Reflections on Three Decades of Forensic Science: An Interview with Bill Linton
DNA typing was in its infancy. Random Fragment Length Polymorphism represented the state of the art in forensic science and the world wide web was years in the future when the first International Symposium on Human Identification was held in 1989. Few at that meeting could have predicted that the arguably unglamorous job of […]
Why so Many Rape Investigations are Dropped Before a Suspect is Charged
Ching-Yu Huang, Bournemouth University and Fay Sweeting, Bournemouth University Even after 15 years serving as a police officer, Fay still vividly remembers the first rape investigation she took part in. The survivor, a 17-year-old girl, had been raped by a man in his twenties at a party. A video-recorded interview and a medical […]
This Week in Forensic Science
No one has hours to scour the papers to keep up with the latest news, so we’ve curated the top news stories in the field of Forensic Science for this week. Here’s what you need to know to get out the door! A Serial Killer ‘Tried to Erase His Victims.’ But Three Bodies […]
Using DNA at the Border: Untangling Misconceptions
As the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy unfolded in Spring-Summer 2018, so too did a barrage of stories around migrant children being separated from their parents, and then mandates to re-unify them by judge-ordered deadlines. Atop the chaos were calls for DNA testing to screen migrants for trafficking, offers from genomics companies to donate tests […]
Trivia at ISHI 30
Did you know that the date gardens just outside of Palm Springs produce 80%+ of the nation’s supply? Or that the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway uses the world’s largest rotating tramcars, and offers one of the steepest ascents in the world? And I’ll bet you didn’t know that the first commercial card casino in the […]
This Week in Forensic Science
No one has hours to scour the papers to keep up with the latest news, so we’ve curated the top news stories in the field of Forensic Science for this week. Here’s what you need to know to get out the door! Genetic Genealogy Links Former Marine to Young Woman’s Murder in 1976: […]
Painstaking Veterinary Forensics Work Helps Combat Animal Abuse
Written by: Kendra Coulter, Brock University Many people have seen dramatizations of forensics on shows likes Bones and CSI. Forensics is the application of scientific principles and methods to criminal investigations at crimes scenes and in labs. In real life, forensic science is being applied to different victims: animals. Front-line officers undertake […]
Forensic Scientist of Note: Robin Cotton
It was Alec Jeffrey’s paper on RFLP analysis that proved the catalyst for Robin Cotton to alter her career path from research on the Y chromosome to the applied science of DNA typing. A biochemist by training, Cotton had a PhD in molecular biology and biochemistry from UC Irvine and two post-docs under her […]
Clearing the Sexual Assault Backlog in Murdertown, USA
Clearing the sexual assault backlog in the US has become a top priority over the past couple of years, because each rape kit that sits on a shelf untested represents a victim whose case has not yet been investigated. In Flint, Michigan, the backlog stood at 1,047 untested kits when Jen Janetsky became an […]
