Recent Book: Suspect Documents: Their Scientific Examination
| Published date | 01 January 1959 |
| Date | 01 January 1959 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0032258X5903200112 |
| Subject Matter | Recent Book |
of sexual
offences-all
important
to the practical police officer. On the
other
hand,
great detail is given
about
offences which
are
of little interest
~o
the police officer performing ordinary duties.
There
is almost a page,
for
Instance, on the Bankers' Book EVidence Act of 1879.
The
chapters on Criminal Procedure, while good,
are
based mainly on
the procedure
adopted
in the Metropolitan Police.
The
fourth
volume contains amultitude of general miscellaneous in-
formation
and
though much of it is useful to any police officer, a great
deal is not.
There
is a good legal glossary
but
the medical glossary is
too
detailed
and
it is
doubtful
whether anyone
but
amedical practitioner or a
nurse would find it of value. This volume includes awell-written section on
First Aid which is of importance to every police officer
but
when studying
for
his examinations, he must, of course, study the official St.
John
Ambulance
book.
The
fifth volume contains aworld atlas and a police gazetteer
and
it is
very
doubtful
whether
it is of any value to a police officer. Most house-
holds contain an atlas, while the individual police officer has no particular
need to know exactly where every police station in the country is situated.
This
information
is required mainly at police stations, where a copy of the
Police
Almanac
is usually to be found.
The
gazetteer is not complete
and
there are some surprising omissions.
Such towns as Birmingham, Liverpool, Leeds, Manchester, Oxford, Wolver-
hampton,
Accrington,
Southport
and
Lancaster
are
not
even mentioned.
All the Divisions of the Glasgow Police
are
to be
found
under
the
letter
"G"
but
the
divisions of the
other
big cities have to be searched
for
under
their individual' names, if known. Agazetteer to be useful must be com-
prehensive. This is not.
The
Book
for Police is expensive.
It
costs £12.17.6 (or £13.12.6 if pur-
chased
under
acredit system
over
aperiod of fifteen months) which
means
that, if any officer is ·to buy it, it should last him for the whole of his
service.
It
is, in several places, already out of date,
and
with the passing of
the years will become increasingly obsolete.
There
is, unfortunately,
much
evidence of slipshod editing.
There
are a
great
number
of errors and, as a consequence, no
one'
can rely on it as an
authoritative reference.
This is a good
opportunity
missed.
The
Police badly need a
book
of the
type
that
the editor
and
its publishers evidently envisaged at the outset.
If,
after
better
editing, the first three volumes could have been produced in
loose-leaf
form
so
that
new laws and procedures could have been included
and
obsolete laws deleted, the work would have been of considerable value.
As it is, the police officer is still awaiting acomplete authoritative guide to
his work.
T.E.SU.
WILSON
R.
HARRISON:
Suspect Documents: Their Scientific Examination.
Sweet &Maxwell. 84s.
THIS
BOOK fills the need for an up-to-date comprehensive account of a field
in which expert evidence was frequently regarded by the
layman
as being
based on intuition
rather
than
on scientific observations. Any lingering
doubts
on this
matter
must be resolved on reading this excellent book.
The
sound
planning of the work, backed by long practical experience, is
evident in the logical
approach
to
the
subject adopted by its
author.
The
reader is able to follow the systematic handling of a document
from
the
receipt of the exhibits to its ultimate presentation in court.
An outline of the materials which go to
make
up a document includes a
brief
treatment
of the composition of
paper
and of the
various
specialised
forms
in which it enters into the preparation of a document
and
leads to a
rather
fuller
treatment
of the
many
kinds of ink
and
other
writing materials
that
go to complete the document.
Afollowing
chapter
describes the preliminary examination.of a
document
calling for the use
of
apparatus
:n0.
more
elaborate
th~n.
asimple magnify-
ing glass
and
arule. In this preliminary work emphasis IS laid on the need
for
ample
note-taking
and
the need for recording in full the story
surround-
62 The Police Journal
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