the worst results of human behavior and what motivated them to keep going?” The simple answer (read more)
Feelings about guilt or innocence of a defendent & “a-ha!”
Tuesday, July 19th, 2011
This is part one of the answers to the competition set up by Grant Jacobs to win a copy of my recent book, Expert Witness. Katie Brockie was the distinguished winner and her questions and my answers are: Do you develop strong feelings about the guilt or innocence of a defendent in a trial in (read more)
Expert Witness: book review feedback
Sunday, July 17th, 2011
Firstly, it’s a nerve-wracking experience to have colleagues read your work; it’s even more nerve-wracking for them, fellow scientists and people who I don’t know to read something that is as personal as this book, Expert Witness, is about my job. So I thank Grant Jacobs for his book review and am relieved that the (read more)
Child abuse cases – the role of the expert
Wednesday, June 29th, 2011
Given the current inquest into the deaths of the Kahui twins and the storm about the book to be published by Ian Wishart and the twins’ mother, Macsyna King, this may be of interest – it is a link to a Frontline programme (about half an hour) that seems to have been shown in the (read more)
Incendiary – “junk science” in fire investigation
Sunday, June 26th, 2011
The case of Cameron Todd Willingham has had a huge impact on the state of Texas. It should also be yet another case that justice systems around the world take a good, hard look at to make sure that such issues do not occur in their jurisdictions. Cameron Todd Willingham was accused of setting a (read more)