Forensic illusions : medico-legal representations, scandals and reform in mid-twentieth century Britain, Canada and New Zealand.

Type of content
Theses / Dissertations
Publisher's DOI/URI
Thesis discipline
History
Degree name
Master of Arts
Publisher
University of Canterbury
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Language
English
Date
2020
Authors
Huang, Mei-Chien
Abstract

The media representations of charismatic medico-legists from the British Commonwealth and of the wondrous powers of forensic medicine greatly influenced the perception of the discipline’s reliability and accuracy during the twentieth century. However, as recent reports of crises in the forensic sciences show, the irrefutability of scientific evidence is illusionary. While some scholars have argued that reforms in the forensic sciences were triggered by scandals, this thesis shows that this was not the case during the mid-twentieth century.

This work expands on the existing secondary sources on the history of forensic medicine and forensic science by comparing the British, Canadian and New Zealand traditions, and the way forensic pathologists portrayed themselves in the media and through their own writings. It focuses on three notable miscarriage of justice cases, that of Timothy Evans, Steven Truscott and Eric Mareo, to demonstrate how medico-legists successfully minimised the impact of potential scandals in forensic medicine by presenting a united front. It is argued that the public image of forensic medicine did not suffer as a result, and provided very little impetus for change in the forensic science services. Indeed, forensic medicine and forensic science could also be seen as victims of their own successful portrayal, as very few reforms were implemented in the field throughout this period. Changes in forensic medicine and forensic science occurred incrementally only through necessity and demand, since none of the governments examined in this study prioritised extensive reforms for the discipline. Other than the extensive use of newspapers and journal articles from British Commonwealth countries, this thesis also uses sources that have not been examined closely before, such as material from Professor Bernard Knight’s archives and the autobiography of a New Zealand pathologist, Dr P. P. Lynch. They help form a more complete narrative of developments within forensic medicine and forensic science within the British Commonwealth.

Description
Citation
Keywords
Ngā upoko tukutuku/Māori subject headings
ANZSRC fields of research
Rights
All Rights Reserved