Black Robes, White Coats

Though focused on criminal settings, the recently published book Black Robes, White Coats, by Professor Rebecca C. Harris (Washington & Lee, Dep’t of Politics), looks interesting.  Here’s a summary:

Scientific evidence is commonplace in today’s criminaltrials. From hair and handwriting analysis to ink and DNA fingerprints,scientists have brought their world to bear on the justice system.
 
Combining political analysis, scientific reasoning, and an in-depthstudy of specific state supreme court cases, Black Robes, WhiteCoats is an interdisciplinary examination of the tradition of“gatekeeping,” the practice of deciding the admissibility of novelscientific evidence. Rebecca Harris systematically examines judicialpolicymaking in three areas —forensic DNA, polygraphs, andpsychological syndrome evidence—to answer the question: Why isscientific evidence treated differently among various jurisdictions?These decisions have important implications for evaluating our judicialsystem and its ability to accurately develop scientific policy.
 
While the interaction of these professions occurs because the whitecoats often develop and ascertain knowledge deemed very useful to theblack robes, Harris concludes that the black robes are well positionedto render appropriate rulings and determine the acceptability ofharnessing a particular science for legal purposes.

BGS