| 1. |
- Jones, A Wayne, 1945-
(author)
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Which articles and which topics in the forensic sciences are most highly cited?
- 2005
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In: Science & justice. - : Elsevier. - 1355-0306 .- 1876-4452. ; 45:4, s. 175-182
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Journal article (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Forensic science is a multidisciplinary field, which covers many branches of the pure, the applied and the biomedical sciences. Writing-up and publishing research findings helps to enhance the reputation of the investigators and the laboratories where the work was done. The number of times an article is cited in the reference lists of other articles is generally accepted as a mark of distinction. Indeed, citation analysis has become widely used in research assessment of individual scientists, university departments and entire nations. This article concerns the most highly cited papers published in the Journal of Forensic Sciences (JFS) between 1956 and 2005. These were identified with the help of Web-of-Science, which is the on-line version of Science Citation Index, produced by Thomson Institute for Scientific Information (Thomson ISI) with head offices in Philadelphia, USA. This database tracks, among other things, the annual citation records of articles published in several thousand scientific journals worldwide. Those JFS articles accumulating 50 or more citations were identified and rank-ordered according to the total number of citations. These articles were also evaluated according to the name of first author, the subject category of the article, the country of origin and the pattern of co-authorship. This search strategy located 46 articles cited between 50 and 292 times since they first appeared in print. The most highly cited paper by far was by Kasai, Nakamura and White (USA and Japan) concerning DNA profiling and the application of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in forensic science. Some forensic scientists appeared as first author on two to three highly cited articles, namely Wetli (USA), Budowle (USA) and Comey (USA). When the highly cited articles were sub-divided into subject category, 15 were identified as coming from toxicology, closely followed by criminalistics (14 articles), pathology (nine articles), physical anthropology (five articles), forensic psychiatry (two articles) and one from odontology. The number of co-authors on these highly cited articles ranged from one to nine and the names of some investigators appeared on as many as four highly cited papers. The vast majority of papers originated from US laboratories although five came from Japan, two each from Sweden and Canada and there was also a joint USA-Swiss collaboration. The Thompson ISI citation databases provide unique tools for tracking citations to individual articles and impact and citation records of scholarly journals.
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| 2. |
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| 3. |
- Benschop, Corina C G, et al.
(author)
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Results of an inter and intra laboratory exercise on the assessment of complex autosomal DNA profiles.
- 2017
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In: Science & justice. - : Elsevier. - 1355-0306 .- 1876-4452. ; 57:1, s. 21-27
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The interpretation of complex DNA profiles may differ between laboratories and reporting officers, which can lead to discrepancies in the final reports. In this study, we assessed the intra and inter laboratory variation in DNA mixture interpretation for three European ISO17025-accredited laboratories. To this aim, 26 reporting officers analyzed five sets of DNA profiles. Three main aspects were considered: 1) whether the mixed DNA profiles met the criteria for comparison to a reference profile, 2) the actual result of the comparison between references and DNA profiling data and 3) whether the weight of the DNA evidence could be assessed. Similarity in answers depended mostly on the complexity of the tasks. This study showed less variation within laboratories than between laboratories which could be the result of differences between internal laboratory guidelines and methods and tools available. Results show the profile types for which the three laboratories report differently, which informs indirectly on the complexity threshold the laboratories employ. Largest differences between laboratories were caused by the methods available to assess the weight of the DNA evidence. This exercise aids in training forensic scientists, refining laboratory guidelines and explaining differences between laboratories in court. Undertaking more collaborative exercises in future may stimulate dialog and consensus regarding interpretation. For training purposes, DNA profiles of the mixed stains and questioned references are made available.
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| 4. |
- Lidén, Moa, et al.
(author)
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"Blood, Bucks and Bias" : Reliability and biasability of crime scene investigators' selection and prioritization of blood traces
- 2023
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In: Science & justice. - : Elsevier. - 1355-0306 .- 1876-4452. ; 63:2, s. 276-293
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- When crime scene investigators (CSIs) encounter crime scenes with large volumes of blood, some selection and prioritization is often needed, and this will impact on what blood is and is not available for forensic analysis. What factors influence CSIs decision making process is largely unknown. This study examines the effects of awareness of limited resources and irrelevant contextual case information indicating either a homicide or a suicide on CSIs collection of blood traces. To this end, two scenario-based experiments with CSIs and novices were conducted. Overall, the results suggest that even when CSIs decisions are made under identical conditions, their trace selection varies both when it comes to numbers and locations. Furthermore, awareness of limited resources made CSIs collect fewer traces and their selections also varied following the contextual case infor-mation, showing similarities and differences with novices. Since blood traces can be used to establish both ac-tivity and identity the findings can have important implications for the subsequent investigation as well as trial.
