Forensic Social

Weaving together historical examples, scientific studies, and compelling court cases - from the border collie put on trial in Kentucky to the five teenagers who falsely confessed in the Central Park Jogger case - Benforado shows how our judicial processes fail to uphold our values and protect society's weakest members. With clarity and passion, he lays out the scope of the problem and proposes a wealth of reforms that could prevent injustice and help us achieve true fairness and equality before the law.

Serial killers haunt our dreams and inspire the terrifying villains of TV shows and horror movies. But how much do you really know about the minds behind the world's deadliest killers? What drives these murderers to kill and kill again? And what fuels our fascination with the true stories of their horrific crimes? Dr. Joni E. Johnston brings you the answers to these questions and more! Serial Killers: 101 Questions True Crime Fans Ask dives into the case files of the most infamous murderers in history, and answers the questions true crime fans have been dying to ask.

Betty Williams was an outsider at a time when conformity was king: Texas in the 1960s. Mack Herring was the quintessential football player, handsome and well-liked by the sweater set-wearing girls Betty scoffed at. When their unlikely relationship came to an end and Betty's life began to spiral, she asked for death and Mack was more than happy to oblige. The resulting trial of Betty Williams' murder would shock no one familiar with the resolutions of today's rape cases.

The murder of Sarah Payne, Adam the Thames Torso, the London bombings, the Night Stalker and the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko. The solving of all these cases can be linked to one man: Ray Fysh, a beer-swigging Charlton Athletic fan from Woolwich, a natural raconteur, and also one of the finest forensic detectives the country has ever seen. Ray began work for the Met Police in the 1970s when forensic investigation was seen as little more than a geeky side show, only in existence to confirm or eliminate evidence. But by the mid '90s Ray and his team had made huge progress in their field.

As a medical detective of the modern world, forensic pathologist Ryan Blumenthal’s chief goal is to bring perpetrators to justice. He has performed thousands of autopsies, which have helped bring numerous criminals to book. In Autopsy he covers the hard lessons learnt as a rookie pathologist, as well as some of the most unusual cases he’s encountered. During his career, for example, he has dealt with high-profile deaths, mass disasters, death by lightning and people killed by African wildlife.

On an April night in 1989, Jo Ann Parks survived a house fire that claimed the lives of her three small children. Though the fire at first seemed a tragic accident, investigators soon reported finding evidence proving that Parks had sabotaged wiring, set several fires herself, and even barricaded her four-year-old son inside a closet to prevent his escape. Though she insisted she did nothing wrong, Jo Ann Parks received a life sentence without parole based on the power of forensic fire science that convincingly proved her guilt. Now, that evidence is being called into question....

From the Roaring '20s to the 1970s, detectives reigned supreme in police departments across the country. In this tightly woven slice of true crime reportage, Thomas A. Reppetto offers a behind-the-scenes look into some of the most notable investigations to occur during the golden age of the detective in American criminal justice.

Dr. Michael Baden has been involved in some of the most high-profile civil rights and police brutality cases in United States history, from the government's 1976 re-investigation of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., to the 2014 death of Michael Brown, whose case sparked the initial Ferguson protests that grew into the Black Lives Matter movement. The playbook hasn't changed since 1979, when Dr. Baden was demoted from his job as New York City's Chief Medical Examiner after ruling that the death of a Black man in police custody was a homicide.

The most remarkable weapon in the fight against crime, forensic science turns bullet trajectories, bodily fluids, and the very structure of our DNA into damning witnesses of our every act. Packed with examples from real-life cases, this Beginner Guide covers all major areas of forensic science, including drugs, trace evidence, and crime scene investigation. Pathology, anthropology, and the laws that govern this evidence all come under the scalpel as Jay Siegel tracks the journey of evidence from crime scene to courtroom

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. 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.

Terrifying things are happening to Kay Weden, a 40-something single mom and high school teacher in Salisbury, North Carolina. Despite having no known enemies, Kay's home, car, and peace of mind are under attack throughout 1993. Most chilling of all are the senseless attacks on her only son and the shot fired in the night through a wall of her house, which narrowly misses his head as he sleeps.

