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Aug. 30th, 2003 01:27 pmFrom Borders, on Tuesday, I went on to the library. I found that bit of the trip very frustrating. I think I need to spend a lot more time and really dig to find the information I want. The public library doesn't seem to have any books focused entirely on Japanese law enforcement or anything much on the science end of criminal forensics (lots of stuff on US laws, social trends and criminal psychology). I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. The first topic is rather specialized and the second... potentially expensive, quickly outdated and generally a bit too graphic for most tastes.
I picked up some mysteries set in Japan. I may be able to glean something from them if the authors did their research. I also grabbed some Patricia Cornwell mysteries since I've been told they've got good forensic detail. This will be a bit of a challenge for me since the mystery genre doesn't always work well for me. A lot of time, it requires people Acting Appropriately Stupid (thank you, Smithee Awards), and my sense of story and anxieties don't handle that dreadfully well.
I suppose I'll have to go to the Grad and other U libraries to find books if I really want some. I'd just prefer not to. The stuff there tends to be way too specialized for my needs and often too advanced for my understanding. The last time I did this sort of research, I was looking at ancient Egypt, and I simply couldn't find anything that bridged the gap between extremely general information and stuff so specialized that I'd need to have taken classes to understand the terminology.
For the moment, I guess I'll stick with what I've found online and with the books on crime scene procedure for mystery writers that I've found. The books are hopelessly out of date even though neither's as much as a decade old (an easily spotted clue from one talks about how only the really, really big police departments can afford to use computers...). Hm... I bet there are some online resource for mystery writers. Maybe I can find some.
The reason I'm searching out this information is that I've joined an LJ based RPG and will be playing a police lab type working in Tokyo. ( Role Playing Babbling )
I picked up some mysteries set in Japan. I may be able to glean something from them if the authors did their research. I also grabbed some Patricia Cornwell mysteries since I've been told they've got good forensic detail. This will be a bit of a challenge for me since the mystery genre doesn't always work well for me. A lot of time, it requires people Acting Appropriately Stupid (thank you, Smithee Awards), and my sense of story and anxieties don't handle that dreadfully well.
I suppose I'll have to go to the Grad and other U libraries to find books if I really want some. I'd just prefer not to. The stuff there tends to be way too specialized for my needs and often too advanced for my understanding. The last time I did this sort of research, I was looking at ancient Egypt, and I simply couldn't find anything that bridged the gap between extremely general information and stuff so specialized that I'd need to have taken classes to understand the terminology.
For the moment, I guess I'll stick with what I've found online and with the books on crime scene procedure for mystery writers that I've found. The books are hopelessly out of date even though neither's as much as a decade old (an easily spotted clue from one talks about how only the really, really big police departments can afford to use computers...). Hm... I bet there are some online resource for mystery writers. Maybe I can find some.
The reason I'm searching out this information is that I've joined an LJ based RPG and will be playing a police lab type working in Tokyo. ( Role Playing Babbling )
