Chrome File Edit View History Bookmarks Profiles Tab Window Help 86% Q 8 @ Thu Feb 1 12:05 PM FIU Topic: Chapter 4 Discussion FIU The Coming Paradigm Shift in C 26 fiu.instructure.com/courses/189202/pages/the-coming-paradigm-shift-in-forensic-identification-science?titleize=0 DIGOT FIU 1241 - Spring 2024 The Coming Paradigm Shift in Forensic Identification Science & Minimize File Preview Home Page 1 > of 4 - ZOOM + Announcements Account Simple Syllabus The Coming Paradigm Shift in Forensic Identification Science Modules Michael J. Saks' and Jonathan J. Koehler Dashboard Grades 2 Converging legal and scientific forces are pushing the traditional forensic identification that different objects share a common set of observable attributes. Without the discernible sciences toward fundamental change. The assumption of discernible uniqueness that re- uniqueness assumption, far more scientific work sides at the core of these fields is weakened by evidence of errors in proficiency testing and in actual cases. Changes in the law pertaining to the admissibility of expert evidence in would be needed, and criminalists would need Purchase Course t, together with the emergence of DNA typing as a model for a scientifically de- to offer more tempered opinions in court. Courses fensible approach to questions of shared identity, are driving the older forensic sciences Legal and scientific forces are converging toward a new scientific paradigm. to drive an emerging skepticism about the Materials claims of the traditional forensic individual- ization sciences. As a result, these sciences ittle more than a decade ago, forensic in- different, criminalists conclude that the marks are moving toward a new scientific paradigm. Honorlock lividualization scientists compared pairs he same person or object. [We use the notion of paradigm shift not as of marks (handwriting, fingerprints, tool Although lacking theoretical or empirical literal application of Thomas Kuhn's con- marks, hair, tire marks, bite marks, etc.), in- foundations, the assumption of discernible cept (9), but as a metaphor highlighting the Groups d whether the marks matched, and testified uniqueness offers important practical benefits transformation involved in moving from a pre- New Analytics in court that whoever or whatever made one to the traditional forensic sciences. It enables science to an empirically grounded science.] made the other. Courts almost never excluded forensic scientists to draw bold, definitive con- Two such forces are outgrowths of DNA typ- the testimony. Cross-examination rarely ques- clusions that can make or break cases. It ex- ing: the discovery of erroneous convictions and tioned the foundations of the asserted expertise cuses the forensic sciences from developing a model for a scientifically sound identification or the basis of measures of object attributes, collecting popu- ce is the momentous change Calendar Today, that or lation data on the frequencies of variations in in the legal admissibility standards for expert the law and science interface has begun to those attributes, testing attribute independence, ws from studies unravel or at least to regroup. The news car- or calculating and explaining the probability of error rates across the forensic sciences. ries reports of erroneous forensic identifica- tions of hair, bullets, handwriting, footprints, bite marks, and even venerated fingerprints. Scientists have begun to question the core assumptions of numerous forensic sciences Eyewitness errors 71% Inbox Federal funding has materialized to sup- port research that examines long-asserted but Forensic science testing errors 63% unproven claims. Courts have started taking forensic science exp tise seriously (1). A dispassionate scientist or Police misconduct 445% judge reviewing the current state of the tra- History ditional forensic sciences would likely regard Prosecutorial misconduct their claims as plausible, underresearched, and 28% oversold. The traditional forensic individualiza- False/misleading testimony ? by forensic scientists 27% tion sciences rest on a central assumption: that two indistinguishable marks must have been produced by a single object. Traditional foren- Dishonest informants 19% Help sic scientists seek to link crime scene evi- single person or object "to the Incompetent defense exclusion of all of representation 19% They do so by leaning on the assumption of discernible uniqueness. According to this as- False testimony by 17% sumption, markings produced by different lay witnesses people or objects are observably different. Thus, when a pair of markings is not observably False confessions 17% "College of Law, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ Fig. 1. Factors associated with wrongful conviction in 86 DNA exoneration cases, based on case Of BUSinGET OF TO AUSTIN TX 78712 computed by us , Percentages exceed 100% because more than one f because more than one factor was found in many K USA. E-mail: koehler@mail. utexas.edu cases. Red bars indicate factors related to forensic science. 892 5 AUGUST 2005 VOL 309 SCIENCE www.sciencemag.org Aa stv AChrome File Edit View History Bookmarks Profiles Tab Window Help 86% Q 8 @ Thu Feb 1 12:05 PM FIU Topic: Chapter 4 Discussion FIU The Coming Paradigm Shift in C 26 fiu.instructure.com/courses/189202/pages/the-coming-paradigm-shift-in-forensic-identification-science?titleize=0 DIGOT FIU 1241 - Spring 2024 The Coming Paradigm Shift in Forensic Identification Science & Minimize File Preview Home Page 2 of 4 ZOOM + Announcements Account Simple Syllabus REVIEW former forensic scientist noted, this press alleles occur at different locations on the Modules and fabrication: "All [forensic science] exper ould and should emulate this approach (23). are tempted. many times in their careers, to Each subheld must consider thatuses it Dashboard come up inconclusive, or indeed to report a bases to support a probabilistic approach to Grades 2 negative result as positive" [(15), p. 17]. DNA Typing as the New Model for the first areas to make the transition to this is Bite mark evidence exitlet them that or Scientific Forensic Identification already exist. The greatest challenge in the Krone's dentition with bite wounds in victim's Much of the above criticism does not ap will be reactor The pures of the Purchase Course flesh [State v. Krone, 182 Ariz, 319 (1995)]. A to the science of DNA typing as practiced today. indeed, bha typing can serve as a to ofspike marks, handwriting, etc. Courses Krone to be the biter- prone was convicted of Materials to work with experts in differential geometry. later he was exonerated by DNA analysis. (Source: three important respects. First, DNA typ Pology, or other fields to develop workable Simpson (Phoenix, AZ), attorneys for Krone] derived from core scientific disciplines. measures. Post-Conviction DNA Exonerations ork on the technology. Second, the renethen the comic con effort that would strengthen the scientific foundation of the fo- Honorlock nsic sciences involves estimating error rate During the past decade, scores of people wh echnology in individual idual cases. As a re chnology is considerable, the practical y Groups were convicted of serious crimes anchor Third, DNA typing offered have been exonerated by DNA analyses of tent to which potentially import New Analytics at the time of their trials (10). It was ise. The best way to identify the fre surprising to learn that erronea xternal proficiency tests using realistic Calendar aducted by an agenc Inbox History Fig. 3. Image of two bullets eve were ? onsecutively manufactured Smith & ousfrom ew strengths of DNA ping is that it uses a statistical ap- rations are engraved onto bullets. Help theory and empirical testing the barrel through which a questioned bullet was ics. Without in Laboratory of Forensic www.sciencemag.org SCIENCE VOL 309 5 AUGUST 2005 893 Electronic copy of this paper is available at: http:/ssrn.com/abstract=962968 K Aa N tv AChrome File Edit View History Bookmarks Profiles Tab Window Help 86% Q 8 @ Thu Feb 1 12:05 PM FIU Topic: Chapter 4 Discussion FIU The Coming Paradigm Shift in C 26 fiu.instructure.com/courses/189202/pages/the-coming-paradigm-shift-in-forensic-identification-science?titleize=0 DIGOT FIU 1241 - Spring 2024 The Coming Paradigm Shift in Forensic Identification Science & Minimize File Preview Home Page