Book Review Quality management in forensic science, Sean Doyle, London, Academic Press, 2019, 387 pp., ISBN 978-0-12-805416-1

According to the author, this book is intended to be a reference book and not a book to be read ‘from cover to cover’. The intended audience includes all forensic science stakeholders, and it focuses on the existing quality standards frameworks in Australasia, Europe and North America. The aim of the book is to be of practical benefit to that wide readership.

The contents are arranged over seven chapters and a series of appendices. Chapter 1 introduces key concepts and key terms and attempts to explain science for the non-scientist and quality for non-quality managers. Chapter 2 covers organizations responsible for quality management in forensic science. Chapter 3 is the longest chapter at 91 pages and provides an ‘introduction’ to the Standards applicable to the management, practice and delivery of forensic science. The author defines four levels of standards as level 1 (ISO standards), level 2 (guidance documents on the interpretation and application of level 1 standards), level 3 (related to the nuts and bolts of the forensic process) and level 4 (methods and procedures). Personally, I do not view guidelines as standards and would have preferred that there was a clearer distinction between standards and guidelines which do not have the same authority. In chapter 4 the author provides a historical perspective to the development of quality management in the forensic sciences. Chapter 5 deals with the current practical application of quality management, chapter 6 with discipline-specific issues, and, finally, chapter 7 with current, but perhaps more accurately ongoing, issues. The appendices cover specific codes of conduct and other useful information.