Hall and Player (2008) Will the introduction of an emotional context affect fingerprint analysis and decision-making?

Question 1

What is forensic evidence?

Answer 1

Information from a crime scene that can be presented in a court of law. For example, latent print.

Question 2

What is individualisation?

Answer 2

Isolating a suspect by determining forensic evidence as belonging to them

Question 3

What is forensic confirmation bias

Answer 3

When the motives, desires and expectations affects how evidence is collected and analysed

Question 4

What is inter-observer consistency?

Answer 4

Consistency of analysis between experts

Question 5

What is intra-observer consistency?

Answer 5

Consistency of analysis by an expert

Question 6

Dror(2005) background research

Answer 6

Dror (2005) found that student volunteer participants decision making were affected by emotional context, the more emotive, the more motivated they were to find a match.

Question 7

Dror(2005) cognitive biases

Answer 7

Dror (2005) believed that there are human errors in the analysis of forensic experts called cognitive biases. For example, confirmation bias, and need determination bias. These cognitive biases are more likely to occur when the evidence is ambiguous.

Question 8

Charlton et. al. (2010) background research

Answer 8

Charlton et. al. (2010) interviewed 13 thematic analysts to identify what motivates them Job satisfaction and satisfaction from catching criminals was found.

Question 9

Aim of study?

Answer 9

To investigate whether fingerprint experts are affected by the emotional context of a case

Question 10

Sample?

Answer 10

Self-selecting sample of 70 fingerprint experts working for Metropolitan Police Fingerprint Bureau. Range of experience from < 3 months to > 30 years