Beyond the Crime Lab: The New Science of Investigation

by Jon Zonderman

A fascinating look at the scientific and technical aspects of modern criminal investigation--packed with case histories taken from police and FBI files. Written in a fast-paced, hard-news style by a seasoned reporter formerly with The New York Times . Discussed here are a wide variety of novel techniques including genetic fingerprinting, the criminal profiling of serial killers and rapists, new techniques of surveillance and the use of artificial intelligence in the investigation of organized crime. Includes thoughtful discussion of the ethical controversies and constitutional issues of law raised by these modern tools of criminal investigation.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction

224 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1990

Reviews

[Andrew Nutt · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this book, it goes over the science of forensic science, which is the science of fingerprinting and collecting data off of the crime scene. This book goes over many stories and examples of how forensic science is important. It shows in different crimes how the scientists work and figure out what happened. In one of the examples, it talks about a bunch of bodies started to show up around the world, and forensic scientists identified each and every single person that died. In another example, there was a military plane crash and they found the bodies of the people on the plane. All that was left were their skeletons. Forensic scientists used their teeth to identify the soldiers based on their dental records.
I would recommend this book to people that like to read about interesting things and people who are interested in science because this was a really cool topic for me. There are some dry parts though because they do get VERY specific, but overall it was a good book.

[Reilly Tebrugge · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read the book Beyond the Crime Lab: The New Science of Investigation by Jon Zonderman. This book was written for the purpose of telling readers how forensic science has advanced. He wanted to show readers how the science has changed from dusting for finger prints to DNA testing and being almost completely electronic. He proves his purpose by explaining all different theories and formulas that forensic investigators have come up with to solve almost anything. There's a formula on how to tell how tall and old someone is by only having one of their bones present.
The theme of this book would be advances in modern forensics. The author clearly states that many times and shows it throughout the whole entire book. He is trying to show that forensics has changed and is so much more than just what people think it is.
This book is written in a weird way. It's not really a certain type. The author tells of actual crime cases and then tells of scientists theories relating to how they helped solve the case. I guess it could be an exposition but I don't feel like it would qualify as one. The book is just talking about forensics and not really explaining it. I do not feel it has a definite style because it's oddly and confusingly formatted.
I hated this book. It was dreadfully boring and I felt like I trudged through it just so I could write this review. It was a tough book to understand because it was written in such an unclear way and it should definitely not be in the high school library. It is really unentertaining and even though it's about the career i want I just found it dull and stupid.

[Celsi May]

Book Review

I read the book Beyond the Crime Lab: The New Science of Investigation by Jon Zonderman.
This book was written for the purpose of telling readers how forensic science has advanced. He wanted to show readers how the science has changed from dusting for finger prints to DNA testing and being almost completely electronic.

He proves his purpose by explaining all different theories and formulas that forensic investigators have come up with to solve almost anything. There's a formula on how to tell how tall and old someone is by only having one of their bones present.

The theme of this book would be advances in modern forensics. The author clearly states that many times and shows it throughout the whole entire book. He is trying to show that forensics has changed and is so much more than just what people think it is.

This book is written in a weird way. It's not really a certain type. The author tells of actual crime cases and then tells of scientists theories relating to how they helped solve the case. I guess it could be an exposition but I don't feel like it would qualify as one. The book is just talking about forensics and not really explaining it. I do not feel it has a definite style because it's oddly and confusingly formatted.

I hated this book. It was dreadfully boring and I felt like I trudged through it just so I could write this review. It was a tough book to understand because it was written in such an unclear way and it should definitely not be in the high school library. It is really unentertaining and even though it's about the career I want I just found it dull and stupid.

[Garrett · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read the book Beyond the Crime Lab: The New Science of Investigation by Jon Zonderman.
This book was written to tell people how forensic science has advanced. He wanted to show readers how the science has changed from dusting for finger prints to DNA testing and being almost completely electronic.

He proves his point by explaining all different theories and formulas that forensic investigators have come up with to solve almost anything. There's a formula on how to tell how tall and old someone is by only having one of their bones.

The theme of this book would be advances in modern science and crime scene investigation. The author clearly states that many times and shows it throughout the whole entire book. He is trying to show that forensics has changed and is so much more than just what people think it is.

This book is written in a weird way. It's not really a certain type. The author tells of actual crime cases and then tells of scientists theories relating to how they helped solve the case. The book is just talking about forensics and not really explaining it. I do not feel it has a definite style because it's oddly and confusingly put together. It is somewhat like a documentary book, but also has a storyline to it.

In my opinion it was an okay book if your goal is information, but if you want to be entertained I think it isn't really that type of book, just more to inform and show that science for crime scene investigations and science overall has evolved from just looking for fingerprints.