NCJ Number
244821
Date Published
February 2010
Length
513 pages
Annotation
This report on the proceedings of the 2010 Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences encompasses the special sessions, seminars, workshops, and the 12 scientific sessions.
Abstract
The special sessions reviewed critiques of the forensic sciences and their scientific reliability, accompanied by recommendations for improving the consistency and reliability of forensic science practices. The breakfast seminars addressed the myth of the "child sexual abuse accommodation syndrome" and its misuse in the courts, a perspective on courtroom forensic science misadventures and how to survive them, an evaluation model of "cold" case investigations, battlefield forensics, a case of sexually motivated murder, management of a mass disaster, and other case studies presented for instructional purposes. Luncheon seminars focused on how the "tiniest scintilla" of physical evidence has helped to convict killers as well as answers for difficult forensic science issues. Among the workshop topics were the assessment and interpretation of toxicology in neonatal, pediatric, and geriatric deaths; tools for controlling cognitive biases in casework; the recognition, detection, and significance of gunshot residues; determining the manner of death in equivocal death investigations; forensic tools used to reconstruct death scenes; forensic applications of Raman spectroscopy; signature examination; and advances in forensic DNA analysis. The scientific sessions addressed issues in criminalistics, digital and multimedia sciences, engineering sciences, general forensic science, jurisprudence, odontology, pathology/biology, physical anthropology, psychiatry and behavioral science, questioned documents, toxicology, and a session on the resolution of various questions in forensic science. Indexes pertain to financial disclosure, key words, and presenting authors.