Forensic Botany : From Crime Scene to Court

Forensic Botany: From Crime Scene to Court outlines a history of the discipline and field to provide current forensic operational context, real-world applications to cases, and how we arrived at this point. Written by a leading expert, the book presents forensic botany in a realistic and practical framework, offering a schema—a four-stage classification model—for how to manage botanical evidence in a contemporary case management context. Across twelve chapters, Robertson discusses aspects vital to forensic botany, from the central role of crime scene investigators and specialists (in ensuring that data is not mishandled or ignored) to how to handle a range of botanical materials in a triage environment so that they are properly preserved for detailed examination by suitable experts. This book shines a spotlight on the many approaches and forensic applications to plant science that are not traditionally considered, such as conservation, art fraud, and archaeology. In doing so, the coverage presents a novel and useful blueprint to employ a forensic approach in non-traditional areas. Forensic Botany will assist investigators and crime scene examiners in recognising the potential for forensic botanical evidence. It outlines a framework, for forensic professionals of varying levels of expertise to effectively manage botanical evidence and serves as an invaluable guide for those botany professionals undertaking forensic roles as subject matter experts.