Rethinking scientific communication in courts: A question of credibility.

The high value placed on forensic information in the criminal justice process is demonstrated by the fallout resulting when questions are raised as to the validity of methods used, deficiencies in the understanding of the limitations of results, or uncertainties around the professional expertise or ethical practices of the provider of the information. To effectively act as the "speaker" for the scientific evidence in court, forensic science needs to have credibility. The workshop "Rethinking scientific communication in courts" held at the Australian National University College of Law in November 2023 explored the subject of science communication in the legal context through the lens of philosophy, law, forensic service provision and meta-science, demonstrating the unique challenges placed on the field of forensic science as a scientific profession confined and defined within a non-scientific system. Stemming from the discussions at the workshop, this paper examines the notion of credibility in science, how forensic science aligns with the hallmarks of a credible scientific community and the influence this has on our understandings of scientific communication in courts.

Management and disclosure of quality issues in forensic science: A survey of current practice in Australia and New Zealand.

The investigation of quality issues detected within the forensic process is a critical feature in robust quality management systems to provide assurance of the validity of reported results and inform strategies for continuous improvement and innovation. A survey was conducted to gain insight into the current state of practice in the management and handling of quality issues amongst the government service provider agencies of Australia and New Zealand. The results demonstrate the value of standardised quality system structures for the recording and management of quality issues, but also areas where inconsistent reporting increases the risk of overlooking important data to inform continuous improvement. With new international changes requiring mandatory reporting of quality issues, this highlights compliance challenges that agencies will face. This study reinforces the need for further research into the standardisation of systems underpinning the management of quality issues in forensic science to support transparent and reliable justice outcomes.

Interpol review of forensic management, 2019-2022.

This paper reviews and summarizes the forensic management literature from late 2019 to late 2022, covering laboratory strategic, tactical and operational decision-making, benchmarking, quality assurance, and managerial impacts from technological developments.

Backlogs are a dynamic system, not a warehousing problem.

Addressing casework backlogs would seem to represent "low hanging fruit" for increasing offender apprehension and improving justice. Yet, after years of grant funding for backlog reduction and capacity building, backlogged cases, especially DNA cases, continue to increase in U.S. forensic laboratories. Why? This paper suggests a shift from linear, mechanical thinking to a systems thinking approach may help to see ways to leverage laboratories from dysfunctional operational states burdened by history to new ways of seeing themselves as part of a system of systems. The A3 method is offered as a practical approach to initiating a systems approach.

Project FORESIGHT: A ten-year retrospective.

Forensic service providers fulfill a fundamental role in a criminal justice system by providing scientific information that aids investigations and court proceedings. While the focus is often on the science aspect of these organizations, the provision is also of paramount importance. Historically, calls for more and better information about forensic laboratory performance (in essence, benchmarking) have gone unheard. Project FORESIGHT, created in 2008, filled this need through engagement with the forensic management community to build a needs-based process for providing operational data that can be used to enhance a laboratory's performance. With over 10 years of industry data, Project FORESIGHT is the de facto standard for benchmarking forensic service provision.

Interpol review of forensic science management literature 2016-2019.

This paper reviews and summarizes the forensic management literature from late 2016 to late 2019, covering laboratory decision making, business strategy, and industry identity and transparency. The review papers are also available at the Interpol website at: https://www.interpol.int/content/download/14458/file/Interpol%20Review%20Papers%202019.pdf.

Tigers, black swans, and unicorns: The need for feedback and oversight.

Humans have a decision-making system which is biased to avoid costly false negatives while the criminal justice system is designed to be biased in the opposite way, avoiding costly false positives. But systems fail, people do not; a badly out of kilter system can lead even the most expert to bad outcomes. Perverse incentives, driven by the fetishizing of DNA, put pressure on an already-stressed forensic system. Every system needs feedback, both positive and negative, to correct itself and stay stable, forensic science is only one of those in a criminal justice system. Recognizing false positives, false negatives, and how they happen is critical to stabilizing and calibrating a criminal justice system. Oversight, review, and addressing wrongful convictions is a necessary form of feedback to forensic science and any balanced and fair criminal justice system.

