Forensic - Area 2

Question 1

What are patent fingerprints ?

Answer 1

They are visible to the naked eye and are often made in blood or ink, etc. They require little collected as they can be easily photographed.

Question 2

What are latent fingerprints ?

Answer 2

They are impressions of skins that are transferred to another surface through the body natural oils and sweat. They are not visible to the naked eye so need specialist analysation and this may lead to more mistakes.

Question 3

What is bottom up processing ?

Answer 3

Purely data driven, so you see what you get.

Question 4

What is top down processing ?

Answer 4

What enters our eyes is translated first by our cognition and prior experience and expectation.

Question 5

What type of processing does fingerprint analysis need to be ?

Answer 5

Needs to be bottom up for looking at the ridges of fingerprints. This makes the analysis more objective and less open to bias.

Question 6

What did Kassin et al look at and state about fingerprint analysis ?

Answer 6

Looked at the Brandon Mayfield case and other cases to prove that forensic science is not infallible (science can make mistakes).

Question 7

What did Hamikian et al state about the reliability of forensic science ?

Answer 7

“Genetics if innocence” found several types of forensic science testimonies had found to have convicted innocent individuals.
38% incorrectly convicted blood analysis.

Question 8

What are some motivating factors for forensic science ?

Answer 8

Public interest
justice for the victime
Reputation
Type of victim (child or vulnerable)
Emotional motivation
Cognitive closure
Desire for consensus

Question 9

What did Charlton look at ?

Answer 9

Looked at the presence of emotions in fingerprint examinations would influence the analysis. Using 13 experienced fingerprint experts who were asked “How did you feel about succeeding in matching prints?”

Question 10

What did Charlton find ?

Answer 10

Found 5 main themes associated with emotion, such as emotions feelings and need for closure and satisfaction associated with catching criminals.

Question 11

What did Dror look at ?

Answer 11

Investigated if some crimes are motivated for experts than others because of the emotional context. 27 volunteer uni students looking at high vs low emotional context.

Question 12

What did Dror find ?

Answer 12

Found non ambiguous pairs were not affected by emotional context but ambiguous pairs were influenced by contextual information of emotional circumstances.

Question 13

What did Kruglanski look at ?

Answer 13

Looked at if need for closure was high, the quicker judgement are made with more confidence. When need is low, the larger the number of possibilities are considered and better decision making occurs.

Question 14

What did Kruglanski suggest ?

Answer 14

Suggests that high profile cases with strong motivation for closure, the use of contextual evidence would create potential for faulty yet confident fingerprint identification.

Question 15

What did Kahneman look at ?

Answer 15

Explained human decision making is not rational as we would like to believe it to be and people make systematic and unitentional errors in judgement.

Question 16

What was the background to Hall and Player ?

Answer 16

Circumstances surrounding a case and pressure to produce results may influence an outcome.

Question 17

What was the aim of Hall and Player ?

Answer 17

To test the effects of context on fingerprint identification by fingerprint experts.
1) Does the written report effect it.
2) Are experts emotionally affected by circumstances.

Question 18

What is the sample of Hall and Player ?

Answer 18

Self-selected sample of 70 fingerprints experts from Met Police. Lasted 3 months to 30 years.

Question 19

What is the experimental method of Hall and Player ?

Answer 19

Field/ lab experiment.

Question 20

What is the IV of Hall and Player ?

Answer 20

Low or high emotional context.

Question 21

What are the DV’s in Hall and Player ?

Answer 21

Measuring if fingerprint was a match.
If they has seen report prior and their own judgement of if it affected their analysis.

Question 22

What is the procedure of Hall and Player ?

Answer 22

They were asked to treat it as a normal working day. They were assigned group to low or high emotional context group. Then completed a questionnaire.

Question 23

What are the results of Hall and Player ?

Answer 23

57/70 said they read the report prior to assessments.
52% of 30 high emotional context said they felt affected by the report.
6% of low emotional context said they were affected by it.

Question 24

What is ACE-V application ?

Answer 24

Analysis, comparison, evaluation and verification.
Is a structured approach to fingerprint identification used widely in the US and UK.

Question 25

What is the process for ACE-V ?

Answer 25

Through examination of the unknown latent fingerprint to observe ridges, patterns and positions. Examiner concentrates on known, inked prints and then compares side by side.
All positive identification opinions must be verified by a second qualified expert. 2nd expert may repeat entire process which i best carried out blind.

Question 26

What background theory would support ACE-V ?

Answer 26

Kahneman as people sometimes make errors in judgement known as cognitive bias so needs to be verified by another researcher.

Question 27

What is linear sequential unmasking ?

Answer 27

When experts work in a linear fashion when analysing evidence. This means reasoning process should work from the evidence to the suspect.
Experts should firstly examine document and evidence before reading case report.

Question 28

What background theory would support Linear sequential sequencing ?

Answer 28

Bottom up processing to reduce bias as fingerprint analysis is purely data driven.
Hall and Player as emotional context did not affect fingerprint analysis.

Question 29

What is training of fingerprint analysists ?

Answer 29

Giving experts training on how to control their emotion. Update their training once a year to remind them of risks associated and how to minimise them.
Check over their work so 1 in 10 prints are checked to see if their emotions are not impacting their analysis.