Forensic Practice in Criminal Cases [Paperback]

Townley and Ede begin with a discussion of forensic evidence from a law enforcement view, discussing ideal practices, roles of various officers and experts, cost-benefit decisions and the kinds of forensics often used in different cases. American readers may find the abbreviations for officials confusing at first, but each term is defined when it is first used and there is a helpful table in the front of the book. This discussion comprises the first third of the book. An American reader may find important nuggets of advice and information about documentation, roles of experts, collection methods, and warnings about contamination of evidence.

A discussion of the risks of confirmation bias and tunnel vision among law enforcement, in light of the FBI's report on the Brandon Mayfield identification error, would be welcome in a future edition. The authors discuss concerns about law enforcement failing to look for evidence that might contradict their theory of the case, but do not propose solutions to this problem.

The latter two-thirds of the book include short chapters on forensic specializations including alcohol and narcotics testing, footwear and tool mark comparisons, trace analysis, DNA, firearms, accident analysis, questioned documents, fingerprints, forensic medical examinations, forensic dental examinations, forensic autopsies, forensic psychiatry, forensic linguistics, veterinary medicine, arson investigations, forensic accounting, computer investigations, video image analysis, forensic anthropology, and forensic archeology. The appendices include useful forms and memos.

Chapters range from five to twenty-six pages each; in many cases, the reader will need to do significant additional research to represent a client in a case involving each topic. Most topics receive a brief overview, an overview of evidence collection issues, a discussion of instructing or briefing an expert, and quarter-page to page-and-a-half list of references. Key cases and incidents, including the Colin Pitchfork DNA falsification and Shirley McKie fingerprint mis-identification case are mentioned, but not discussed at length. Many chapters have useful checklists of potential evidence and potential areas for mistakes and omissions. A sixteen-page list of further reading, arranged by chapter, is also provided. These lists provide useful guidance, particularly to U.K. journals and books which may not be well-known to American readers.

The system of organizing topics is unclear. The topics are not arranged alphabetically nor grouped logically. One might expect, for example, questioned documents and forensic linguistics to appear sequentially, not separated by five chapters. Fingerprints and forensic dentistry, similarly related as identification methods, are separated by a chapter on forensic medical examinations.

In sum, Townley and Ede's book is a useful basic overview of forensic topics. It does not discuss American case law (and would not be expected to), making it a specialized resource for American litigators engaged in innovative challenges to American forensic practice using British practices and materials as examples of international norms. Such litigators will likely already be more familiar with the issue being litigated than the target audience for this book, but may find fresh ideas and insights even in short overviews.