| Description |
xxii, 391 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 349-378) and index. |
| Contents |
A revolution in forensic science? -- Interlude A : DNA profiling techniques -- A techno-legal controversy -- Interlude B : Admissibility, controversy, and judicial metascience -- Molecular biology and the dispersion of technique -- Chains of custody and administrative objectivity -- Interlude C : The U.K. National DNA Database -- Deconstructing probability in the case R. v. Deen -- Interlude D : Bayesians, frequentists, and the DNA database search controversy -- Science, common sense, and DNA evidence -- Fixing controversy, performing closure -- Postclosure -- Interlude E : Fingerprinting and probability -- Fingerprinting: an inversion of credibility -- Finality? |
| Summary |
DNA profiling-commonly known as DNA fingerprinting-is often heralded as unassailable criminal evidence, a veritable "truth machine" that can overturn convictions based on eyewitness testimony, confessions, and other forms of forensic evidence. But DNA evidence is far from infallible. It is subject to the same possibilities for error-in sample collection, forensic analysis, and clerical record keeping-as any other aspect of criminal justice practice. Truth Machine traces the controversial history of DNA fingerprinting by looking at court cases in the United States and United Kingdom beginning in the mid-1980s, when the practice was invented, and continuing until the present. Using interviews, observations of courtroom trials and laboratory processes, and documentary reconstruction, the authors provide a nuanced, theoretically sophisticated, and original ethnographic account of DNA fingerprinting and its evolution. Ultimately, Truth Machine presents compelling evidence of the obstacles and opportunities at the intersection of science, technology, sociology, and law.--From publisher information. |
| Form |
View table of contents on the Internet via the World Wide Web. |
| Subject |
DNA fingerprinting -- History.
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DNA fingerprinting. |
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History. |
| ISBN |
9780226498065 cloth alkaline paper |
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0226498069 cloth alkaline paper |
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