Forensics and Justice

 by Paula Johanson

The news in Canada this summer is troubling, with stories of unmarked graves on the sites of former Indian Residential Schools. Searches are being done on other former school sites, and in the United States as well. The little that was ever taught in public schools about the Residential School system is not enough, and people are looking to learn more.

Forensics is the science of examining physical evidence. There can be a forensic audit of paperwork and records, but forensic science is commonly used to study physical evidence of a crime.

Here are some books on forensic science  which you can request at your public library, or order online. If you take this list to a library or bookstore, they will help you get a copy. There are other books as well available on this topic, and referenced in the back of these books.

Forensic Science: In Pursuit of Justice written by Sci/Why's own member L.E. Carmichael

ISBN:  ‎ 978-1624035616 Essential Library Publishing

https://www.amazon.ca/Forensic-Science-Pursuit-L-Carmichael/dp/1624035612/

This title presents the history of forensics. Vivid text details how early studies of toxic chemicals and firearm analysis led to modern scientific crime solving techniques. It also puts a spotlight on the brilliant scientists who made these advances possible. Useful sidebars, rich images, and a glossary help readers understand the science and its importance. Maps and diagrams provide context for critical discoveries in the field. Aligned to Common Core Standards and correlated to state standards. Essential Library is an imprint of Abdo Publishing.

 

Look on the author L.E. Carmichael's website at https://www.lecarmichael.ca/books/ and scroll down to find among covers for her many books, the covers for these books on forensics.

Forensics in the Real World by L.E. Carmichael

ISBN: 9781680784794

https://abdobooks.com/shop/show/9632 

 

Fuzzy Forensics: DNA Fingerprinting Gets Wild by L.E. Carmichael

ISBN:9780994817716

https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/fuzzy-forensics-dna-fingerprinting-gets/9780994817716-item.html

Focusing on forensic science to protect endangered animals, this book is winner of the 2014 Lane Anderson Award for exceptional children''s science writing. 

 

Discover Forensic Science by L.E. Carmichael

https://lernerbooks.com/shop/show/14712 

 

Bones Never Lie: How Forensics Help Solve History's Mysteries by Elizabeth MacLeod

ISBN: 978-1554514823 Annick Press

https://www.amazon.ca/Bones-Never-Lie-Forensics-Mysteries/dp/1554514827

This book collects seven mysteries about historic royal figures whose deaths were under suspicious circumstances. Hard scientific facts about crime-solving techniques make this book highly recommended by Sci/Why author L.E. Carmichael.

The Case of the Totally False Fingerprinting Propaganda

A few weeks back, Jan Thornhill wrote a post about accuracy in the era of the Internet. It got me thinking about the biggest fact-checking challenge I ever encountered as a children's writer - and how glad I was that someone caught the problem before it made it into print. Here's the story.

by L. E. Carmichael

The Industrial Revolution of the 19th century was responsible for more than just technological breakthroughs and the novels of Charles Dickens. It also caused a major spike in crime rates, as people moved from the countryside into the cities looking for work - and turned to crime when they couldn't find any.

Urbanization also made it harder to reliably identify repeat criminals. In small villages, everyone not only knew everyone, they knew with a high degree of certainty which of their neighbours was likely to blame for the local crime wave. Not so much in cities, where many people lived surrounded by strangers. Witness reports were often useless, because criminals wore masks or otherwise changed their appearances, and there was no such thing as photo ID. Many governments instituted harsher penalties for career criminals, but these penalties couldn't be applied without certainty that the suspect in custody was actually a repeat offender.

Enter Alphonse Bertillion. A file clerk with the Paris police, he was the fussy, meticulous son of a statistician, and he had a revolutionary idea. A criminal could change his hair cut or moustache or even his name, Bertillon believed, but he couldn't change his bones. Careful measurements of body dimensions, like the length of the finger or the long bone in the thigh, could be combined to produce a one-of-a kind profile - the first (Western) scientific basis for identifying human beings.

The Paris police took a while to come around to this idea, but in its first year of use, Bertillon's system, called anthropometry, identified 300 career criminals. By 1888, it was implemented in all French police stations and quickly spread around the world.

Until 1903, when a man named Will West was taken to Leavenworth Prison in Kansas and identified based on his measurements as a repeat offender. But West swore he'd never set foot in the prison before. By a bizarre coincidence, West's measurements perfectly matched those of William West - a man already imprisoned in Leavenworth! While the men did, in fact, bear a strong resemblance to each other, their fingerprints were completely different. This incident was one of the reasons fingerprinting replaced anthropometry as the standard method of legal identification.

Or was it?

When I was researching Forensic Science: In Pursuit of Justice, I came across this story in not one, but several of my reference books. Since it appeared well-verified and was the perfect anecdote to explain how fingerprinting came to dominate criminal identification, I included it in the initial draft of Chapter 6. Imagine my shock when the content consultant* for the book told me the entire incident was a myth.

A myth.

As Simon A. Cole explains in his book Suspect Identities (a volume the consultant kindly referred me to), the West story was carefully fabricated and cleverly circulated as a means of promoting fingerprinting as a superior alternative to anthropometry. And while fingerprinting ultimately replaced Bertillon's method due to its numerous advantages, this incident was not one of them.

For mysterious reasons, I had more "fact" trouble while researching Forensic Science that with any of my other books (excepting maybe Fox Talk, because some of the science in that book is both new and controversial). I have no idea why this subject matter in particular was so affected by conflicting sources and legend-as-truth, but it just goes to show that fact checking is one of the most important steps in writing new nonfiction - especially for young audiences, who may not have the broader context needed to be critical of what they read.

