Expert Witness by Anna Sandiford Page B

and Conclusions.’ Skip forward to your last year before leaving school — exams. The one thing every teacher says a million times is ANSWER THE QUESTION. You won’t get marks for waffle and padding. A whole wash of Teachers Past has just swum through my brain, all repeating the same thing …
    Science writing at the forensic level is no different. Reports should be written so they can be read in isolation and the reader can follow what’s happening. It’s no use yabbering on about photo graph 73 if no one else can see it.
    Every report, statement, letter or document that leaves the office must be prepared with the thought that it might be used against you at some point — not necessarily by your instructing party but by anyone to whom your communication has been provided. Every telephone conversation, email or text you send is available for repeat and, possibly, inaccurate repetition, probably in your absence. Never mind that in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia and other places the rights the police read to the suspect cum defendant say some thing along the lines of: You have the right to remain silent. Anything you do or say may be used in evidence. What should happen is that when you train as an expert witness you should have your lack of rights read to you: Anything you write, say or do as an expert witness may and probably will be used against you, probably when you’re in the witness box and probably when you least expect it. If you write a report or statement or letter or email, whatever,if it doesn’t feel right, don’t send it. Better it be a day late than chase you around the appeal courts and haunt your nightmares for the next 10 years.
    If you end up having to read your report out in court, which is usually tediously boring for all concerned, it has to be understandable by a layperson, as well as convey all the important scientific points you want to make. Regardless of who’s giving evidence, it’s not fun watching the eyes of the jury glaze over … who’s going to be first to nod off? That bloke in the corner on the back row? Surely not the one in the front row — everyone can see him?
    I think one of the main things I’ve learnt over the years is that my role as a forensic scientist is as a science communicator. It’s probably the single biggest difference between academic scientists and forensic scientists. For academics, using as many technical phrases as possible in a scientific journal is very important because it demonstrates not only an under standing of the academic aspects of their field of expertise, it means it takes fewer words to write a description, which is important when only 250 words are available for an abstract. Academics are usually sparring with their peers and fighting for funding. Forensic scientists have a different audience — we just try to explain what is some times a complicated scientific issue as simply as possible. Some are better at it than others.

Chapter 4
The CSI effect

    Forensic scientists soon discover when talking to the general public that many people have an extremely limited knowlege of forensic science and the tasks it performs. As conversations continue it becomes apparent that misconstrued ideas often originate from watching television dramas.
    Caddy and Cobb in White, 2004
    T his is the big misconception so I’m going to deal with this face on, at the start, just to get it out of the way and cleared up. What is forensic science? That’s easy — it’s what you see on CSI , isn’t it? It’s just like it is on Bones and NCIS (or ‘knickers’ as we say in our house) and all those other American crime TV series.
    If only it were that simple and, let’s face it, glamorous. I’d love to have a laboratory like theirs, with all that moody lighting and shiny shelving. In practice, the shelves they have on CSI: Las Vegas would be a contamination nightmare