Ballistics and True Crime: It’s Only Half the Fun Without the Other!

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by Taariq Watson and Stephen Brandow

Throughout this semester, we have read multiple true-crime narratives and multiple narratives that deal with the scientific aspects of true crime. The true crime narratives seemed to follow a typical format that historian Jean Murley asserts the majority of true crime narratives do. According to Murley, “such conventions include the depiction of one murder event; a narrative focus on the killer through exploring his or her history, motivations and unique psychological makeup, some degree of fictionalizing or speculating about events, and a great deal of tension between emotional identification with and distancing from the killer (Murley 5). However, David Owen’s Hidden Evidence is a book that combines elements of the typical true crime narrative with elements of the narratives that focus on science. In his chapter “The Smoking Gun,” this combination is especially prevalent due to Owen’s use of narrative, visual images, and specific case studies.

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Hidden in the Ashes: The Role of Forensic Science in True Crime Narratives

By Jonathan Li and Eric Wang

Debris, charred to pitch blackness, lies scattered all over what once used to be a building. Now, only a gruesome mound of wood, concrete, stone, and corpses stand in its place. Whether such a tragedy was done with malicious intent or occurred purely by accident seems impossible to tell, since any potential clues remain hidden under the ruins. Yet, as shown in the “Fire and Explosives” chapter from David Owen’s Hidden Evidence, this site is actually a goldmine of evidence in the hands of a forensic investigator. Numerous chemicals, chromatography experiments, and technologies—miracles of modern science—can all be put towards finding clues as to how the crime occurred and even towards finding the perpetrators through DNA evidence. Still, when placed in the context of true crime narratives, forensic science seems oddly out of place. Writer and professor Jean Murley explains the true crime genre as, “a way of making sense of the senseless, but it has also become a worldview, an outlook, and a perspective on contemporary American life, one that is suspicious and cynical […], and preoccupied with safety, order and justice” (2). This trait of true crime, one that is so focused on psychology, emotions, and justice, is hardly fitting with the cold, data-driven facets of science. Yet, even despite the differences between forensic science and true crime narrative, we see a remediation between these two styles in David Owen’s Hidden Evidence, which produces a new type of crime narrative that has science play a more prominent role in solving mysteries.

As fire and explosive-related crimes do an incredible job in distorting or destroying physical evidence, the visual aftermath of these forces predominates observation and investigation. Nevertheless, there are underlying chemical and physical properties at work. The construction of models and other representations thus becomes integral in making scientific research in characterizing these properties applicable to modes of forensic inquiry. In their book on visualization, scholars Marita Sturken and Lisa Cartwright describe the escalating importance of scientific visualization as “encompass[ing] the acoustic and tactile world with the increased availability of digital rendering and display mechanisms” (349). As humans tend to rely on sight more than other senses, the growth of modern visualization technology becomes crucial in understanding and applying science to forensic investigation. The “Fire and Explosives” chapter by Owen reflects that desire to see the unseen through his abundant ‘techno-babble’ and descriptions of precise modern scientific experiments, coupled with their specific forensic utility regarding fire and explosions.
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Forensic Science’s Impact on True Crime

By Corey Gattis and Joey Finison

The true crime genre has become immensely popular in American culture.  Millions of readers and viewers are drawn into the cutting edge drama and state of the art scientific techniques that are used today in true crime fiction, but the genre has not always been this way.  Jean Murley, in her book The Rise of True Crime, outlines true crime’s evolution from trial narratives to the more scientific based style of recent times.  The genre’s evolution is based largely on the evolution of the techniques and technologies employed by real-life crime solvers.  Developments in investigative science, such as the photograph and fingerprint analysis, have lead directly to changes in true crime narratives. Almost every true crime television show or novel is now dependent on forensic investigation to solve the case, instead of the more traditional detective work.  One such show is CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. Each episode revolves around some type of crime that can only be solved by the forensic scientists either at the scene or back in the lab.  CSI has become the epitome of recent true crime fiction, because it relies on characters who are not old-fashioned detectives, but scientists who use their knowledge to solve the cases. LeRoy Panek describes the transformation of the true crime hero in his The Origins of the American Detective Story. Panek illustrates how the characters of true crime, and the genre itself, have become intertwined with forensic science.  Forensic investigative techniques have moved to the forefront of true crime television and writing.  In fact, without the developments in forensic science, true crime, in its modern form, would not exist today.

