The testimony of an expert witness can lead to success or failure in cases that hinge on the presentation’s impact on a jury. Effective Expert Witnessing, Fifth Edition: Practices for the 21st Century explores the fundamentals of litigation, trial preparation, courtroom presentation, and the business of expert witnessing. Extensively updated to reflect new developments since the last edition, it provides practical advice enabling expert witnesses and attorneys to maximize ...

First Published in 2004: Effective Expert Witnessing, Fourth Edition broadens the scope of previous editions by featuring case studies and examples from a wide range of disciplines including psychology, medicine, forensics, toxicology, engineering, and environmental science. It presents legal survival strategies needed by expert witnesses in all fields by addressing the impact of the recent rulings regarding expert testimony.

How about creating an industry that emits no poisons into the environment? Direct action eco-heroine Diane Wilson has used civil disobedience to fight such chemical giants as Union Carbide and DuPont. She tried to sink her shrimp boat on a Formosa Plastics toxic effluent pipe and won a zero discharge agreement.

Have you ever wondered whether the forensic science you’ve seen on TV is anything like the real thing? There’s no better way to find out than to roll up your sleeves and do it yourself. This full-color book offers advice for setting up an inexpensive home lab, and includes more than 50 hands-on lab sessions that deal with forensic science experiments in biology, chemistry, and physics. You’ll learn the practical skills and fundamental knowledge needed to pursue forensics as a lifelong hobb...

In recent years, the lifecourse perspective has become a popular theoretical orientation toward crime. Yet despite its growing importance in the field of criminology, most textbooks give it only cursory treatment. Crime and the Lifecourse: An Introduction by Michael L. Benson provides a comprehensive overview of contemporary research and theory on the life-course approach to crime. The book emphasizes a conceptual understanding of this approach. A special feature is the integratio...

When police are called in to investigate a crime, what powers and limitations apply to them? What are their rights to question strangers, search without warrants, or detain individuals who might become suspects? Crime Scene Investigations breaks down the Supreme Court's decisions on questions like these into clear and practical terms.Police need to be vigilant, since the line between a lawful search and an improper one can be dangerously thin, and officers can be held accou...

The adversary system of trial, the defining feature of the Anglo-American legal procedure, developed late in English legal history. For centuries defendants were forbidden to have legal counsel, and lawyers seldom appeared for the prosecution either. Trial was meant to be an occasion for the defendant to answer the charges in person. The transformation from lawyer-free to lawyer-dominated criminal trial happened within the space of about a century, from the 1690's to the 1780's. This book ...

Want to add blood to your scenes without making a mess? Too many authors get squeamish or sloppy about including the red stuff in their stories. This research guide presents an accurate and accessible gateway into the world of blood spatter and its analysis.Written as a resource for the professional author, this “Forensics for Fiction” title provides user-friendly approaches to realistic details by covering:¤ Terms and techniques of spatter analysis¤ Pattern...

Death Penalty Cases presents significant verbatim excerpts of death-penalty decisions from the United States Supreme Court. The first chapter introduces the topics discussed throughout the book. It also includes a detailed history of the death penalty in the United States. After this introduction, the remaining eighteen chapters are divided into five parts: Foundational Cases, Death-Eligible Crimes and Persons, The Death Penalty Trial, Post-Conviction Review, and Execution Issues. The firs...

In this book, 78 leading attorneys in California and New York describe how they evaluate, negotiate and resolve litigation cases. Selected for their demonstrated skill in predicting trial outcomes and knowing when cases should be settled or taken to trial, these attorneys identify the key factors in case evaluation and share successful strategies in pre-trial discovery, negotiation, mediation, and trials. Integrating law and psychology, the book shows how skilled attorneys mentally frame c...

Want to create believable crime scenes and establish the facts that crack your case? Too many authors cut corners or ignore procedure when finding the evidence in their stories. This guide offers an accurate and accessible overview of crime scenes and the investigative process.Written as a practical reference for authors in any genre, this helpful “Forensics for Fiction” title unpacks a range of authentic details:¤ Terms and techniques associated with crime scenes.

Forensic Science in Court explores the legal implications of forensic science—an increasingly important and complex part of the justice system. Judge Donald Shelton provides an accessible overview of the legal aissues, from the history of evidence in court, to "gatekeeper" judges determining what evidence can be allowed, to the "CSI effect" in juries.The book describes and evaluates various kinds of evidence, including DNA, fingerprints, handwriting, hair, bite marks, tool marks, f...