Why read Murder and the Making of English CSI?

Book cover of Murder and the Making of English CSI

Book description

Crime scene investigation-or CSI-has captured the modern imagination. On television screens and in newspapers, we follow the exploits of forensic officers wearing protective suits and working behind police tape to identify and secure physical evidence for laboratory analysis. But where did this ensemble of investigative specialists and scientific techniques come…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Murder and the Making of English CSI as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Katherine D. Watson

Author

This is an important resource for anyone interested in the history of twentieth-century forensic practice, because it explains the rise of forensic science as a discipline separate from forensic medicine. Forensic scientists, based in laboratories, analyse trace evidence found at crime scenes, while forensic pathologists focus on the dead body in the mortuary. An analysis of the 1953 serial murders committed by John Christie at his infamous London address, 10 Rillington Place, shows how murder investigations had by then become team efforts centred on the crime scene itself.

From Katherine's list on The best books on the history of forensic medicine.