ABSTRACT
This quote effectively demonstrates just how tenuous and unreliable any predictions about the future may be. Especially in the current climate, where technology is advancing at warp speed, it is sometimes all one can to do to hang on to the trailing edge, never mind forecast future directions. It is an interesting accident that this book is being written at the dawn of a new millennium. Pundits in all disciplines have spent the last year attempting to summarize what has been and prophesy what will be. Forensic science is no exception. For example,
The
CACnews
devoted an entire issue to essays about the future of forensic science by prominent experts from around the world. Most of those writers wisely avoided the obvious — everything will get smaller, faster, better, and cheaper (or at least you will continue to pay the same price for more). Although funding and technology transfer received due acknowledgment, the topics of greatest concern were criminalistics education, the loss of generalist knowledge, and the professionalization of forensic science, all subjects that we discuss at length in this book. If criminalistics is to evolve into a truly autonomous, respected profession, these aspects must
actively be addressed. We hope that this book has made a contribution to that effort, and we invite the forensic community, and the larger field of forensic science to continue in that endeavor.
