Truth Machine

by Lynch, Michael; Cole, Simon; McNally, Ruth; Jordan, Kathleen

• ISBN13: 9780226498065
• ISBN10: 0226498069
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-12-01
• Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr

Summary

DNA profilingcommonly known as DNA fingerprintingis 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 errorin sample collection, forensic analysis, and clerical record keepingas any other aspect of criminal justice practice. Truth Machinetraces 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 Machinepresents compelling evidence of the obstacles and opportunities at the intersection of science, technology, sociology, and law.

Author Biography

Ruth McNally is a senior research fellow at the Centre for Economic and Social Aspects of Genomics at Lancaster University.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. xix
A Revolution in Forensic Science?	p. 1
DNA Profiling Techniques	p. 24
A Techno-Legal Controversy	p. 39
Admissibility, Controversy, and Judicial Metascience	p. 69
Molecular Biology and the Dispersion of Technique	p. 83
Chains of Custody and Administrative Objectivity	p. 113
The U.K. National DNA Database	p. 142
Deconstructing Probability in the Case R. v. Deen	p. 155
Bayesians, Frequentists, and the DNA Database Search Controversy	p. 183
Science, Common Sense, and DNA Evidence	p. 190
Fixing Controversy, Performing Closure	p. 220
Postclosure	p. 256
Fingerprinting and Probability	p. 293
Fingerprinting: An Inversion of Credibility	p. 302
Finality?	p. 335
Cases	p. 347
References	p. 349
Index	p. 379
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