Crime Topic 2

Question 1

What is topic 2

Answer 1

The Collection and processing of forensic evidence

Question 2

Who is the background research by

Answer 2

Dror

Question 3

What was the method of drors study

Answer 3

Lab

Question 4

Who were the participants in drors study (3)

Answer 4

27 uni volunteers
Mean age 23
9 male and 18 female

Question 5

How many pairs of fingerprints were used in drors research

Answer 5

96 pairs
Half unambiguous so clear
And other half were ambiguous so unclear

Question 6

What were the 4 conditions
What was the design

Answer 6

Low context - minor crimes with pictures of stolen items

High context - violent crimes with picture of knife wound to victims face

Control - shown nothing

High emotion + subliminal - subliminal messages flashed up before fingerprints like guilty and same

Repeated measures

Question 7

What are 3 key results from drors study

Answer 7

In high emotion and subliminal - 66% said unambiguous was as match

In high emotion - 58% said unambiguous was a match

In control - 47% said unambiguous was a match

Question 8

What is the conclusion of drors study

Answer 8

Emotional context can influence h to r likelihood of matching fingerprints even if they are ambiguous

Question 9

Define contextual bias

Answer 9

When someone has other information outside from that being considered which influences (consciously or unconsciously) the outcome of the consideration

Question 10

What is confirmation bias

Answer 10

Propel test hypotheses by looking for confirming evidence rather than for potentially conflicting evidence
(Ignore any anomalies that come up)

Question 11

Who is the key research by

Answer 11

Hall and Player

Question 12

What was the aim of the key research

Answer 12

To investigate whether trained fingerprint experts make misidentifications due to contextual bias

Question 13

What was the method and design in the key research

Answer 13

Lab experiment - as realistic as possible

Design - independent measure design

Question 14

What was the IV in the key research

Answer 14

Whether assigned to low context or high emotional context group

Question 15

What are the 3 DV in the key research

Answer 15

If they read the scene report prior to examining the fingerprint or after

Whether they’d feel confident sharing the evidence in courts

Whether the fingerprint match was
- an identification
- not an identification
- insufficient detail to establish identity
- insufficient

Question 16

What was the sample (3)

Answer 16

70 fingerprint experts
Experience of 3 months to 30 years
Work for met police fingerprint buerau

Question 17

What was the procedure of the key research

Answer 17

They were split into 2 groups - the high emotional context which was a murder case or the low emotional context which was fraud

They were asked to treat the experiment as a typical day at work

They were asked to do feedback sheet after to see if they saw it as a match etc and then if they’d take it to court as well as if the info had affected them or their judgement

Question 18

What are 3 key results from the key research

Answer 18

81.4% read the report before examining the prints

52% in high emotional context felt affected by info and 6% in low context felt affected

17% in high context said it was identification and would take to court
20% in low context said that

Question 19

What is a conclusion of the key research

Answer 19

Experts can deal with fingerprint analysis in a non emotional and detached manner

• not a significant difference between high and low context to court
  In fact low context higher (20%)

Question 20

What is the second strategy in reducing bias when collecting and processing forensic evidence

Answer 20

Six pack technique

Proving one known print and one unknown print created expectation bias and leads to confirmation bias
Having the suspect print mixed with 5 other known prints it reduces any expectation that suspect print will be a match with unknown print

Question 21

What is the first strategy in reducing bias when collecting and processing forensic evidence

Answer 21

Cognitive training
Traininig forensic examines to acknowledge and minimise bias - it can’t be turned off but bh being aware of and then trained bt cognitive experts to minimise influence of cognitive bias.
Ie forensics science training in basic psychology (perception, judgement and decision making)