As I've done from time to time, I'm starting another tutorial series. This one's for everyone, but specifically for crime writers and students of criminology, crim justice, and forensics. For writers, it's intended to help them incorporate fingerprint ID tactics in their novels. And, as they - and the teachers of students like you - know, it's a good way to introduce a topic is via a story. ID tactics So I'm starting off this series with a story. It's about how the FBI … [Read more...]
CRIME INVESTIGATION Tutorial—How True Crime Websleuths Do It – I
This is an introductory tutorial about true crime Websleuths, an online forum that allows all of us to play detective. In prior tutorials, I've tried to help both crime writers and criminal justice students understand how, say, the FBI goes about investigations. This blog shows you the basics of how to participate in true crime Websleuths. Later blogs will get into how the popular site has evolved and some of the hiccups it's experienced. The … [Read more...]
Bullies – how to respond to all sorts
Bullies come in all sorts of guises - from deceptively lightweight cyberbullies to the heavyweight Vladimir Putins and Xi Jinping's of this world. My friend and guest blogger today, Alain Gunn, has thought through the ways of how to respond to all sorts of bullies. Here's his essay on managing bullies. Bullies - how to respond to all sorts. How do you stop a bully? There are only two ways to do it: Convince the bully of the error of his ways Find a Bigger, Better … [Read more...]
The saga of the Titanium Rib and Dr. Mel Smith
I've had a lifelong interest in discrimination and birth-defects stemming from being bullied for my once-nasal cleft-palate speech. Hence I was interested when college classmate Alain Gunn wrote The Titanium Rib. The Discrimination Angle The book is about a device that allows infants born with defective chests and lung function to live. And it's a true story of two dedicated surgeons —one being a black man who endured discrimination as a trailblazer entering the lily white ranks of … [Read more...]
Bias against women explored by Bombshell. Does it do #MeToo justice?
Over two years ago, the flood gates of the #MeToo movement starkly revealed the predation, bias and discrimination women still face in workplaces. The first accusations against Harvey Weinstein transformed a small hashtag enterprise started by a lone black woman into #meToo today...and helped bring about Bombshell. In the movie Nicole Kidman plays former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson, and Charlize Theron portrays superstar anchor and personality, Megyn Kelly. Margot Robbie is a … [Read more...]
Crime – Serial Killer – Tutorial – Intro, Definitions, Myths.
Writers, esp those writing true-crime books, are often drawn to serial killer stories. And so are everyday people since these stories both horrify and fascinate us frequently. As a service to my fellow writers, I'm providing another tutorial. This one deals with the facts and the myths of serial killers. Hopefully, writers will find them useful for their writing. And other readers may just find them interesting. Some facts. Serial killings account for very few of all murders committed in … [Read more...]
CRIME INVESTIGATION Tutorial— How the FBI does it.
Regrettably, a high profile FBI crime investigation seems to be opened on a regular basis these days. Mass killings like the recent one at a synagogue in Pittsburg are part of the reason. Counting the Thousand Oaks bar shooting this week, there have been 307 mass shootings so far in 2018. That's almost one a day in the U.S. according to the Gun Violence Archive.** Crime Investigation and the FBI. So, the FBI is heck-a-busy doing crime investigation and other things on top of … [Read more...]