文档介绍：FORENSIC SCIENCE
Modern Methods of Solving Crime
Max M. Houck
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Houck, Max M.
Forensic science : modern methods of solving crime / Max M. Houck.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978–0–275–99323–8 (alk. paper)
1. Forensic sciences. 2. Criminal investigation. I. Title.
2007
—dc22 2007000060
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available.
Copyright ª 2007 by Max M. Houck
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be
reproduced, by any process or technique, without the
express written consent of the publisher.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2007000060
ISBN-10: 0–275–99323–X
ISBN-13: 978–0–275–99323–8
First published in 2007
Praeger Publishers, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881
An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc.
Printed in the United States of America
The paper used in this plies with the
Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National
Information anization (–1984).
**********
This book is dedicated to all of the students in my courses at West Virginia
University who deserve sincere thanks for helping me understand,
reduce, and refine the fundamentals of what forensic science is. Students
are always the best teachers—that’s my story and I’ll stick by it.
Contents
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xv
Important Moments in the History of the Forensic Sciences xvii
1 History 1
2 The Nature of Evidence 33
3 Pathology 49
4 Fingerprints 63
5 Trace Evidence 77
6 DNA 103
7 Firearms 117
8 Anthropology 125
9 Expert Testimony 145
Notes 153
Index 159
Preface
In the “Introduction to Forensic Science” course I teach at West Virginia
University, I try to jog the students’ minds from their preconceptions,
especially about the forensic sciences. I explain how forensic science is a
historical science, like geology, archaeology, or astronomy, and forensic
scientists reconstruct past criminal eve