Through critically engaging with STS, sociological and criminological perspectives on the use of DNA technologies within the criminal justice system, this work provides the reader with valuable insights into the effect of different legal, political, discursive, and historical configurations on how crime scene technologies are utilized by the police and related to by convicted offenders.

Contents: Foreword, Troy Duster; Introduction; Setting the scene: Austria; Setting the scene: Portugal; Inside jobs: how to avoid crime scene traces; Biological traces: 'the evidence doesn't lie'; In everybody, 'there's always a bug inside': does DNA profiling and databasing deter criminals?; Technologies of innocence: exoneration and exculpation; Criminal bodies and abusive authorities; Conclusion; Afterword: forensic DNA and the human sciences, Robin Williams; References; Glossary; References; Index.

Helena Machado is Professor of Sociology at the University of Minho, Portugal and Barbara Prainsack is Professor of Sociology and Politics of Bioscience at Brunel University, UK