Blood, Powder, and Residue cover art

Blood, Powder, and Residue

How Crime Labs Translate Evidence into Proof

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Blood, Powder, and Residue

By: Beth A. Bechky
Narrated by: Emily Durante
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About this listen

Blood, Powder, and Residue goes inside a metropolitan crime laboratory to shed light on the complex social forces that underlie the analysis of forensic evidence.

Drawing on 18 months of rigorous fieldwork in a crime lab of a major metro area, Beth Bechky tells the stories of the forensic scientists who struggle to deliver unbiased science while under intense pressure from adversarial lawyers, escalating standards of evidence, and critical public scrutiny. Bechky brings to life the daily challenges these scientists face, from the painstaking screening and testing of evidence to making communal decisions about writing up the lab report, all while worrying about attorneys asking them uninformed questions in court. She shows how the work of forensic scientists is fraught with the tensions of serving justice - constantly having to anticipate the expectations of the world of law and the assumptions of the public - while also staying true to their scientific ideals.

Blood, Powder, and Residue offers a vivid and sometimes harrowing picture of the lives of highly trained experts tasked with translating their knowledge for others who depend on it to deliver justice.

©2020 Princeton University Press (P)2021 Tantor Social Sciences Sociology Violence in Society Crime Forensics

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All stars
Most relevant
Unless you're actually thinking of studying this subject to work in a crime lab, you might want to find something else to listen to.
Firstly the narrator was very monotonous which probably made the book less interesting that it actually was.
Secondly, it's more of an audio text book...there's no story, no life....no interest?
As I said, you are seriously into the subject, great, you'll probably love this (but maybe buy the hard copy to swerve the narrator)but if you just have an interest stirred up by TV shows and other lighter weight books on the subject (me!) you'll find this quite a drag.
Sorry to be negative!

Whew ... that was hard work

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Great for falling asleep to at night. Narrator sounds like one of those robot voices for people who have lost their power of speech. Sorry. Shame, as content possibly quite interesting, though who knows?

Terrible narrator

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Very dry. Narrator monotone. Was hoping it would link it to cases to illustrate how forensics were involved.

Sorry can't recommend

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