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Forensic Magazine
Forensic Magazine
Forensic Magazine is among today's leading trade publications focusing exclusively on the field of forensics. Published 6 times a year, it has been hailed by industry experts as an authoritative, trusted publication. Designed to help forensics specialists keep current with today's demands, each issue features valuable trade tips, invigorating articles and more.

Forensic Magazine
  • New Alaskan Crime Lab Could Combat Cold Cases
    Officials say until the new state crime lab gets built more and more cases go cold every day. The Alaska Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory processes 6 times more DNA evidence from violent crimes than any other publicly funded crime lab in the nation.


  • Twin Murder Case Highlights Importance of Fingerprints
    In a justice system that often relies heavily on high-tech DNA testing, it was fingerprinting that succeeded where DNA failed in the case of a murder in which a man was nearly convicted for a crime his identical twin committed.


  • Detroit Crime Lab Closure Backlogged Michigan’s Justice System
    The closure of the Detroit Police crime lab two years ago is adding to heavy backlogs of forensic evidence at labs across the state, causing the justice system in Michigan to "grind to a halt," prosecutors and other law enforcement officials told a House panel.


  • "John Doe" Indictment Leads to Arrest
    The DNA profile charged in a 2004 “John Doe” indictment lead to an arrest for two rapes in Queens. The DNA profile was linked to Mauricio Rosales, 32, after he pled guilty in November to stealing more than $3,000 from a former employer.


  • Tool Mark Impressions
    The following describes a modified technique for obtaining tool mark impressions utilizing polyvinylsiloxane impression material. The techniques described have been successfully utilized by investigators with the Canyon County Sheriff’s Office Forensic Services Team in Caldwell, Idaho.


  • Firebombed Scottish Forensic Lab Leads to Delays
    A firebomb attack in Edinburgh at one of Scotland’s four forensic science laboratories is suspected to be an attempt to destroy evidence. Although no evidence has been lost, legal experts said that delays in reopening the facility could hold up trials.


  • Videoconferencing Brings Students to the Crime Lab
    A Montana program is allowing high school students a view into forensic science using videoconferencing to bring them into the crime lab in a non-disruptive way.


  • UCLA Professors Study Fingerprint Error Rates
    UCLA School of Law professor Jennifer Mnookin is working on a project that will establish a scientific method to quantify the accuracy and error rates of latent fingerprint examination, one of the most widely used forensic disciplines.


  • Arrestee DNA on Trial: Injunction Denied
    The American Civil Liberties Union filed a class action law suit in California challenging the implementation of arrestee DNA database legislation. As part of their strategy, the ACLU filed for a preliminary injunction. Fortunately for many potential victims, the Federal judge denied the injunction.


  • Proposed Body Farm Spurs Controversy
    Mesa State College's plan to place a forensic body farm near a growing residential neighborhood has upset residents who fear they'll be close to odors and disease.


  • Georgia Fights to Save Crime Lab
    South Georgia lawmakers say they're working to find money in the state budget to save the crime lab in Moultrie, but that's an uphill battle. Law enforcers say if the GBI closes the lab next month as planned, it will hamper their investigations.


  • Forensic Sculptor Puts Face to Murdered Child
    Forensic sculptor Frank Bender who has made a career of helping police solve crimes by shaping in clay the faces of unidentified murder victims, has just unveiled his final sculpture. Police hope this detailed sculpture of a young boy may identify him where a forensic sketch was previously unsuccessful.


  • Mandatory Rape Kit Testing In Illinois?
    New legislation being drafted in Illinois may require that every rape kit be submitted for testing and require processing within six months. If the legislation passes, already backlogged crime labs could be flooded by an estimated 4,000 rape kits currently in storage.


  • Forensic Anthropologists Study Decomposition
    A University of Maine associate anthropology professor is studying the decay of pig carcasses in various weather and soil conditions. The project aims at getting better data on the changes regional conditions cause in human body decay.


  • Use of Family DNA to ID Suspects Debated
    A growing number of law enforcement agencies nationwide are considering allowing the use of familial DNA to pursue suspects. Critics claim the practice amounts to guilt by association.


  • Survey Raises Questions on NYPD Crime Data
    More than a hundred retired New York Police Department captains and higher-ranking officers said in a survey that the intense pressure to produce annual crime reductions led some supervisors and precinct commanders to manipulate crime statistics, according to two criminologists studying the department.


  • Iris Database Comes to Western Kentucky
    The Daviess County Sheriff's Office has been awarded a grant from the National Sheriff's Association, becoming the first in Kentucky to become part of the Iris Biometric System, a national database of iris scans.


  • Are Exonerations Undermining Forensic Science?
    A recent article released by the Institute for the Advancement of Criminal Justice journal argues that the work of groups working to exonerate wrongfully accused inmates is a form of “DNA activism” that introduces a potentially catastrophic form of “contextual contamination” to post-conviction proceedings unjustly calling forensic science into question.


  • The Safety Guys on Effective Safety Training
    I will wager that all of us have had to attend an after lunch training session at some point. Or, worse yet, had to give the presentation to a room full of nodding heads. Continue reading to learn how to develop training that will keep your attendees interested and focused.


  • California Supreme Court OKs John Doe Warrants Based On Crime-Scene DNA
    The California Supreme Court ruled 5-2 today that prosecutors may get around legal deadlines by filing arrest warrants based on DNA left behind at a crime.


  • Texas Forensics Panel Dodges Discussion of Controversial Execution


  • Evidence on Hold
    DNA samples, fingerprints, and rape kits wait months as Connecticut state crime lab struggles with backlogs.


  • LAPD to Hire More DNA Analysts
    The mayor and City Council plan to eliminate a backlog of untested rape evidence. But available funds will allow the hiring of just 11 staffers, not the 26 originally sought.


  • Policing the Crime Labs
    Though the work is reliable in the vast majority of cases, forensic laboratories and their results are not flawless critics say. Recent incidents raise the question: Who polices the labs the police use?


  • Stimulus-Funded DNA Work Clearing Cases, Cutting Backlog


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