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| 5. |
- Lidén, Moa
(author)
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Can criminal justice be predicted? : Using regression analysis to predict judges' decisions on petitions for new criminal trials
- 2024
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In: Science & justice. - : Elsevier. - 1355-0306 .- 1876-4452. ; 64:1, s. 43-49
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Predictability of legal decisions is usually considered a prerequisite for the rule of law, following the maxim ‘like cases should be treated alike’. Yet, this presupposes that the case outcome can be predicted based on the merits of the case, rather than other factors. The purpose of this study was to test whether and to what extent legal decisions on petitions for new criminal trials can be predicted on the basis of other fairly superficial criteria that one could access without even reading the case file, e.g. which Court decided, whether the applicant had legal representation etc. To this end, all petitions for new criminal trials submitted to the Swedish Supreme Court and the six Courts of Appeal in the time period 2010–2020 (n = 3915) were reviewed. This data formed the basis of a regression model which was then used to predict decisions regarding petitions in 2021. On the basis of access to legal representation and crime type, the regression model predicted accurately 100 % of the decisions made in 2021. This raises questions about the evidentiary basis for the decisions and also the role of judges in situations where their decisions are fully predictable.
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| 6. |
- Lidén, Moa, et al.
(author)
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Expert Reliability in Legal Proceedings : "Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe, With Which Expert Should We Go?"
- 2021
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In: Science & justice. - : Elsevier. - 1355-0306 .- 1876-4452. ; 61:1, s. 37-46
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Between Expert Reliability refers to the extent to which different experts examining identical evidence make the same observations and reach the same conclusions. Some areas of expert decision making have been shown to entail questions with relatively low Between Expert Reliability, but the disagreement between experts is not always communicated to the legal actors forming decisions on the basis of the expert evidence. In this paper, we discuss the issues of Between Expert Reliability in legal proceedings, using forensic age estimations as a case study. Across national as well international jurisdictions, there is large variation in which experts are hired to conduct age estimations as well as the methods they use. Simultaneously, age estimations can be fully decisive for outcomes e.g. in asylum law and criminal law. Using datasets obtained from the Swedish legal context, we identify that radiologists and odontologists examining knees or teeth images to estimate age seem to disagree within their own disciplines (radiologist 1 v. radiologist 2 or odontologist 1 v. odontologist 2) as well as across different disciplines (radiologist v. odontologist) relatively often. This may have large implications e.g. in cases where only one expert from the respective field is involved. The paper discusses appropriate ways for legal actors to deal with the possibility of lacking Between Expert Reliability. This is indeed a challenging task provided that legal actors are legal experts but not necessarily scientific experts.
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| 7. |
- Lidén, Moa, et al.
(author)
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The role of alternative hypotheses in reducing bias in forensic medical experts' decision making
- 2023
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In: Science & justice. - : Elsevier BV. - 1355-0306 .- 1876-4452. ; 63:5, s. 581-587
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Medical opinions are often essential evidence in criminal cases but relatively little is known about the factors that impact forensic doctors' decision making. This research examines the role and impact of having an alternative hypothesis while forming a medical opinion. A scenario-based experiment with forensic doctors (n = 20) was conducted. In two out of three scenarios, the existence of alternative hypotheses impacted the actual opinions reached, the confidence in the judgments and the perceived consistency with the plaintiff hypothesis. Investigative and legal actors should be aware of the possibility of biases and importance of having alternative hypotheses when requesting and evaluating medical opinions.
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| 8. |
- Nordgaard, Anders, 1962-, et al.
(author)
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Assessment of forensic findings when alternative explanations have different likelihoods—“Blame-the-brother”-syndrome
- 2012
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In: Science & justice. - : Elsevier. - 1355-0306 .- 1876-4452. ; 52:4, s. 226-236
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Assessment of forensic findings with likelihood ratios is for several cases straightforward, but there are a number of situations where contemplation of the alternative explanation to the evidence needs consideration, in particular when it comes to the reporting of the evidentiary strength. The likelihood ratio approach cannot be directly applied to cases where the proposition alternative to the forwarded one is a set of multiple propositions with different likelihoods and different prior probabilities. Here we present a general framework based on the Bayes' factor as the quantitative measure of evidentiary strength from which it can be deduced whether the direct application of a likelihood ratio is reasonable or not. The framework is applied on DNA evidence in forms of an extension to previously published work. With the help of a scale of conclusions we provide a solution to the problem of communicating to the court the evidentiary strength of a DNA match when a close relative to the suspect has a non-negligible prior probability of being the source of the DNA.
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| 9. |
- Wärmländer, Sebastian K. T. S., et al.
(author)
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Sampling and statistical considerations for the Suchey-Brooks method for pubic bone age estimation : Implications for regional comparisons
- 2011
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In: Science & justice. - : Elsevier BV. - 1355-0306 .- 1876-4452. ; 51:3, s. 131-134
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Although the Suchey-Brooks (SB) system is currently the most widely used method for age-at-death estimation from the pubic bone, the system continues to evolve through stepwise improvements. Since the system was developed from a pubic bone sample derived mainly from North Americans, it is unclear how well it performs on populations from other continents. During the last decade, studies of the SB system on pubic bone samples from local populations in Europe and Asia have indicated regional differences in the relationship between age and pubic bone development. However, these studies have for the most part followed different research protocols, which make comparisons between their results less meaningful. It would be most useful if future regional analysis of the SB system were done in a rigorous and uniform fashion, following standard procedures. In this paper, sampling and statistical considerations are outlined that hopefully will help to standardize research on the SB system.
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