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Hidden Evidence, Identified

by Kendrick Fitzgerald and Steven Yarmoska

DNA. The foundation of our genes. What makes us unique.

These claims are not articulated in an epic introduction to a Nova special on deoxyribonucleic acid, but they are two essential points science journalist David Owen offers in Chapter 14 of his book, Hidden Evidence. In his text, Owen describes in excruciating detail the structural make-up of DNA and, more importantly, how it is discovered, collected, and employed in forensic investigations. What he omits from his narrative, is information about how DNA evidence can fail, fall short, or undermine a criminal case.

After reading Chapter 14, a reader might be tempted to adopt a mindset similar to that of CSI viewers: that DNA evidence is present at every crime scene and, once found, it can be easily analyzed but never disputed.  This assertion is rooted in the constant presence of a self-evident chain of connections between collection, analysis, identification, and employment. True crime literature submits to a similarly rigid structure, as Professor Jean Murley categorizes: “murder/background/trial/execution” (44).  Further exploring this comparison, one can relate Owen’s non-fiction narrative to other elements of true crime and detective fiction stories, most notably the juxtaposition of mystery and clarity.

DNA is not infallible because it is interpreted by humans; and as long as it is, DNA is only as good as the people who manipulate it. That is to say, the investigators that find it and the scientists that determine to whom it belongs. DNA, on its own, cannot tell a story. There needs to be circumstance as well as DNA, and this is a fact that Owen manages to dodge in his presentation of DNA in “DNA: The Ultimate Identifier?”

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Forging an Alliance between Forensic Science and the Reader: An Analysis of the Writing Techniques Used in Forensic Science

By: Jennifer Huang and Emily Theys

For the better part of this semester, we’ve read lengthy and example-laden texts of distinguished true crime scholars, perused horrific images of death, and written (and re-written) drafts comparing and contrasting the presentation of a specific true crime case through four media outlets (Odendahl-James). Through this all, we have come to recognize that historian Jean Murley’s quotation from the beginning of the year sums it all up:

True crime was more than just another formula, another genre, another story – it was about real things that happened to real people, and the stories of murder were both terrifying and oddly reassuring. (Murley 1)

Reading about crime, for whatever reason, was fascinating. However, as the semester progressed, we discovered that there was more to crime than just the true crime genre. In its simplest terms, narrating a crime event can be split into two distinct genres: the first being the true crime narrative, which had been the focus of our analyses for the past three months, and the second, which David Owen’s Hidden Evidence: 50 true crimes and how forensic science helped solve them exemplifies, the forensic science narrative. While these two genres are kept separate through differences in style and vocabulary, Owen, as a forensic science writer, attempts to mediate this discrepancy through the use of two techniques adopted from true crime narratives – active readership and selectivity of cases. In writing the chapter entitled “Frauds and Forgeries”, Owen somewhat modifies the manner in which these techniques are applied, and this slight alteration creates a noticeable distinction between the true crime and forensic science genres.

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Is it the Truth or is it “Infotainment”?

By Joan Choi and Arielle Henderson

The words, “50 true crimes and how forensic science helped solve them,” are possibly the first words a potential reader will see when glancing at the cover of David Owen’s Hidden Evidence. To the leisurely reader not familiar with the study of crime, the phrase is not likely to exhibit any immediate contradictions. However, readers more knowledgeable in the study of crime portrayal may note that the terms “forensic science” and “true crime” represent opposing degrees of reality. On one end, “forensic science” is often perceived to be undeniably true. The positivist nature of forensic science is a notion examined in depth by communication scholars like Marita Sturken and Lisa Cartwright. In their book, Practices of Looking: An Introduction to Visual Culture, Sturken and Cartwright argue that people will generally take scientific images and regard them as “reality” and “objective representations of knowledge.” (Sturken 347). In other words, information achieved through forensic science is generally representative of a strong implication of truth.

On the other end, the term “true crime” is regularly associated with a truth that is less focused on the undeniable reality implied through forensic science. True crime analyst Jean Murley argues in the introduction to her book The Rise of True Crime that facts in the true crime genre are habitually influenced by both the given media source and the intended audience. She says that, “the genre as a whole is the muddy distinction between the true, the real, and the fictional murder narration.” (Murley 13). In this manner, engaging an audience becomes just as important as informing the audience of the facts in true crime narratives, creating a narrative form frequently termed: “infotainment.”

