Focusing on Forensics: A Lab Workbook is designed to provide students with hands-on, real-world forensic science experiences. The workbook offers ample opportunities to practice various tasks, processes, and procedures associated with forensic science, all while emphasizing the importance of handling evidence with care and integrity, from extraction at the crime scene to its appearance in the courtroom.

Initial labs in the workbook demonstrate the difference between Hollywood fabrication and real-life forensic work, expose students to paperwork associated with real casework, and help students consider what is and what isn’t evidence. In later labs, students learn how to properly package evidence, classify and compare fingerprints, cast footwear and tire impressions, and examine handwriting. Additional labs offer students the opportunity to examine different types of ammunition, perform fracture match exams, test evidence for the detection of blood, study bloodstain patterns, and compare DNA profiles.

Comprehensive in scope and designed to replicate many of the tasks, principles, and techniques forensic scientists use and perform in real casework, Focusing on Forensics is an ideal text for introductory courses in forensic science.

Timothy A. Pycraft, CLPE, MS, is a forensic scientist with the Indiana State Police Laboratory. He received a bachelor’s degree in biology from Grace College and a master’s degree in biology from St. Joseph College. Mr. Pycraft is a certified latent print examiner at the Lowell Regional Laboratory, specializing in fingerprints, footwear, and tire impressions. He has testified as an expert witness in state and federal courts. He is a lecturer at Purdue University Northwest, where he has taught courses in the Forensic Investigative Science Program since 2010.