THE MYTH OF CSI

Click here to see my opinion piece in The Boston Globe about the myth and reality of our nation’s CSI labs. Cited by The Atlantic as one of its “5 Best Wednesday Columns” here.

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FIVE CRIME-RELATED HOT-BUTTON ISSUES IN THE 1890s THAT ARE STILL HOT TODAY

The forensic pioneers in The Killer of Little Shepherds confronted issues that could easily have jumped from today’s headlines: 1) CONFESSIONS BY TORTURE: The first generation of modern criminologists, in the 1880’s and 90’s studied interrogation techniques, and found that torture was useless. Hans Gross, the great Austrian criminologist, wrote that people subjected to torture…

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CSI GONE WRONG

We all know that the CSI television shows bear little resemblance to reality. Real-life medical examiners don’t go into the field, don’t confront and intimidate suspects, don’t comfort grieving relatives, don’t carry guns…and don’t wear designer clothes to the office. They don’t wrap up their cases in an hour. And they don’t solve every case.…

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