As we will show in our analysis of Hidden Evidence, Owen’s book represents a blend between the definitive facts of forensic science and the infotainment nature present in many true crime narratives. The coexistence of complete facts and entertainment in the book may seem to be randomly laid out through narrative text and images. These are, however, presented through a careful calculation on Owen’s part in his efforts to perhaps disencumber science and make it more approachable for a leisurely reader.

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Reader as Investigator: Witnessing Drowning and Burning Firsthand

By: Dan Pelzman and Matt Truwit

True crime thrives on the fact that the prospect of investigating murder thrills readers. As professor of literature Leroy Lad Panek notes in his book The Origins of the American Detective Story, in these mysteries “the reader is allowed and even encouraged to try to figure things out along with the detective hero” (90). Scientific journalist David Owen perpetuates this relationship between the reader and the forensic scientist throughout his book Hidden Evidence: 50 True Crime Cases and How Forensic Science Helped Solve Them. Step by step, from arriving on the scene (1), generating possible explanations (2), and determining the actual logistics of the crime (3), Owen presents a forensic scientist who follows a rigid investigative approach characteristic of both the true crime genre and real life crime solving. Owen’s text also integrates the two classes of true crime narrative and forensic detail, through this formulaic path. This method is tried and true; many true crime authors bring the audience along for the ride due to some mysterious aspect of human nature. Why are readers so attracted to the possibility of solving a horrendous crime? In her book The Rise of True Crime, professor Jean Murley states that American true crime readership has a “genuine desire to understand a mysterious and sometimes tragic death” (3). Despite the fact that Murley addresses true crime and Owen focuses on forensic investigation, both writings appeal to a similar audience with similar wants. By providing an explanation of and verdict on each case, Owen satisfies his audience by transforming an ambiguous crime into an easily solved and evident case. In the chapter into which we will delve, “Drowning and Burning”, the crimes are presented as potentially confusing for investigators because they may not be crimes at all, or they may be attempts to mask the real cause of death. However, despite the possibility for confusion, Owen easily and formulaically presents an outline of how forensic scientists determine the time, the place, and the evidence of death by water or fire, giving the reader access to tools so that he or she may investigate for him or herself and, like real-life experts, discover a clear, concise rationalization of a crime at first apparently unsolvable.

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The Scientist and Detective: A Ballistics Balancing Act

By Chloe Sarnoff & Tommy Patterson

I. Owen’s Dynamic Duos

In his book Hidden Evidence, specifically the chapter entitled “The Smoking Gun,” science journalist David Owen bridges the narrative gap between true crime media and forensic investigation.  Although he mainly focuses on the physical characteristics of bullets and guns, Owen still incorporates a certain element of mystery in his discussion of forensic evidence.  In this chapter, he explores how the relationship between bullets and guns serve as essential evidence at a crime scene.  Throughout his analysis of ballistics, Owen’s narrative links the “characters” of scientist and detective.  These two professionals take the reader on a journey through their interrelated processes of forensic investigation.  Owen differentiates between their roles while simultaneously illustrating to the reader how both posses unique skill sets necessary for solving a crime. Owen’s “scientist” is responsible for studying the minute details of the bullet or gun. He or she is not concerned with background or context.  The scientist does not need to know the identity of victim or perpetrator. Instead he or she focuses on the individual pieces of the given crime puzzle.   On the other hand, Owen’s “detective” bears the responsibility of putting those puzzle pieces together and solving the crime.  Given the detailed information provided by the scientist, the detective recreates the crime scene and discovers how ballistic evidence establishes the relationship between the victim and the culprit. Using language and visuals, Owen leads his reader into the world of crime where “[n]othing is hidden or mysterious… and the secret ways of violence and bodily harm are laid bare for the viewer to see and to know” (Murley 130). Owen concludes his chapter with a real-life application of forensic scientist/detective teamwork in the form of a case study. This true crime/forensic science narrative actually operates in a similar manner as a typical episode of the popular television show, CSI. The narrative offers the reader just enough verifiable, eye-witness examination of the forensic procedures to trust that the detective and scientist have identified the guilty party beyond a reasonable doubt and therefore no mention or engagement of the judicial system is necessary.

