In this new edition of Criminalistics, the noted forensic scientist Richard Saferstein brings the reader into the crime lab for a firsthand look at the role of science in the criminal justice system.

Criminalistics focuses its attention on the up-to-date technologies police rely on to apprehend criminal perpetrators and to link them through trace evidence to crime scenes. This new edition emphasizes the latest DNA profiling technologies, which include STR and mitochondrial DNA. The book details how the creation of a new nationwide DNA data bank has been designed to apprehend the mobile criminal. Today, the ability to detect less than one-billionth of a gram of DNA means that forensic scientists can extract critical information at crime scenes from stamps and envelopes licked with saliva, a cup or can that has come in contact with a person's lips, chewing gum, the sweat band of a hat, or a bed sheet containing an individual's skin cells.

As forensic science enters the new millennium, the impact of the digital revolution has led to the development of data banks for fingerprints, fired bullets, hair, paint, and shoeprints. This updated revision of Criminalistics emphasizes the new high-tech advances being made in crime scene investigation, as well as in arson and explosion investigation. A major portion of the text is devoted to how common items of physical evidence are located at crime scenes, processed in the crime lab, and preserved for presentation in the courtroom.

Like all facets of modern life, the Internet has touched forensic science. This new edition introduces the reader to basic concepts of Internet use and encourages exploration of the latest websites particularly relevant to forensic science and criminal investigation.

In addition to this book's comprehensive coverage of forensic science, a newly revised laboratory manual has been separately designed to supplement this edition.