In this Databite, Beth Bechky turns her lens of organizational ethnography on the workers handling DNA evidence in a crime lab. She examines how doing science in the service of justice is influenced by advances in data and technology, shifting standards of evidence, and the social organization of the crime lab itself.

Beth Bechky is the Jacob B. Melnick Term Professor in the Department of Management and Organizations at the New York University Stern School of Business and holds a courtesy appointment in NYU’s Department of Sociology. Beth’s primary research interest is the micro-sociology of work, and she focuses her attention on interactions and dynamics at organizational and occupational boundaries.

About Databites
Data & Society’s “Databites” speaker series presents timely conversations about the purpose and power of technology, bridging our interdisciplinary research with broader public conversations about the societal implications of data and automation.