We are at a critical juncture for the forensic sciences. A number of high-profile reports and a growing body of literature question and critically reflect on core issues pertaining to the methodologies informing forensic science and their effective use within the criminal justice system. We argue for the need for an improved association and outline key areas that require attention from practiti...

The research programme will build on the work of various specialists – many of whom will attend the programme – on the main applications of probability, statistics and Bayesian methods to forensic science. One of the main goals of the proposed research semester is for the participants to produce a consensual set of guidelines (extending the recent Practitioner Guides issued by the Royal Statist...

This article reconsiders the relationship between criminal adjudication and forensic expertise in the light of 'new paradigms' of forensic practice and recent law reform. It briefly summarizes conventional wisdom on the typical shortcomings of forensic science and other expert evidence, as a springboard for a more searching critical diagnosis of longstanding maladies. The fundamentally jurisdic...

Crime laboratories play an important prosecution. Yet just how frequently charging, plea negotiations, trial, and role in our criminal justice system by -and effectively-is forensic evisentencing? Is forensic science "overexamining physical evidence in supdence actually used at various stages burdened and underutilized," as port of investigations and subsequent of the criminal justice processsu...

Analogous to use of bullet scratches in forensic science, the authenticity of a digital image can be verified through the noise characteristics of an imaging sensor. In particular, photo-response non-uniformity noise (PRNU) has been used in source camera identification (SCI). However, this technique can be used maliciously to track or inculpate innocent people. To impede such tracking, PRNU noi...

Forensic science is an applied science based on the laws of physics and chemistry. Over time, a set of fundamental concepts has developed that apply specifically to a forensic analysis. Traditionally, five concepts have been articulated: transfer, identification, individualization, association between source and target, and reconstruction. We suggest that an additional sixth concept, the idea t...

ABSTRACT: Over the past 20 years, no other field of forensic science has had greater impact on the detection of fraudulent documents than the scientific examination of writing inks. This paper traces the development of ink dating techniques from the 1930s to 1990. Techniques used during this period are described and, when possible, illustrated. The emphasis is on ink dating techniques used toda...

The American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law (AAPL) was organized in 1969, in large part through the efforts of Dr. Jonas Rappeport. The founders of AAPL emphasized that an important purpose of the organization was to advance knowledge in the area of psychiatry and the law. The science of forensic psychiatry has since been vigorously debated. In 2005, Congress enacted a statute authorizing th...

Computer forensics is the application of investigation and analysis techniques to gather and preserve evidence from a particular computing device in a way that is suitable for presentation in a court of law. Behavior analysis is rooted in the behaviorist tradition and utilizes learning principles to bring about behavior change. Digital forensics is a branch of forensic science encompassing the ...

The continuous development of forensic sciences has given his contribution to the formation of different kind of highly skilled and specialized scientists who have to work together in order to help judicial authority and police to understand dynamics of a criminal event. These are experts in different fields of traditional sciences, such as chemistry, biology, physics, entomology, but they also...