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How to make better forensic decisions

Much of forensic practice today involves human decisions about the origins of patterned sensory evidence, such as tool marks and fingerprints discovered at a crime scene. These decisions are made by trained observers who compare the evidential pattern to an exemplar pattern produced by the suspected...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor principal: Albright, Thomas D.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: National Academy of Sciences 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9499562/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36099301
http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2206567119
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author Albright, Thomas D.
author_facet Albright, Thomas D.
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description Much of forensic practice today involves human decisions about the origins of patterned sensory evidence, such as tool marks and fingerprints discovered at a crime scene. These decisions are made by trained observers who compare the evidential pattern to an exemplar pattern produced by the suspected source of the evidence. The decision consists of a determination as to whether the two patterns are similar enough to have come from the same source. Although forensic pattern comparison disciplines have for decades played a valued role in criminal investigation and prosecution, the extremely high personal and societal costs of failure—the conviction of innocent people—has elicited calls for caution and for the development of better practices. These calls have been heard by the scientific community involved in the study of human information processing, which has begun to offer much-needed perspectives on sensory measurement, discrimination, and classification in a forensic context. Here I draw from a well-established theoretical and empirical approach in sensory science to illustrate the vulnerabilities of contemporary pattern comparison disciplines and to suggest specific strategies for improvement.
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spelling pubmed-94995622022-09-23 How to make better forensic decisions Albright, Thomas D. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A Perspective Much of forensic practice today involves human decisions about the origins of patterned sensory evidence, such as tool marks and fingerprints discovered at a crime scene. These decisions are made by trained observers who compare the evidential pattern to an exemplar pattern produced by the suspected source of the evidence. The decision consists of a determination as to whether the two patterns are similar enough to have come from the same source. Although forensic pattern comparison disciplines have for decades played a valued role in criminal investigation and prosecution, the extremely high personal and societal costs of failure—the conviction of innocent people—has elicited calls for caution and for the development of better practices. These calls have been heard by the scientific community involved in the study of human information processing, which has begun to offer much-needed perspectives on sensory measurement, discrimination, and classification in a forensic context. Here I draw from a well-established theoretical and empirical approach in sensory science to illustrate the vulnerabilities of contemporary pattern comparison disciplines and to suggest specific strategies for improvement. National Academy of Sciences 2022-09-13 2022-09-20 /pmc/articles/PMC9499562/ /pubmed/36099301 http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2206567119 Text en Copyright © 2022 the Author(s). Published by PNAS. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This open access article is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (CC BY) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Perspective
Albright, Thomas D.
How to make better forensic decisions
title How to make better forensic decisions
title_full How to make better forensic decisions
title_fullStr How to make better forensic decisions
title_full_unstemmed How to make better forensic decisions
title_short How to make better forensic decisions
title_sort how to make better forensic decisions
topic Perspective
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9499562/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36099301
http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2206567119
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