By Beth Karp

Several widely used criminal risk assessment instruments factor a defendant’s abstract beliefs, peer associations, and family relationships into their risk scores. The inclusion of those factors is empirically unsound and raises profound ethical and constitutional questions. This Article is the first instance of legal scholarship on criminal risk assessment to (a) conduct an in-depth review of risk assessment questionnaires, scoresheets, and reports, and (b) analyze the First and Fourteenth Amendment implications of attitude and associational factors. Additionally, this Article challenges existing scholarship by critiquing widely accepted but dubious empirical justifications for the inclusion of attitude and associational items. The items are only weakly correlated with recidivism, have not been shown to be causal, and have in fact been shown to decrease the predictive validity of risk assessment instruments. Quantification of attitudes and associations should cease unless and until it is done in a way that is empirically sound, more useful than narrative reports, and consistent with the First and Fourteenth Amendments.

Stanford Law Review, Vol. 75, 2023, 99p.

By C. Ainsworth Mitchell. Preface by Graeme R. Newman

Science and the Criminal (1911) stands as one of the earliest comprehensive guides to the emerging field of forensic science. In this landmark work, British chemist and criminologist C. Ainsworth Mitchell reveals how the laboratory was beginning to reshape the detective’s craft and the courtroom’s understanding of truth. From the identification of poisons and trace substances to handwriting analysis, fingerprinting, microscopy, and early forensic photography, Mitchell shows how scientific method was transforming criminal investigation at a moment when traditional policing still relied heavily on intuition, confession, and circumstantial inference. Far more than a technical manual, this book captures the excitement and uncertainty of an era when scientific evidence first began to challenge long-established legal traditions. Mitchell writes with clarity, skepticism, and enthusiasm, advocating for a justice system grounded in demonstrable fact rather than prejudice or speculation.

For modern readers, Science and the Criminal offers both a vivid historical portrait of forensic science in its infancy and a reminder of enduring questions about expertise, evidence, and the pursuit of truth—questions that remain as urgent in today’s digital and biometric age as they were in the Edwardian courtroom. A foundational text brought back to life for contemporary audiences, this Read-Me.Org edition invites a deeper understanding of how science became one of society’s most powerful tools for uncovering—and proving—the truth.

Little Brown. 1911. Read-Me.Org. 2026. 168p