Forensics 101: A Friendly Primer for Writers

by Robert Jones

Contrary to what one might think after viewing some of the forensic investigation shows on television programs that show off the latest in modern (and sometime wishful) forensic science devices and techniques, forensics has a long history. From a time of slow advance in ancient Babylon when fingerprints were pressed into clay tablets to cement business transactions, through a time in circa 250 BC when Erasistratus, a Greek physician noticed that, when his patients lied, their pulse rates increased, through the time in 44 BC when Antistius, a Roman physician, counted the 23 stab wounds in Julius Caesar's body to establish a cause of death, to the present time, the rate of advancement in forensics has been steadily increasing. Various specialized fields have developed and expanded to include subfields. As a result, the number and size of documents that describe the growing number of forensic specialties has seemingly grown exponentially.

Writers, especially fiction writers, are frequently unfamiliar with the forensic documents and have no time or desire to get familiar with many of them. In view of this, writers would most likely find concise, easily read, explanatory documents of assistance. Fortunately, you will not have to mount much of a search to find such a document. If you are reading this, you have it effectively in hand.

Nook

First published August 11, 2010

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Robert Jones runs Craic Computing, a small bioinformatics company in Seattle that provides advanced software and data analysis services to the biotechnology industry. He was a bench molecular biologist for many years before programming got the better of him.

Reviews

[Sandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good primary for anyone wanting to write detective fiction, and for those of us who only read it, it makes one more aware of what can be "detected" by evidence and what is just baloney.