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Every Superhero Has A Weakness, and Science is No Exception

By Claire McIlvenny and Taylor Bloom

In the world of popular true crime fiction, science empowers forensic investigators with an answer to every question concerning crime. In reality, the limits and imperfections of science and scientists raise as many questions about crime solution as they answer. Science journalist David Owen, the author of Hidden Evidence, describes a multitude of scientific advances that have helped uncover mysteries in an eclectic group of true crime cases. The book’s subtitle, “50 True Crime Cases and How Forensic Science Helped Solve them” reiterates the television show CSI‘s idealistic portrayal of forensic investigation. In each of Owen’s case studies, he shows science consistently enabling detectives to catch the perpetrator. However, the science of true crime, as explored by various professors and scholars, often diverges drastically from consistency and perfection. Owen’s non-definitive word choice shows the limitations of forensic science, while many of his crime cases demonstrate a true battle between scientists and murderers. In his chapter “Knives and Blunt Instruments,” the reader is encouraged to act as a figurative detective, experiencing this battle through “hands-on” means. Though Hidden Evidence appears to be a companion text to a dramatized yet infallible version of science, Owen negates his own hypothesis as he unintentionally presents the realistic narrative of forensic investigation.

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The Good, The Blood, and The Blood

By Tori Grant and Samreen Khan

I could use my science to solve a puzzle. I could provide a family with closure. I could contribute to law enforcement’s effort to take criminals off the streets. That is the purpose of forensic science, and that is what [Hidden Evidence] describes.

– Dr. Kathy Reichs in the Preface to Hidden Evidence

David Owen, a journalist in scientific writing, wrote Hidden Evidence, which can be classified both as a forensic science textbook and a true crime narrative. What connection exists between science and true crime that allows him to fuse the two? According to scholar Jean Murley in The Rise of True Crime, true crime texts, although meant to horrify the reader, are also reassure and comfort them that order can be restored. English professor Leroy Panek proposes, in The Origins of the American Detective Story, that science is a method to restore order by introducing the idea of the “scientist hero”, who was meant to solve even the most complex crimes with logic, science, and unique contraptions. Although many of the original stories used inaccurate machines and branches of science, the idea that science is infallible permeates modern day drama shows and detective fiction. In his chapter, “Blood”, Owen discusses forensic techniques related to blood and other bodily fluids, and implies that science is a definitive tool in investigations. Thus, science is the tool that realizes the reassurance and comfort Murley discusses. Although Owen portrays science as infallible, he uses the case study of Lindy Chamberlain at the end to show that this is not always the case. Human involvement is unavoidable in investigations, which compromises this objectivity. Owen’s style implies that an investigation is a battle between killers and investigators, as they both use science to their advantage. Science is not a tool that is only at the disposal of the investigators, as Kathy Reichs suggests; killers use it as well. Owen alternates in addressing the reader as the killer and the investigator to show that science can assist those carrying out and solving crimes.

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The Puzzling Nature of Bombs and Fire

by CJ Hunter and Roberto D.

Lighting the Fire

Though devastating and destructive, David Owen presents fires and explosions as increasingly solvable crimes through the use of modern investigative techniques. Advances in science still allow cases to be solved where evidence has been destroyed or tainted. Owen illustrates many of these methods of investigation in his chapter “Fire and Explosives” from his work Hidden Evidence. However, Owen relies upon his background as a scientific journalist and a forensic expert to present these methods to us in a style that will appeal to the both the common reader and the forensic devotee. Through his rhetorical and visual style, which neatly creates niches for all technology and investigators but continually shows they must work together, Owen portrays fire and explosive cases as a giant puzzle. The puzzles technologically-analyzed evidence, but is solved and contextualized by the investigators. This picture of the crime is unaffected by the destructive nature of bombs and fires, and ultimately satisfies our desire to know that criminals cannot outsmart the police force. This fufills a need that true crime media historian Jean Murley describes as “both terrifying and oddly reassuring” among the readers and fans of the genre (Murley 1). Murley could recognize Owen`s work as a piece of true crime, whether Owen intended it to appear that way or not, because of the resolute nature he presents in his work. Whether or not arsonists or bombers destroy evidence, the “good guys” can still determine the perpetrator with combined force of technology and human investigative ability.

