Sherlock Holmes to CSI: Forensic Science in the Law and Media

Instructor:  Professor Thomas F. Jurney
                 Interdisciplinary Studies

This Seminar looks at the development of forensic science as a tool of criminal justice and as an element of the media image of detective work. The course will cover a wide range of issues, including the history of fingerprinting in the court and in literature, all the way to the Illinois Governor’s decision to hold all death penalty sentences in abeyance due to DNA evidence showing a large number of the condemned are actually innocent. Students will be asked to go from the particulars and find elements of society that have changed as a result of advances in, or changing images of, forensic science.