IsisCB Explore

Article ID: CBB001213339

Forensic Cultures in Historical Perspective: Technologies of Witness, Testimony, Judgment (and Justice?) (2013)

Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences
Volume: 44, no. 1
Issue: 1
Pages: 4-15

Publication Date: 2013
Edition Details: Lead article in a special issue, “Forensic Cultures”
Language: English

Outside Links

WorldCat

Google Scholar

JSTOR

Academia.edu

Forensic sciences Experience; witness Technology Technology and society Societies; institutions; academies Cross-national comparison 19th century

This article explores the history of forensic science in terms of ideologies and institutions rather than developing technique. It presents an analytical framework for characterising forensic institutions and practices, past and present. That framework highlights the distinct issues of means of witness, accredited testimony, and the reaching of juridical decisions. The article applies the framework by comparing four forensic `formations,' (or `cultures') which have been prominent at various times and places in the western world from the early modern period onward: these are the central European heritage of the Caroline code, a eugenically-oriented forensic enterprise of late nineteenth-century America, the forensic perspective in nineteenth-century British India, and the representation of forensic certainty in contemporary American popular culture. The article concludes with a critique of what seems an increasingly common expectation: that forensic science evolves independently of legal institutions, and can ultimately displace them.

...More

Description Contents:

Includes Series Articles

Article Burney, Ian (2013) Making Space for Criminalistics: Hans Gross and fin-de-siècle CSI. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences (pp. 16-25). unapi

Article Winter, Alison (2013) The Rise and Fall of Forensic Hypnosis. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences (pp. 26-35). unapi

Article Jermyn, Deborah (2013) Labs and Slabs: Television Crime Drama and the Quest for Forensic Realism. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences (pp. 103-109). unapi

Citation URI

https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001213339/

Citations Indexes

Similar Citations

Book Anton Howes; (2020)
Arts and Minds: How the Royal Society of Arts Changed a Nation (/isis/citation/CBB659886785/)

Book Anna Guagnini; Luca Molà; Ian Inkster; (2014)
History of Technology: Italian Technology from the Renaissance to the 20th Century (/isis/citation/CBB760863658/)

Article Anwer, Megha; (2014)
Murder in Black and White: Victorian Crime Scenes and the Ripper Photographs (/isis/citation/CBB001550341/)

Article Tampakis, Kostas; (2011)
The Unrecognized Mechanism: History of Science Education in the 19th Century (/isis/citation/CBB001220641/)

Article Stamhuis, Ida H.; (2007)
A Nineteenth-Century Statistical Society that Abandoned Statistics (/isis/citation/CBB000773207/)

Article Aldrich, John; (2010)
Tales of Two Societies---Paris, London 1860--1940 (/isis/citation/CBB001024453/)

Book Parthasarathi, Prasannan; (2011)
Why Europe Grew Rich and Asia Did Not: Global Economic Divergence, 1600--1850 (/isis/citation/CBB001201926/)

Article Heather Wolffram; (2015)
“God Save Us from Psychologists as Expert Witnesses”: The Battle for Forensic Psychology in Early Twentieth-Century Germany. (/isis/citation/CBB799143959/)

Article Kua, Ja Hyon; (2013)
Alfred M. Mayer and Acoustics in Nineteenth-Century America (/isis/citation/CBB001211859/)

Book Murmann, Johann Peter; (2003)
Knowledge and Competitive Advantage: The Coevolution of Firms, Technology, and National Institutions (/isis/citation/CBB000651820/)

Article Wang, Wenzhi; Mei, Jianjun; (2009)
A Preliminary Study of “Kodo Zuroku” (/isis/citation/CBB000933556/)

Book Janet Abbate; Stephanie Dick; (2022)
Abstractions and Embodiments: New Histories of Computing and Society (/isis/citation/CBB673315821/)

Article Thakir, Mitali; (2017)
How to Look: Apprehension, Forensic Craft, and the Classification of Child Exploitation Images (/isis/citation/CBB389172129/)

Article Alan James Hogarth; Michael Witmore; (2020)
Reflexive witnessing: Boyle, the Royal Society and scientific style (/isis/citation/CBB913351233/)

Article Eden Medina; (October 2018)
Forensic Identification in the Aftermath of Human Rights Crimes in Chile: A Decentered Computer History (/isis/citation/CBB981998043/)

Book Costa, Palmira Fontes da; (2009)
The Singular and the Making of Knowledge at the Royal Society of London in the Eighteenth Century (/isis/citation/CBB000933064/)

Book Bijsterveld, Karin; (2008)
Mechanical Sound: Technology, Culture, and Public Problems of Noise in the Twentieth Century (/isis/citation/CBB000850349/)

Article Wistoft, Birgitte; (2010)
A Devilish Device: Attitudes to Telephony, 1876--1920 (/isis/citation/CBB001231627/)

Book Lipsey, Richard G; Carlaw, Kenneth; Bekar, Clifford; (2005)
Economic transformations: General purpose technologies and long-term economic growth (/isis/citation/CBB001180076/)

Book John, Richard R.; (2010)
Network Nation: Inventing American Telecommunications (/isis/citation/CBB001230799/)

Comments

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}