Error and its meaning in forensic science.

The discussion of "error" has gained momentum in forensic science in the wake of the Daubert guidelines and has intensified with the National Academy of Sciences' Report. Error has many different meanings, and too often, forensic practitioners themselves as well as the courts misunderstand scientific error and statistical error rates, often confusing them with practitioner error (or mistakes). Here, we present an overview of these concepts as they pertain to forensic science applications, discussing the difference between practitioner error (including mistakes), instrument error, statistical error, and method error. We urge forensic practitioners to ensure that potential sources of error and method limitations are understood and clearly communicated and advocate that the legal community be informed regarding the differences between interobserver errors, uncertainty, variation, and mistakes.

A content analysis of fingerprint literature for educational curricula.

Forensic science is being required to justify and elucidate its scientific foundations. One way of doing this is through academic curricula. For many native forensic sciences, these curricula do not exist. A content analysis of nine major books in fingerprints was conducted to develop a structure for curricula in that field. The results of this study can be used to organize course content and serve as a model for other disciplines with published materials but no coherent or standard curricula.

Enhancing security of fingerprints through contextual biometric watermarking.

This paper presents a novel digital watermarking technique using face and demographic text data as multiple watermarks for verifying the chain of custody and protecting the integrity of a fingerprint image. The watermarks are embedded in selected texture regions of a fingerprint image using discrete wavelet transform. Experimental results show that modifications in these locations are visually imperceptible and maintain the minutiae details. The integrity of the fingerprint image is verified through the high matching scores obtained from an automatic fingerprint identification system. There is also a high degree of visual correlation between the embedded images, and the extracted images from the watermarked fingerprint. The degree of similarity is computed using pixel-based metrics and human visual system metrics. The results also show that the proposed watermarked fingerprint and the extracted images are resilient to common attacks such as compression, filtering, and noise.

Inter-comparison of unrelated fiber evidence.

The foreign textile fibers recovered from one item of evidence from each of 20 unrelated crimes in three categories (bank robbery, kidnapping, and homicide) were cross-compared. The items of evidence were scraped to remove the trace evidence and a sample of the collected fibers was examined using a standard scheme of analysis. The fibers were examined with light microscopy (including polarized light microscopy), fluorescence microscopy, and microspectrophotometry. The fibers were divided into natural and manufactured groups and then categorized by color and generic (polymer) class. Cross-comparing all 2083 fibers resulted in 2,168,403 comparisons, after removing duplicate (same fiber) comparisons. Colorless and denim fibers were excluded from this study. No two fibers were found to exhibit the same microscopic characteristics and analytical properties. Therefore, it is rare to find two unrelated items that have foreign fibers that are analytically indistinguishable. These results corroborate other population studies conducted in Europe and target fiber studies conducted both in the US and in Europe.

Correlation of microscopic and mitochondrial DNA hair comparisons.

Expert opinions regarding the microscopic comparison of human hairs have been accepted routinely in courts for decades. However, with the advent of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequencing, an assessment can be made of the association by microscopic hair comparisons in casework between a questioned hair and reference hairs from an individual. While each method can be used separately, the two analytical methods can be complementary and together can provide additional information regarding source association. Human hairs submitted to the FBI Laboratory for analysis between 1996 and 2000 were reviewed. Of 170 hair examinations, there were 80 microscopic associations; of these, only nine were excluded by mtDNA. Importantly, 66 hairs that were considered either unsuitable for microscopic examinations or yielded inconclusive microscopic associations provided mtDNA results. Only six hairs did not provide sufficient mtDNA, and only three yielded inconclusive results. Consistency was observed in exculpatory results with the two procedures. This study demonstrates the utility of microscopic hair examinations and the strength of combining microscopic analysis with mtDNA sequencing.