Scientific experts have been considered to provide impartial scientific evidence in contrast to most other types of evidence. But as illustrated by several examples like the misidentification of Brandon Mayfield in the Madrid Bomber case, it has been demonstrated that the forensic experts can be influenced by contextual bias. (Kassin, Dror & Kukucka, 2013) In Goodwin’s case there are several sources of error that due to a confirmation bias. The examiners were pre-armed with contextual information, they were aware that the target fingerprint belonged to an individual on the MI5 watch list, leading them to be suspicious of their target. Moreover, the examiners did not analyse the fingerprint in isolation, they examined it against this pre-existing …show more content…
One example of this bias is a study of Slovic performed in 1982 related to horse-race handicappers. The participants were asked to prognosticate the winner horse and declare their confidence in their prediction. As they were given more and more information about the horse and rider, their confidence in their prediction kept increasing, but their accuracy remained the same. (Saks, Risinger, Rosenthal,& Thompson, 2003). Cambiar mas In relation to the fingerprint analysis, examiners should analyse the fingerprint in isolation, examining in the first place the evidence from the crime scene and documenting their conclusions before making comparisons against a target, as happened in Goodwin’s case. This will erase the potential influence that the contextual information about the suspect could have on examiners (Dror, 2009). Regarding the pressure to close the case in Goodwin’s case, it’s relevant the study of Charlton performed in 2010, who performed 13 semi-structured interviews with experienced fingerprint examiners. He noticed that examiners reveal a personal interest in catching criminals and solving crimes, with could lead them not to be objective. They also express a desire to give definitive conclusions as a result of their work, a strong need for closure and the aspiration of the detection of a fingerprint match (Kassin, Dror & Kukucka,
Those that are within my own knowledge I confirm to be true. The opinions I have expressed represent my true and complete professional opinions on the matters to which they refer.” On top of this any Forensic tests that Dr Wilson carried out must be documented in a form that is understandable. Another qualified expert must supervise these tests and their qualifications must be also listed. The report that is complied may need ot changed at a later date this might be because of new evidence coming to light or because of questioning that has taken place in the court
There was a huge truck bomb explosion on April 19, 1995 it happened outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma city, Oklahoma. This bombing ended up leaving 168 people dead and and so many more injured. Timothy McVeigh was the one who set off this blast and was put to his death for these crimes in 2001. Timothy had a partner who's name was Terry Nichols and he ended up receiving life in prison. This tragic bombing was the worse attack from terrorist to have taken place on the United States soil, until September 11, 2001.
Brandon Mayfield was wrongfully accused of being the bomber in 2004 Madrid Train Bombings. On March 11, 2004 Al -Qaeda inspiring terrorist initiated a bomb attack on the train killing 193 people and wounded over 1,000. As a result, the crime was investigated, and two fingerprints were retrieved from a bag. When the fingerprints came back there were 20 possible matches, and Brandon was one of them. In the past Brandon was in the military and was arrested for a misunderstanding, which caused his prints to be in the system.
The workings of J. Edgar Hoover How did the FBi start and who was the man in charge of it all ? J. Edgar Hoover was the head director of the FBI in 1924 to 1972 on his dying day. Hoover is famous for being power hungry, being able to get jobs done and catching famous criminals during his time such as the Dillinger Gang. He changed how the FBI operated which gave the FBI an edge over the people Hoover viewed as threats. J. Edgar Hoover is the first person credited with putting together a centralized nation fingerprint database in the government and as well as being credited with that he is also credited with having a centralized forensic laboratory.
Subconscious bias also plays a big role in the decisions made by Major
In the lab report three students are tested along with one suspect. Student number two’s DNA matched the suspects DNA. The student’s DNA’s are cut with five different enzymes as well as the suspects DNA. Student two’s DNA matched exactly with the suspects DNA; the other two student’s DNA did not resemble the suspects DNA at all. (Choi, et al, 2008) DNA fingerprinting is used a lot in determining who committed a crime.
During one of his lectures, Professor Davies answers this question by using the belief in a very popular theory as an example: the full-moon effect theory. This theory presumes that people will become more violent and crazy when there is a full moon. By using a table containing each aspect that would represent the theory, Professor Davies explains that confirmation bias influences how people make observations during the full moon; out of all the four quadrants of the table, the most noticeable observation would be when people act aggressively during the full moon. Later, when those same people attempt to support their belief in the full-moon effect theory, they would try to recall the most significant information; said information would involve their observations regarding the times when both the full moon and the display of aggressive human behaviour are present. However, this would result in an inconsistent view of their observations since they exclude opposing evidence that would contradict the full-moon effect
The area was processed for fingerprints which resulted in one set of
Crime Myths Most crimes are solved by fingerprints and DNA. This is a prime example of a crime myth. The truth is less than 1 percent of all serious crimes are solved by DNA, and fingerprints do only slightly better. As mentioned in USA Today titled "Crime and the media: Myths and reality", it discusses some of the important insight to crime in the media causing myths. Another source that covers this topic is in an Irish Times article by O’ Toole, Fintan entitled “Myths that conceal the truth about roots of crime: [CITY EDITION]” it goes over the many aspects that relate to myths that are contributing to the truth about roots of crime.
The Richard Ramirez "Night Stalker" case was one of the first major cases to use automated fingerprinting technology (Frese, 2011). Today, the fingerprinting database gives various probable identifications, then a trained fingerprint expert must compare the prints to find a likely identification. Considering that Ramirez's prints were found on the mirror of a stolen vehicle we can conclude that his fingerprints were two-dimensional, therefore the prints are termed as latent or residue prints. The authorities at the crime scene power-dusted his prints considering that is the best physical method for collecting fingerprints. Once analyzed using the ACE-V (analysis, comparison, evaluation and verification) method, the fingerprint expert was able to identify them as belonging to Ramirez.
He continues that research finding are often the result of the prevailing bias of the
The primary types of forensic evidence found at Ramírez’s crime scenes were fingerprints and bodily fluids. Unfortunately, DNA profiling for use in the criminal justice field was still very new in the mid-1980s (Waring) so bodily fluids found at the crime scenes were not as helpful as they would be today. However, Ramírez’s fingerprints proved to be very effective when presented to the jury as evidence and have largely been credited as key to his conviction
Background Questions P. 2 #1: What is the purpose of electrophoresis? [1] The purpose of electrophoresis is to separate charged biomolecules such as DNA, RNA, and proteins through differences in the their characteristic such as shape, size, and charge. P. 2 #1: On what basis does agarose gel electrophoresis separate molecules?
In the article, “Alex Tsakiris, Psychic Detectives, and Bad Science”, Benjamin Radford explains the difference between good and bad science, by using examples from Alex Tsakiris book, “Why Science is Wrong.. About almost everything”, where Tsakiris uses the example of a case Radford researched about psychic detective Nancy Weber. Radford begins by saying that good science needs good data and scientists need to consider all of the evidence for results to be valid, and that when researchers only present the data that support their conclusion it is, “Bad Science(at best) or outright fraud(at worst).” In the case that is mentioned in the book, “Why Science is Wrong..