THE LAWYER’S GUIDE TO THE FORENSIC SCIENCES (Irwin Law Books, 2016)

With 17 chapters on specific forensic disciplines, the LAWYER’S GUIDE has substantial value in its description of the analytical steps taken in each.  But the book suffers from ‘true believer’ syndrome, i.e. the belief that the discipline can make findings with exactitude and uniqueness, particularly when assessing subjective comparison fields such as bitemark, toolmark [firearms] and handwriting analysis, because the technical chapters are written by practitioners.  The disconnect is particularly vivid since a chapter on “Critically Examining the Forensic Sciences” emphasizes the limits of some of the disciplines.  What does it mean?  Read the book completely; otherwise there will inflated perceptions of what disciplines have validity and reliability and of how far their conclusions should reasonably be trusted and accepted.