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Advanced Topics in Forensic Science > Ethical Considerations > Flashcards

Ethical Considerations Flashcards

1
Q

What are professional ethics?

A

Principles, values and constraints imposed on practitioners by the mandates of their profession and workplace

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2
Q

What are all scientists expected to be?

A
  • competent
  • thorough
  • objective
  • willing to communicate freely the results and the significance of their experiments
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3
Q

What is the role of the forensic expert?

A
  • expert witnesses can only be declared by a Judge
  • forensic scientists remain a scientist first and are an expert secondary to that role
  • give expert opinions within area of expertise
  • used when facts are unclear in a case
  • used when clarification of procedures is needed
  • used when a jury needs assistance in making an educated decision
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4
Q

Case of Stefan Kiszko

A
  • was convicted with the murder of an 11 year old
  • police pursued evidence to incriminate Kiszko and ignored other leads that may have led them in other directions
  • they said that the inconsistencies within Kiszko accounts demonstrated his guilt
  • he then confessed to the crime after 3 days of intensive questioning - prior to the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984, Kiszko did not have a right to a solicitor
  • he had a mental and emotional age of a 12 year old
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5
Q

Forensic scientists contribute scientific reliability in court, which may what?

A
  • ensure the guilty receive punishment
  • free innocent people
  • provide a method to correlate a measurment of scientific reliability with a specific facet of forensic science
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6
Q

What is an ethical dilemma?

A

A type of ethical issue that arises when the available choices and obligations in the specific situation do not allow for an ethical outcome

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7
Q

What are the 4 common themes that ethical dilemmas occur?

A
  1. truth vs loyalty - maintaining personal integrity or keeping fidelity pledged to others
  2. indivduals vs group - interests of an individual or a larger community
  3. immediate vs future - present benefits or those that are longer term
  4. justice vs compassion - fair and dispassionate applications of consequences or individual need
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8
Q

What are the general guidelines from Bowen 2010?

9 of them

A

do not:
1. use misinformation to support your claims
2. represent yourself as an expert if you are not
3. use misleading or unfounded reasoning
4. divert attention away from an issue
5. miss use peoples emotions by presenting topics that have little to do with the main idea
6. deceive people of your intentions, viewpoints, or purpose
7. hide potential consequences, positive or negative
8. oversimplify issues to convolute a point
9. advocate things that you do not support

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9
Q

What are the four distinct sources of pressure that Bowen 2010 identifies?

A
  1. the Police Service who are usually the clients and submitters of forensic material
  2. the adversarial system in which results are evaluated
  3. the science on which our data are based
  4. personal sense of ethics and morals
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10
Q

What are some of the ethical tensions in Bowen 2010?

A
  • preparation of reports containing minimal information
  • reporting findings without an interpretation
  • omitting a significant point from a report
  • failure to report or acknowledge any witnesses
  • failure to differentiate between opinions based on experiment and opinions based on experience
  • expressing an opinion with greater certainty than the data justify
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11
Q

Conflicts, frustrations and impediments arise from what four distinct sources?

A
  1. law enforcement
  2. the adversarial system
  3. science
  4. from within the individual
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12
Q

Preece v H.M. Advocate case

A
  • Preece was convicted of murder by strangulation
  • Dr. C’s tests were corroborated by a junior colleague who carried out no tests himself
  • Dr. C withhelf evidence about the victims blood and so he reached unwarrantable conclusions
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13
Q

What are some motivations associated with scientists in the role of expert witnesses?

A
  • competition
  • job security - specifically self-employed people
  • economic reward - payment to testify about something with the sole purpose of confusing the issue
  • principle - when one expert testifies against another for unprofessional motivations such as revenge, spite, or economic reward
  • recognition
  • ego - some experts may feel that they do not need to prepare as thoroughly for testimony on some subjects because of who they are, the background they have, or the type of case that they work upon
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14
Q

Case of Joseph Kopera

A
  • false credentials
  • didnt have the degree that he claimed to have
  • does this mean hes fabricated information about the ballistic evidence that he has given in court
  • does this lack of degree mean he is not an expert
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15
Q

What were the list of ethical misconduct that Barry Fisher wrote 2000?

