Valid Comparisons - The Forensic and Judicial Examination of Stochastic Patterns (2026)

Valid Comparisons challenges the way courts, lawyers, and reform advocates think about forensic evidence. Rather than treating pattern evidence as defective science or defending it through credentialed tradition, John M. Collins reframes the conversation around a single unifying principle: stochastic physical patterns interpreted through disciplined professional judgment. Drawing on decades of forensic practice, landmark cases, and hard-won courtroom experience, the book exposes how misapplied legal standards, distorted scientific expectations, and rhetorical labels like “junk science” have obscured what judges actually need to know.

This is not a defense of bad forensics—or an attack on reform—but a sober, authoritative guide to evaluating expert evidence responsibly.