What about you? Do you have a favourite fact that turned out not to be true? 

Calling all Nova Scotian kids' book lovers! I, and many other amazing local authors, will be signing at the Celebrating Children's Literacy Book Fair. It's on Saturday, April 23, from 8:30-1:30pm, on the NSCC Kingstec Campus in Kentville. Come out and see us!

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* Content consultants are experts that review my books before publication - they help me ensure that no errors make it into the final draft.

Six Reasons (Science) Writers Should Be in Schools

by L. E. Carmichael

I attended junior high in Yellowknife, which is not the most isolated place in Canada, but definitely felt like it sometimes. Fortunately, the school library was huge, and offered a portal to endless worlds I couldn't visit in the flesh.

And then there was the time Sheree Fitch came to visit.

To this day, I vividly remember watching in awe as she recited parts of her work-in-progress to us - a work that later became There Were Monkeys in My Kitchen. It was the first time I'd really understood that the books I loved were written by actual human beings. From there, it was a very short leap to the notion that I could write books, too.

I was thinking about that moment yesterday as I stood in the library of Ridgecliff Middle School, waiting for the first class of grade 7s to file in for their author visit. I was also thinking, I am the author they are coming to see. How weird and awesome is that? And what an incredible gift, to be given the opportunity to inspire a child the way I was inspired so long ago.

That's me in the crime scene scarf. Several kids asked me where to buy one!

After four back-to-back renditions of my Forensic Science: Digging Into DNA presentation, I finished the day both exhausted and exhilarated. The kids were alert and engaged, asking great questions. When I told them that Alec Jeffreys, who discovered DNA fingerprinting, simulated crime scene stains by cutting himself and smearing his own blood around the lab for later testing, they were so caught up in discussing his scientific bad-assery, I had a hard time reigning them back in for the rest of the talk.

The librarian said she'd never seen the students so excited about an author visit. While I'd love to take the credit for that, the real reason for their response wasn't me - it was the science. Because science, as all Sci/Why readers know, is COOL.

Teacher and librarian friends, if you haven't considered bringing a science writer in to talk to your classes, here are my favourite reasons why you should think about it next time you book guest speakers:

• Science is cool (bears repeating!)
• Kids who say they don't like to read might just be kids who don't like fiction. Once those kids discover fact-based books, however, they can become some of the most avid readers around
• Science writers support both the Language Arts curriculum (because writing), and the science curriculum, making them a great bargain - two for the price of one!
• We can talk about research skills, too.
• With small classes, we can lead experiments
• Like any author, we can inspire kids to think about becoming writers. But the topics we present might also inspire them to become scientists. And how great would that be?

Check your provincial Writers in the Schools program, the CCBC Author Directory, or the Writer's Union's National Public Reading Program for listings of science writers who do presentations. If you can't afford speaking fees, most authors will be able to direct you to funding sources that will cover the cost of bringing a guest speaker into the classroom or library.

Your turn, fellow science writers - what great experiences have you had giving school presentations? Teachers and librarians, have you ever booked a science writer for a presentation? What impact did you notice on the kids?

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My forensics presentation is based on two of my books for junior high and high school readers - Forensic Science: In Pursuit of Justice, and Fuzzy Forensics: DNA Fingerprinting Gets Wild. I'm currently offering deep discounts on first-edition copies of Fuzzy Forensics for educational use. Check out my website and contact me for details.

Chimeras, Heterochromatism, and Halfsider Parakeets

by L. E. Carmichael

Cool bird, right? I did some research on chimerism while working on Fuzzy Forensics and Forensic Science: In Pursuit of Justice. A couple of different kinds have been found in humans. The type described in the video, where two embryos with different sets of DNA merge during early development, is thought to be the rarest. There's not a lot of data on chimeras in humans (and even less in animals), because the condition is undetectable unless it causes health problems... or, as in the CSI episode Bloodlines (S4E23), a criminal's blood and hair have different sets of chromosomes. Every forensic scientist's nightmare!

Coming back to the birds, though, there may be another explanation. I haven't done any research, so this is pure speculation. But the process of going from a single-celled embryo to a fully-formed animal with billions of cells involves (surprise!) cell division, the process whereby one cell produces two daughter cells. Each daughter cell has to have a complete set of DNA, meaning the chromosomes get copied billions of times. Occasionally, the copying machinery makes a mistake, and a gene mutates during development. Every cell that descends from that cell carries the mutation. In many cases, the mutation has no effect on the cell or its characteristics. But in other cases, the change in the DNA causes a detectable change - like the cell's colour. The most familiar example of this is heterochromatic eyes - one eye of each colour, or one eye with multiple colours, like one of my family's sheltie Deacon used to have.

Puppy Deacon - his eye was half blue, half brown

Sometimes, the mutation happens in a gene that's involved in cell determination - a gene that helps tell the cell whether it's going to be a liver cell or a lung cell or a hair cell. Or, in the case of this totally awesome tulip that grew in my yard one year, a leaf or a petal!

The same bulb produced an ordinary tulip the following year.  That's how you can tell that the mutation was not in the original "embryo," but happened during the plant's development.

Stuff like this is one of the reasons I spent 11 years in university studying genetics. DNA is just SO darn cool.

Thanks to Paula Morrow for the video! And for more about chimeras, check out one of my books on forensics.