Loene Howes

This open access book brings together insights into Pacific policing, conceptualising policing broadly as order maintenance involving the actions of multiple local, regional and international actors with sometimes competing and conflicting agendas. A complex and multifaceted endeavour, scholarship on this topic is relatively scarce and widely dispersed across diverse sources. It examines how Pacific policing is shaped by changing state-society relations in different national contexts and ongoing processes of globalisation. Particular attention is given to the plural character of Pacific policing, profound challenges of gender equity, changing dynamics of crime, and the prominence of transnational policing in resource and capacity constrained domestic environments. The authors draw on examples from across the Pacific islands to provide a nuanced and contextualised account of policing in this socially diverse and rapidly transforming region.

This book provides a comprehensive overview of the emerging interdisciplinary field of critical forensic studies. It reviews existing research and scholarship on forensic science from a critical social science perspective, while forging a blueprint for further work in this area. Forensic science has long captured the public imagination, as evidenced by the popularity of many novels, television programmes, and true-crime podcasts. At the same time, its role in the criminal justice system has been the subject of critique from scholars and practitioners in diverse fields. In response, the international forensic science community has become more involved in the scrutiny of its own knowledge and practices in relation to criminal justice objectives. Moving beyond a discussion of forensic science as a suite of specialised scientific disciplines that aim to provide evidence to the courts, Critical Forensic Studies offers critical insights relevant to a wide range of social actors in the criminal justice system. Core content includes:• the history and public understandings of forensic science• the professionalisation of forensic science• forensic science as a social process• crime scene examination and forensic intelligence• experts and evidence in court• technological advances and human rights• interdisciplinary knowledge, practice and researchThis book is essential reading for forensic and criminal justice practitioners and students across criminology, sociology, forensic science, law, and psychology.

This book provides a comprehensive overview of the emerging interdisciplinary field of critical forensic studies. It reviews existing research and scholarship on forensic science from a critical social science perspective, while forging a blueprint for further work in this area. Forensic science has long captured the public imagination, as evidenced by the popularity of many novels, television programmes, and true-crime podcasts. At the same time, its role in the criminal justice system has been the subject of critique from scholars and practitioners in diverse fields. In response, the international forensic science community has become more involved in the scrutiny of its own knowledge and practices in relation to criminal justice objectives. Moving beyond a discussion of forensic science as a suite of specialised scientific disciplines that aim to provide evidence to the courts, Critical Forensic Studies offers critical insights relevant to a wide range of social actors in the criminal justice system. Core content includes:• the history and public understandings of forensic science• the professionalisation of forensic science• forensic science as a social process• crime scene examination and forensic intelligence• experts and evidence in court• technological advances and human rights• interdisciplinary knowledge, practice and researchThis book is essential reading for forensic and criminal justice practitioners and students across criminology, sociology, forensic science, law, and psychology.