Antinozzi Guy - The Complete Idiots Guide to Forensics

Table of Contents

In 1943, the great American psychologist Abraham Maslow drew up a list of what he considered the most basic human needs. These included physiological needs such as breathing, drinking, eating, and the like; safety needs, including physical security; love and social needs; a need for respect and self-respect; a need to increase knowledge; a need for aesthetic satisfactionfor beauty; a need to strive toward what Maslow called self-actualization; and a need for spiritual fulfillment, which Maslow called self-transcendence.

There is a great deal to think about in this list, and certainly law enforcementof which forensics and criminal investigation are such vital elementsgrows directly from and contributes to the safety needs Maslow identified. But as comprehensive and thought provoking as his list is, the psychologist left out two major items: the need for truth, and the need for justice. They are the human needs at the very heart of forensic science.

Science is a search for truthobjective, above prejudice, and beyond passion. Forensics puts that search in the service of justice, which is the application of truth (likewise above prejudice and beyond passion) in an effort to identify the guilty, to exonerate the innocent, to redress as far as possible injury and wrong, and to protect and continually improve our society and civilization.

Modern forensics brings to bear contributions from virtually every branch of science to illuminate the darkest and most desperate of human deeds and to discover the truth in situations in which the truth has been hidden, whether by nature, by deliberate criminal action, or both. Having discovered the hidden truth, forensics then seems to make it available to the cause of justice.

This book by Alan Axelrod, a writer and teacher, and by Guy Antinozzi, a veteran criminal investigator, is an exciting and authoritative introduction to criminal investigation and the science of forensics. It focuses on the historical background behind modern criminal investigation, brings readers up to date on current practices, then goes beyond to the cutting edge of forensics in the near future. Axelrod and Antinozzi capture the fascination that drives so much of what we see on television and theater screens, but they also separate the facts from the fiction, the hype from the reality, to provide a razor-sharp 360-degree picture of the extraordinarily varied work of todays forensic professionals. For anyone who wants to investigate criminal investigation, there is no better place to start than with The Complete Idiots Guide to Forensics, Second Edition.

Harold Copus

FBI Special Agent (retired); managing director, HRH Risk Mitigation, Inc.; and consultant, The Dr. Phil Show

Good and evil. At any time, in any place, among any people of any culture, could anything be more basic than these eternally present, perpetually warring opposites?

The closest most of us get to evil is crime. We fear it. It consistently tops the list of concerns people express in public opinion pollsand with very good reason. About 13 million people, some 5 percent of the U.S. population, become victims of crime each year. Of this number, 1.5 million are victims of violent crime, each year.

But its not just fear that motivates our interest in this evil called crime. Most of us have, it seems, a natural need for justice. A wrong, we feel, must not remain uncorrected or, at least, unpunished. Thats why crime is such a compelling subject for novels, TV shows, films, and true crime narratives. A crime is committed, it throws the world off balance, and we cannot restwell keep turning the pages, well stay glued to the TV, we wont leave the theater seat to get a tub of popcornuntil the crime is solved and the balance set right again.

Crime and punishment, like good and evil, are very basic to us all, summoning up our animal instincts for survival, arousing in us a primitive hunger for vengeance, yet also calling on our noblest aspirations for justice, for healing, and for making things right again.

Basic, yes, but hardly simple. Since time immemorial, societies have searched for the cause of crime. They have sought ways to prevent crime as well as ways to cure it. Each answer offered has shown promise, but also flaws. Absolute government and dictatorship surely stamp out some kinds of crime, but they do so by holding everyone prisoner. Democracy brings opportunity and freedom, but that includes the opportunity and freedom to commit crimes.

Driven by the most basic of human forces, rooted in the most basic human needs, desires, and perceptions, crime and the social response to crime are nevertheless highly complex subjects. We become outraged after seeing a TV news report of some terrible crime. We fume. We demand justice now. But then we learn more about the background of the suspect, a life of poverty, abuse, and victimization. Or we hear that the states evidence against him is circumstantiala suggestive case, perhaps, but hardly airtight. Or we learn that the prosecutions main witness is himself a felon who has cut a deal in return for spilling his guts in testimony to convict the chief suspect. Or we listen to the prosecutions expert forensic witness interpret the evidence 100 percent one way, then listen further as the defense forensic expert reaches the opposite conclusion. And on and on it goes, the question of guilt or innocence spiraling farther and farther from what seemed the compelling core issues of simple good versus simple evil.

Most of us have strong feelings about crime, punishment, and justice. Yet, in our free society, these basic, urgent issues become so complex that we are pulled and pushed in a variety of directions and often find it almost impossible to take a stand. This book is intended to help us all sort things out.

The Complete Idiots Guide to Forensics, Second Edition, explores the history, present, and future of police work, with special emphasis on that aspect of police work called forensics: the processes of discovering, collecting, analyzing, and presenting evidence to prove the truth or falsity of particular criminal issues in law. Part 1, The Usual Suspects, briefly surveys the scope and goals of criminology, then focuses on criminal investigation in general and forensics in particular. Here are chapters on how crimes are classified (and why it is necessary to classify them) and how modern cops attempt to profile criminals in order to understand, identify, and apprehend them.

Part 2, On the Scene (and in the Lab), begins with the police arrival at a crime scene and discusses how investigators size up the scene and interrogate suspects, witnesses, and victims. Chapters in this part explain just what evidence the cops look for, and how they find it, gather it, and analyze it, as well as the tools they use and the techniques they call upon.

Part 3, The Body in Question, looks at what is often the single most compelling object at a crime scene: the body of the victim. Chapters in this part explain what investigators do at the scene and in the medical examiners office. Special chapters are devoted to toxicology; the forensic investigation of dental and skeletal evidence; forensic entomology, botany, and geology; and the discovery, recovery, and analysis of DNA evidence.