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Criminals Beware: DNA Will Find You

Chris Tschudy and Bennie Padgett

In his book Hidden Evidence: Fifty true crimes and how forensic science helped solve them , science journalist David Owen explains the search and discovery of different types of physical evidence by forensic scientists and the application of such evidence to solve real-life crimes. One of the text’s final chapters, “DNA: The Ultimate Identifier?” discusses that particular substance and its emergence as the pinnacle type of forensic evidence. Whether it appears on CSI or in a non-fiction criminal case, Owen argues DNA’s role is essential and unassailable in uncovering a central forensic truth (i.e. a criminal’s identity). Prior methods used to unravel this truth, such as microscopes, mug shots, fingerprints, and blood analysis, were not always foolproof means of discovering the criminal. In the opening pages of his book, Owen admits “forensic science is not infallible. Even now there are cases where the evidence it isolates seems confusing or incomplete, or is open to more than one interpretation”(Owen 11). However, by the time a reader finishes chapter 13, Owen has illustrated an inevitable evolution in forensic science technologies and methodologies that make it possible for DNA to overcome any previous doubts. Owen’s assertion of DNA as the “ultimate” identifier produces a non-fiction text that realizes the dream of the “scientist hero” detective, explored in LeRoy Panek’s literary analysis of early twentieth century detective fiction.  The forensic investigator, as envisioned by Owen, who finds and analyzes DNA, the “ultimate identifier,” through the use of high-tech machinery and databases, “fulfill[s] one of the most ardent dreams of science: the removal of the human element and the production of absolute truth” (Panek 77).  In essence, Owen has created a non-fiction, real-life text describing the universal power of DNA to parallel its presence in real crime cases and fictional true-crime literature.

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A New True Crime Mind

By Ashleigh Anne McKinney and Greg Deluca

Move from Psychology to Technology

The mentality at the beginning of this semester was centered on Jean Murley’s attitude towards true crime, her outlook being more emotional and about the psychological factor of murder. It was all about “human behavior” and “‘drawing us into the minds’ of [killers]” (Murley 3). Now, as the end of the semester approaches, procedure and technology seem to be the dominant, modern true crime method of intrigue. In David Owen’s text, Hidden Evidence this contemporary outlook can be seen. The beginning of his chapter, “Knives and Blunt Instruments”, suggests that such weapons are a threat and this threat is initially built up in the introductory paragraph. The knives and blunt objects are accessible and common, “ranging from a stiletto, a switchblade, or kitchen knife, to the nearest heavy object able to inflict a sufficiently damaging wound-be it a wrench, a lamp, or a lump of wood” (Owen 82). Owen mentions how these are household items, but which act as both tools and weapons. This murderous threat of knives and blunt objects is established in the beginning of the chapter, and is carried through in the other sections. Through rhetoric and images, Owen’s text establishes the threatening idea of these weapons, but then elaborates on the procedural repetition of science and technology to provide reassurance for the reader.

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The Gun as Murderer

By Nick Gubbins and Funmi Osinubi

According to NRA bumper stickers plastered on the backs of countless American vehicles, “guns don’t kill people, people kill people”. The gun is an instrument with which a murder is committed as opposed to an independent force. Yet throughout True Crime analyst David Owen’s chapter The Smoking Gun, the gun is represented as the concrete scientific factor within a case; the gun is the objective force that overrides any human emotion. Investigations revolve entirely around looking for scientific evidence, as opposed to the former focus on the psychological aspect of criminal and witnesses. In his composition of this chapter, Owen concentrates on the gun in the text, images and the case study of “Sacco and Venzetti”, offering little human interaction. Through analysis of these three factors (text, visual language, and case study), the emphasis on forensic science and technology supersede that of the human element.Owen neglects the human aspect of a case in an attempt to remove any possible subjectivity from the science. The only human contact we get within the pictures are of scientists carrying out experiments, as seen on page 116. This forensic scientist is one who lies outside the realm of emotional distortion; while working he cannot let any of his feelings influence his work. He must follow the formulas to find out the scientific, indisputable fact and that is all. Once there is an objective scientist, science can be an irrefutable tool for finding evidence, and ultimately “securing a guilty verdict” (Owen 127). Continue reading

A Simple Yet Intricate Mystery

By Francesca Tocci and Cara Vogel

Historian Karen Halttunen explains in her book, Murder Most Foul, that the nineteenth century trial report begins “with the corpus delicti, the fact of the crime” (108). Halttunen argues that the corpus delicti is established by the victim’s body at the scene. The body is the starting point of the investigation, and from there, scientists evaluate all other clues to piece together the crime.  Science journalist David Owen establishes the central mystery in his book Hidden Evidence by using blood as a metonym for the corpse. From the general to the specific, the organization of David Owen’s chapter “Blood” acts like a funnel, describing the general appearance of blood on the surface, to the many components that make up blood within.  On the surface, blood is seen as the ultimate source of evidence. Owen formats the “Blood” chapter within his text as a mystery; beginning with more general information, he gradually focuses in on the intricate details of blood’s content and how it is implemented to solve crimes.

