Blood, Powder, and Residue, Beth A. Bechky
Blood, Powder, and Residue, Beth A. Bechky
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Blood, Powder, and Residue
How Crime Labs Translate Evidence into Proof

Author: Beth A. Bechky

Narrator: Emily Durante

Unabridged: 8 hr 19 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 01/19/2021


Synopsis

Blood, Powder, and Residue goes inside a metropolitan crime laboratory to shed light on the complex social forces that underlie the analysis of forensic evidence.

Drawing on eighteen months of rigorous fieldwork in a crime lab of a major metro area, Beth Bechky tells the stories of the forensic scientists who struggle to deliver unbiased science while under intense pressure from adversarial lawyers, escalating standards of evidence, and critical public scrutiny. Bechky brings to life the daily challenges these scientists face, from the painstaking screening and testing of evidence to making communal decisions about writing up the lab report, all while worrying about attorneys asking them uninformed questions in court. She shows how the work of forensic scientists is fraught with the tensions of serving justice—constantly having to anticipate the expectations of the world of law and the assumptions of the public—while also staying true to their scientific ideals.

Blood, Powder, and Residue offers a vivid and sometimes harrowing picture of the lives of highly trained experts tasked with translating their knowledge for others who depend on it to deliver justice.

About Beth A. Bechky

Beth A. Bechky is the Jacob B. Melnick Term Professor of Management and Organizations and professor of sociology at New York University. She lives in New York City.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Ravi

If you were planning to read this book to know the scientific and procedural methods to satisfy your nerdy curiosity, you'll be disappointed. This is a book not much about 'how crime labs translate evidence into proof', but about 'the work of criminalists and the general working and problems of the U......more

Goodreads review by Lauren

I found the information about the lab testing done on different samples really interesting, and was also interested in reading about the challenges criminalists face in our justice system. However, it felt very repetitive, and one sided, without expanding on or exploring how criminalists can be comp......more

Goodreads review by Daniel

This was a very informative but exceedingly dry read. It read like a technical review and did not engage the people involved in the work as fully developed people. It also was limited in its illustrations of case work. This may have been a function of privacy concerns.......more