ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of forensic science with reflections on its use in hate crime cases. It assumes little or no knowledge of forensic science by the reader and its purpose is to provide an overview of the key aspects in the application of science to hate crime. The context within which forensic science operates is discussed, and the contemporary issues and constraints affecting its use in practice are presented along with the fundamentals of forensic science. This is placed in context through the use of a case study. To facilitate this the London nail bombings are used as they exemplify the use of forensic science processes in a large complex investigation, which utilised a multi-disciplinary and multi-agency response along with the proactive use of intelligence resources, used to inform the strategic deployment of forensic science to the investigation.