Any murder causes pain and suffering that ripple through families and communities - of both the victims and the perpetrators - but premeditated murders cause the worst kind of damage. The Allure of Premeditated Murder is about the worst kinds of premeditated homicide in which the perpetrator plans an attack over a period of days, weeks, or months, leaving behind massive carnage and unspeakable suffering. Drawing on extensive research and interviews with murderers, sociologists Jack Levin and Julie B. Wiest help listeners understand why such vicious murders occur.

A tragic death, a murder trial and a 170-year-old mystery - but what really happened? Shortly after Maria Kirwan died in a lonely inlet on Ireland’s Eye, it was decided that she had drowned accidentally during a day spent with her husband on the picturesque island. This inquest verdict appeared to conclude the melancholy events that consumed the fishing village of Howth, Co Dublin, in September 1852.

Nahlah Saimeh weiß, dass aus scheinbar "normalen" Menschen Mörder werden können, dass die Anlage zur Gewalt in jedem steckt, und was das für eine immer brutaler werdende Gesellschaft bedeutet. Als forensische Psychiaterin kennt die Autorin die verschiedensten Arten von Gewalt. In faszinierenden Fallbeispielen spannt sie den Bogen von Gewalt im sozialen Umfeld bis zu Gewalt und Terror im öffentlichen Raum und regt jeden dazu an, sich zu fragen, wo er selbst steht.

In this Very Short Introduction audiobook, Jim Fraser introduces the concept of forensic science and explains how it is used in the investigation of crime.

Ein Mann lebt seine sexuellen Fantasien auf grausame Weise an Frauen aus. Zuletzt tötet er eines seiner Opfer. Nach einem Vierteljahrhundert hinter Gittern soll er wieder auf freien Fuß gesetzt werden. Seine Entlassung hängt auch von der Einschätzung seiner Psychologin ab: Wird der Mann in Freiheit strafrückfällig? Als Psychologin in der Sicherungsverwahrung einer JVA hatte Gilda Giebel täglich mit höchst gefährlichen Straftätern zu tun.

Dank Hollywood gilt Hannibal Lecter als Inbegriff des infernalischen Serienmörders. Doch wer sind diese Täter in der Wirklichkeit? Der Kriminalexperte Stephan Harbort hat zahlreiche von ihnen in ihren Hochsicherheitszellen besucht und interviewt, um Motivation, Tathergang und Täterprofil zu erforschen. Er befasste sich mit allen 75 deutschen Serienmördern seit 1945 - eine aufschlussreiche und schockierende Dokumentation, aus der man viel über die Psyche solcher Täter erfährt.

Warum ist der Mensch böse? Die Kriminalpsychologin und Bestsellerautorin Julia Shaw leuchtet die Abgründe unserer Psyche aus. Von Psychopathen wie Charles Manson oder Serienmördern wie Jack the Ripper geht eine unheimliche Faszination aus. Doch woher kommt sie? Und warum verdrängen wir so gern das alltäglichere Böse - von den eigenen Gewaltphantasien bis zum Machtmissbrauch im Büro? Die Kriminalpsychologin und Bestsellerautorin Julia Shaw taucht das Phänomen des Bösen in neues Licht. Shaw sucht und findet das Böse nicht nur in den Gehirnen von Massenmördern, sondern in jedem von uns.

The Secrets of the FBI by New York Times best-selling author Ronald Kessler reveals the FBIs most closely guarded secrets and the secrets of celebrities, politicians, and movie stars uncovered by agents during their investigations.

On July 27, 1996, a hapless former cop turned hypervigilant security guard named Richard Jewell spotted a suspicious bag in Atlanta’s Centennial Olympic Park, the town square of the 1996 Summer Games. Inside was a bomb, the largest of its kind in FBI and ATF history. Minutes later, the bomb remotely detonated by the attacker amid a crowd of 50,000 people. But thanks to Jewell, it only killed two and wounded 111, not the hundreds who authorities estimated could have otherwise died. With the eyes of the world on Atlanta, the games continued.