Cognitive issues in the interpretation of forensic evidence
Human decision-making is fundamental to the collection, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of evidence. Whilst technological advances have made it possible to collect and analyse greater amounts and smaller traces of evidence, very little is known about how decisions are made at each stage of the process and how these impact the final conclusions made by those involved.
It’s vital that forensic laboratories calibrate equipment and validate the processes used to generate analytical results in forensic casework. However, it’s equally important to consider the interpretative human processes in play at every stage of the forensic process in the decision-making inherent to evaluating evidence.
What evidence should be collected at a particular crime scene? What analysis should we spend our limited resources on? What effects the conclusions I make when analysing a sample? How does what I’m told about a case in advance influence my conclusions?
This is where our research aims to make forensic science ever more robust and effective for supporting the justice system. If we can understand and mitigate cognitive bias, for example, all in the justice system will have greater confidence in the forensic science outcomes.
Current research
- Fingermark analysis: targeting fingermark sufficiency decision making (the process by which a recovered fingermark is assessed to be either of good enough quality to be used for comparison and identification purposes, or to be of too poor a quality to be evidentially useful).
Research projects
- Effectiveness of sufficiency decision making in the analysis of fingermarks.
