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Behind the scenes of the forensic lab
Published in Rachel E. Lovell, Jennifer Langhinrichsen-Rohling, Sexual Assault Kits and Reforming the Response to Rape, 2023
What happens after the testing is complete? Forensic scientists often do not know what happens after the testing—the investigation and eventual prosecution of the case. The job of the forensic scientist is to solely test, write the lab report and speak to those findings (when needed or asked to do so). However, the goal in obtaining DNA within a sample is to identify an individual, but identification is not typically the end result.
The appearance of the body after death
Published in Jason Payne-James, Richard Jones, Simpson's Forensic Medicine, 2019
Jason Payne-James, Richard Jones
Dating bones, as with all post mortem dating, is fraught with difficulty. The microenvironment in which the bone has lain is of crucial importance and the examination and dating of bones is now a specialist subject. It is the forensic anthropologist, along with a forensic scientist who will have the relevant skills and techniques to manage this type of material.
What Forensic Taphonomy Can Do for You: A Case Study in Rural Pennsylvania
Published in Heather M. Garvin, Natalie R. Langley, Case Studies in Forensic Anthropology, 2019
Andrea M. Ost, Rhian R. Dunn, Dennis C. Dirkmaat
Forensic anthropologists must take measures to reduce the effects of bias in their analyses and to resist tailoring results to the expectations of the police. It may be easy to fit subjective analyses to match a potential ID, especially when little can be gained from the remains themselves (e.g., when only one or two bones are found, etc.). Due to this, some believe that a forensic investigator should not hear details about a case beyond their scope of the investigation because outside information provided by law enforcement may contribute to analysis bias. While bias is an important concern, remaining ignorant of law enforcement’s information when entering a crime scene may limit the capabilities of a forensic scientist. Background information enables the formation of hypotheses, which can be tested throughout the recovery and analysis processes. Just as with any other scientific discipline, a forensic analysis should adhere to the scientific method, beginning with the formation of a hypothesis to test the initial question of what events occurred at the crime scene. Background information, or information given by law enforcement, facilitates the creation and testing of hypotheses.
What caused Joan of Arc’s neuropsychiatric symptoms? Medical hypotheses from 1882 to 2016
Published in Journal of the History of the Neurosciences, 2023
A letter to the editor disputed this argument (Moore 1986, 560) as did Nores and Yakovleff, who later noted that one does not need to invoke organ calcification to explain reports that Joan’s organs did not burn (Nores and Yakovleff 1995). A 2007 news article in Nature about the forgery of Joan of Arc relics included this quote from forensic scientist Philippe Charlier: “In fact, it is very difficult to totally cremate a body; organs such as the heart and intestines, which have a high water content, are very resistant to fire. … We see it all the time in forensics” (Butler 2007, 593).