Junk Science: Radley Balko takes on the peddling of junk science in American classrooms - which he says ensures that the next generation has its fair share of forensic quackery. The Watch; The Washington Post;

POST: "Encourage the budding charlatan in your life with this junk-science kit," by Radley Balko, published by the Washington Post in his column "The Watch on October 15, 2014. (Radley Balko blogs about criminal justice, the drug war and civil liberties for The Washington Post. He is the author of the book "Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America's Police Forces.")

GIST: "Does your kid have an aptitude for junk science? Does he or she get excited at the possibility of putting innocent people in prison? With the “Bite Marks Analysis Kit” from Nasco, we can support junk science in the classroom, thus ensuring the next generation has its fair share of forensic quackery.........Most regrettably, the kit is hosted in the “Science” section of the Nasco Web site. The company also offers kits for science-challenged forensic disciplines such as blood spatter analysis (see critique here) and hair and fiber analysis (see critique here).  All of these are subjective fields of forensic analysis. (Unlike, say, DNA testing, which is objective and has a margin for error.) There’s still much heated debate over what sort of value subjective fields like these should be given in court. But by definition, the fact that they’re subjective means that they aren’t “science.”"

The entire post can be found at:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2014/10/15/encourage-the-budding-charlatan-in-your-life-with-this-junk-science-ki

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: 

Dear Reader. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog. We are following this case.
 
I have added a search box for content in this blog which now encompasses several thousand posts. The search box is located  near the bottom of the screen just above the list of links. I am confident that this powerful search tool provided by "Blogger" will help our readers and myself get more out of the site.

The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at:

http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith

Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:
 
http://smithforensic.blogspot.ca/2013/12/the-charles-smith-award-presented-to_28.html
 
I look forward to hearing from readers at:

hlevy15@gmail.com.

Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog;