Customer Reviews

Suspicious Death Scene Investigation

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Edited by 2 respected practicing forensic pathologists, this is the first text to concentrate on the investigation of scenes of suspicious deaths. Over the course of 182 pages, the authors take the reader through the general principles of death scene examination, as well as introducing the reader to the roles of the pathologist, the forensic medical examiner, and various forensic scientists at the scene. Of particular interest was the Chapter on the role of the forensic entomologist, with a fascinating overview of the role of insect evidence at a death scene. The second part of the book reviews the salient points of the most common death scenes encountered - those involving firearms, fires and explosions, children, asphyxia and a catch-all chapter including deaths due to falls and knife wounds etc. These chapters offer the student a well needed overview of the most important factors to consider at these death scenes, and I think that the guidance given by the authors would be well received by trainee pathologists and forensic medical examiners as well. The practical value of the examples given is immense, and keeps the reader interested, as they can relate the theoretical aspects of the text with actual cases encountered by the authors. A minor criticism of this approach, which held tru for the earlier editions of Prof. Keith Simpson's textbook (now edited by Prof. Bernard Knight, and totally overhauled in terms of style) is that the illustrative cases are interesting, and one only gets a snippet of them, rather than a more in depth review of their facts and findings. One of the things that kept me interested in studying law was the continual reference to decided cases, and the presentation of the facts of those cases, along with commentary from the deciding judges etc, which put the facts of the case into perspective. I would therefore have liked to have seen more made of the practical examples given, with a more in depth consideration of the facts of those cases and more of an interpretation of those facts. Watching a respected pathologist unpick the facts of a case from photographs taken at a death scene and post-mortem is fascinating, and I would have thought that the authors of this text would be able to provide the reader with examples of their forensic abilities in more grandiose style than is allowed for in this text. In order to illustrate the theoretical principles of death scene investigation, for a variety of suspicious death types, many black and white photographs are presented throughout. A general criticism that I have of many forensic textbooks, is that there is an over reliance on black and white prints. In order to fully appreciate the details of the scene, particularly those involving bloodstains, I would have thought that the use of colour prints would have been preferable. However, the issue is presumably one of cost, and at £50, any additional cost could well put this book out of the price range of most students. The use of line drawings in this book (due to the insistence of the police involved in a few of the cases chosen by the authors for this text) is again understandable in the circumstances, but detracts from the quality of the illustrations. Was it really necessary to retain those cases, or couldn't the authors have just chosen a few more instead, (where good quality prints were available) ? In their preface, the authors cite their main aim as 'to try to focus the reader's mind on the guiding principles of scene investigation, and to appreciate fully the teamwork approach that is essential for a successful outcome'. In my opinion they have succeeded in this aim admirably, and I have no doubt that this would be an essential text to those studying to be forensic pathologists or forensic medical examiners. I would also recommend it to those studying forensic science at undergraduate of postgraduate levels, and believe that the cover price is well worth it, despite the disapointing photographic illustrations.

Edited by 2 respected practicing forensic pathologists, this is the first text to concentrate on the investigation of scenes of suspicious deaths. Over the course of 182 pages, the authors take the reader through the general principles of death scene examination, as well as introducing the reader to the roles of the pathologist, the forensic medical examiner, and various forensic scientists at the scene. Of particular interest was the Chapter on the role of the forensic entomologist, with a fascinating overview of the role of insect evidence at a death scene. The second part of the book reviews the salient points of the most common death scenes encountered - those involving firearms, fires and explosions, children, asphyxia and a catch-all chapter including deaths due to falls and knife wounds etc. These chapters offer the student a well needed overview of the most important factors to consider at these death scenes, and I think that the guidance given by the authors would be well received by trainee pathologists and forensic medical examiners as well. The practical value of the examples given is immense, and keeps the reader interested, as they can relate the theoretical aspects of the text with actual cases encountered by the authors.

In order to illustrate the theoretical principles of death scene investigation, for a variety of suspicious death types, many black and white photographs are presented throughout. A general criticism that I have of many forensic textbooks, is that there is an over reliance on black and white prints. In order to fully appreciate the details of the scene, particularly those involving bloodstains, I would have thought that the use of colour prints would have been preferable. However, the issue is presumably one of cost, and at £50, any additional cost could well put this book out of the price range of most students.

In their preface, the authors cite their main aim as 'to try to focus the reader's mind on the guiding principles of scene investigation, and to appreciate fully the teamwork approach that is essential for a successful outcome'. In my opinion they have succeeded in this aim admirably, and I have no doubt that this would be an essential text to those studying to be forensic pathologists or forensic medical examiners. I would also recommend it to those studying forensic science at undergraduate of postgraduate levels, and believe that the cover price is well worth it, despite the disapointing photographic illustrations.