11 of them

A
  1. planting evidence at a crime scene to point to the defendant
  2. collecting evidence without warrant by claiming exigency of circumstances
  3. falsifying lab examinations to enhance the prosecutions case
  4. ignoring evidence of the crime scene that might exonerate a suspect or be a mitigating factor
  5. reporting on forensic tests not actually done out of misguided belief tht the tests arent necessary
  6. fabricating scientific opinions based on invalid interpretations of tests or evidence to assist prosecution
  7. examining physical evidence when not qualified to do so
  8. extending expertise beyond ones knowledge
  9. using unproved methods
  10. overstating an expert opinion by using terms unfamiliar to juries
  11. failing to report a colleage, superior or subordinate who engages in any of the previously listed activities to the proper authorities
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16
Q

Ann Chamberlain

A
  • conducted DNA test on her husbands underwearwith expired chemicals and outside of work hours
  • also allowed a friend access to the lab for paternity testing
17
Q

What are the dangers of occupational subculters that Bowen 2010 sites?

5 of them

A
  1. violate the ethics of public service
  2. undermined the relationship between justice practitioners and clients
  3. allow goals to remain achieved
  4. encourages corruption, which could destroy the integrity of an agency
  5. based on ignorance, bias and egoism
18
Q

Ray Cole

A
  • falsely described his degree in his CV
  • does this actually affect the testimony on whether the suspect was intoxicated?
  • strength of testimony was based on his experience not his degree
  • but if hes willing to lie about this is he willing to lie about other things
19
Q

Why are latent print examiners different from other forensic evidence examiners?

A
  • if they testify that the defendant is the source of the latent print this is excluding all other possible sources in the universe
  • fingerprints are ‘unique’
  • whereas with DNA there will be a random match probability to indicate the frequency that someone else could have the same profile
20
Q

Name two people who were found to have testified without having done analysis?

A
  • Michael West: opinions on a particular weapon causing a particular would without doubt was based off gut instinct
  • Fred Zain: falsified test results and provided incriminating testimony in captial murder cases without doing analysis
21
Q

Alison Lancaster

A
  • DNA analyst
  • wrote reports without doing analyses
  • caught because no reagents were being used
22
Q

Joyce Gilchrist

A
  • hair examiner
  • inadequate training and no science mentor
23
Q

Annie Dookhan

A
  • falsified lab results
  • at least 1100 cases were dismissed
  • falsely claimed to have a masters in chemistry
  • wanted to improve her productivitiy
  • dry labbing
24
Q

What is dry labbing?

A

a scam where you only test a small selection of samples

25
Q

What are the four guiding principles for the profession of forensic science?

A
  • technical competence and employ reliable methods
  • honesty with respect to qualifications and should limit examinations to their area of expertise
  • intellectual honesty
  • objectivity in the review of evidence
26
Q

What does the credibility of the forensic scientist depend on?

A

Reliability and accuracy of the work performed

27
Q

Sonja Farak

A
  • chemist
  • tested evidence collected in drug cases
  • stealing drugs from her workplace and doing them at work
28
Q

What did the NAS report say?

A
  • no uniform code of ethics accross forensic science disciplines
  • to practice forensic science competently, the forensic examiners must be educated and trained as scientists
  • empirical research into examiner bias and error to develop SOPs
29
Q

What do scientific methods allow?

A
  • pursues general impressions to the specific level of detail
  • pursues testing by breaking hypotheses into their smallest logical components, one part at a time
  • allows tests either to prove or to disprove alternative explanations
30
Q

What are the characteristics of a reliable method?

A
  • integrity
  • competence
  • defensible technique
  • relevant experience
31
Q

What are the ethics relating to the scientific method?

A
  • inquiring, progressive, logical and unbiased
  • not merely for the sake of boosting their conclusions, utilise unwarranted and extra tests in an attempt to give greater weight to the results
  • conclusions will not be drawn from materials which are unreliable
  • no discredited or unreliable procedure will be used
32
Q

What are the ethics relating to opinions and conclusions?

A
  • valid conclusions call for the application of proven methods
  • tests are made to disclose true facts
  • all interprettations should be consistent with with that purpose
  • where results are inconclusive or indefinite, any conclusions drawn shall be fully explained
  • need to be aware of limitations
  • dont interpret to favour a side by which they are employed to justify their employment
  • distinguish between speculative and fact
33
Q

What are the ethical aspects of court presentation?

A
  • expert will not hesitate to indicate while they have an opinion it may lack certainty of other opinions
  • avoid the use of terms and opinions that will be assigned greater weight than is due
  • avoid terms that may be miscontrued or misunderstood
  • refuse to extend themselves beyond their field of competence

Advanced Topics in Forensic Science (6 decks)

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