Abstract
Introduces the edited collection, locating it in relation to relevant literature and introduces the historical and methodological approaches and themes represented in the work. The concept of forensic objectivity is introduced. Describes the logic of sub-sections, chapter ordering and inclusion of chapters. Brief description of chapters. The rationale for the ordering of chapters into three parts is described.
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- 1.
L. Daston, Objectivity, New York: Zone Books, 2007; L. Daston and P. Galison, ‘The image of objectivity’, Representations, 1992, 40: 81–128.
- 2.
A. Adam, A History of Forensic Science: British Beginnings in the Twentieth Century, Abingdon: Routledge, 2016, p. 25.
- 3.
Ibid., p. 26.
- 4.
Ibid., p. 13.
- 5.
M.A. Crowther and B. White, On Soul and Conscience. The Medical Expert and Crime. 150 Years of Forensic Medicine in Glasgow, Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press, 1988; N. Duvall, Forensic Medicine in Scotland, 1914–1939, Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Manchester, 2013.
- 6.
J.L. Mnookin, ‘The image of truth: Photographic evidence and the power of analogy’, Yale Journal of Law & the Humanities, 1998, 10(1), Article 1: 1–74, Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/yjlh/vol10/iss1/1, Accessed 8 May 2019.
- 7.
For example, see T. Golan, Laws of Men and Laws of Nature: The History of Scientific Expert Testimony in England and America, Cambridge, MA and London: Harvard University Press, 2004; Adam, A History of Forensic Science.
- 8.
D. Garland. ‘What is a “history of the present”? On Foucault’s genealogies and their critical preconditions’, Punishment and Society, 2014, 16(4): 365–384, p. 373.
- 9.
National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences (NRCNAS), Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States: A Path Forward, Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 2009; Home Office, APCC, NPCC, Forensics Review. Review of the Provision of Forensic Science to the Criminal Justice System in England and Wales, July 2018, Available at: http://www.statewatch.org/news/2019/apr/uk-ho-forensic-science-review-7-18.pdf, July 2018, Accessed 10 June 2019.
- 10.
Adam, A History of Forensic Science.
- 11.
I. Burney and N. Pemberton, Murder and the Making of English CSI, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2016.
- 12.
Adam, A History of Forensic Science, p. 40.
- 13.
The Criminal Justice Act (1967) allowed for written evidence from expert witnesses to be presented in court. See Adam, A History of Forensic Science, p. 42.
- 14.
Adam, A History of Forensic Science, pp. 91–93.
- 15.
For example, see ‘Murdered boys’ final remains laid to rest’, The Scotsman, 9 May 2009. In 1913 the bodies of two young boys were discovered in a well in West Lothian. The cold water and lime present in the well meant that the bodies were uniquely preserved. Medico-legal specialists, Sydney Smith and Henry Littlejohn from the University of Edinburgh kept some of the body parts for further study. A funeral service and cremation was finally held in 2009 at the request of a relative of the boys.
Bibliography
Adam, A., A History of Forensic Science: British Beginnings in the Twentieth Century, Abingdon: Routledge, 2016.
Burney, I. and Pemberton, N., Murder and the Making of English CSI, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2016.
Crowther, M.A. and White, B., On Soul and Conscience. The Medical Expert and Crime. 150 Years of Forensic Medicine in Glasgow, Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press, 1988.
Daston, L., Objectivity, New York: Zone Books, 2007.
Daston, L. and Galison, P., ‘The image of objectivity’, Representations, 1992, 40: 81–128.
Duvall, N., Forensic Medicine in Scotland, 1914–1939, Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Manchester, 2013.
Garland, D., ‘What is a “history of the present”? On Foucault’s genealogies and their critical preconditions’, Punishment and Society, 2014, 16(4): 365–384, 373.
Golan, T., Laws of Men and Laws of Nature: The History of Scientific Expert Testimony in England and America, Cambridge, MA and London: Harvard University Press, 2004.
Home Office, APCC, NPCC, Forensics Review. Review of the Provision of Forensic Science to the Criminal Justice System in England and Wales, July 2018, http://www.statewatch.org/news/2019/apr/uk-ho-forensic-science-review-7-18.pdf, Accessed 10 June 2019.
Mnookin, J.L., ‘The image of truth: Photographic evidence and the power of analogy’, Yale Journal of Law & the Humanities, 1998, 10(1), Article 1: 1–74, https://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/yjlh/vol10/iss1/1, Accessed 8 May 2019.
National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences (NRCNAS), Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States: A Path Forward, Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 2009.
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Adam, A. (2020). Crime and the Construction of Forensic Objectivity from 1850: Introduction. In: Adam, A. (eds) Crime and the Construction of Forensic Objectivity from 1850. Palgrave Histories of Policing, Punishment and Justice. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28837-2_1
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