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Drawing the Link Between Poison and Technology

By: Tim Wong and Katie Burke

Introduction:

In David Owen’s book “Hidden Evidence”, he introduces the numerous types of weapons criminals use and the types of forensic techniques investigators use to uncover these crimes. David Owen is a graduate in engineering with experience in aerospace and military technology who also did work in scientific writing and journalism. He contributes regularly to newspapers and television programs.

Each chapter in the book is supplemented by several case studies. Of all of these different types of weapons, poison is the most unique in that its infliction and symptoms are not always visible, and when visible, can sometimes be misleading. This leads to a tension between what can be seen on the surface and what must be uncovered by looking more closely, namely with technology. This results in the need for a scientist who is trained to use certain technology and have the knowledge to look beyond what can be seen.

Compared to other weapons such as guns, knives, and explosives, poison is stealthy and non-confrontational. Because of poison’s elusive nature, the role of the scientist and the technology they utilize is ever more important. It is up to the scientist and technology to uncover the truth behind poison’s misleading symptoms.

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Put Those Bombs Away: Forensic Science Cracks Fire and Explosives

By Giancarlo Riotto and John Meyers

“The pictures of airplanes flying into buildings, fires burning, huge structures collapsing, have filled us with disbelief, terrible sadness, and a quiet, unyielding, anger.”

—President George W. Bush, September 11, 2001

For many Americans, the images of September 11th are indelibly etched into our minds; these images are a testimony to the international animosity towards the United States, a new threat of domestic terrorism, and the destructive power of fire and explosives. Unlike crimes committed by virtually any other means, fires and explosions are capable of reducing sizeable structures to piles of rubble, from which the prospect of extracting useful evidence seems especially daunting. To the general public, the prospect of criminals who commit fire-related crimes walking free is frightening. David Owen’s book Hidden Evidence can help to manage these fears by presenting the means by which forensic science can solve the mysteries behind even the most horrific fires and explosions. In his text, Owen details modern-day scientific techniques used by forensic investigators to obtain evidence from scenes of debris, evidence that is often microscopic and thus invisible to the naked eye. This evidence is most often indisputable and conclusive. Furthermore, Owen notes that such evidence can then be employed to create careful reconstructions of burnt or destroyed structures, assisting investigators in understanding the intricacies of the crime and thereby solving the case. The rhetoric of “scientific perfection” present in Owen’s narrative was over fifty years prominent in true crime and detective fiction. In The Origins of the American Detective Story, professor Leroy Panek evokes the trial testimony of an expert scientist in George Allan England’s The Greater Crime. According to the scientist, “science knows neither good nor evil. She knows only facts. Not criminal has yet been able to commit a crime without leaving certain traces which the eye of science can detect” (Panek 74). Owen presents a world where even the most ingenious twenty-first century terrorist, therefore, will be hard-pressed to evade justice after committing a crime. Forensic science thus serves as a powerful source of comfort to a society that feels perpetually threatened by the possibility of fires and explosions; individuals can take solace in the fact valuable evidence will nearly always be present at the scene of a terrorist attack.

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One Out Of Millions

Authors: Adam Flur and Alex Harmon

Human development has led to many changes and developments in technology, medicine, and other fields, but one thing has remained constant through all these advancements: crime.  From the Old West outlaws like Jesse James to the urban gangsters like Al Capone to the modern day criminals like Bernie Madoff, crime stories fill our newspapers, novels, and television screens.  While law-breaking acts and villains endure, crime investigation and solution has evolved due in part to new advancements in forensic science.  Scientific journalist David Owen describes this evolution in his book, Hidden Evidence.  He examines different aspects of modern crime and the processes of identification within the chapters, including case studies at the end of the section. Specifically, among the final chapters of the book is “DNA: The Ultimate Identifier?”  In this section, Owen organizes the text and images to give a historical background and display the development of this type of forensic evidence into both a unique and wholly specific method.  The focus of the writing and images along with the specific case studies portray the importance and usefulness of DNA analysis to the readers.  LeRoy Panek, an english professor at McDaniel College, proclaims that “what the turn of the century public wanted was . . . for science to eradicate, or, at the very least, infallibly and inevitably detect crime” (74).  The public finds its resolution in DNA.

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