Lecture 11 - Bias in Forensic Science Flashcards
What is Bias in terms of a noun?
Incliniation or prejudice for or against one person or group, especially in a way considered to be unfair
What is bias in terms of forensic biology?
A bias is skew that predisposes a process to produce a particulary outcome
What causes peopl to be biased?
- Nurture
- Nature
What is nuture in terms of forensic bias?
At a young age, children learn to discriminate between “them” and “us”
What is nature in terms of forensic bias?
Likes versus dislikes without being conscious of their prejudice
Its human nature to assign judgment based on first impressions
What is lesson one of the brain?
Your brain doesn’t what is doesn’t expect to see (and it’s blind to blindness)
What is lesson two of the brain?
Your brain will find meaning wherever it can (even when there is none)
What is lesson three of the brain?
Your brain does some things automatically, despite your best efforts
What is lesson four of the brain?
Your brain makes assumptions
What is lesson five of the brain?
Your brain has great difficulty ignoring context
What is lesson six of the brain?
Once seen, context cannot be “unseen”
What is lesson seven of the brain?
Your brain interperets information in light of the information it already has
What is lesson eight of the brain?
Your brain will look to confirm what it already thinks or wants to think
What is lesson nine of the brain?
Your brain will do almost anything to justify its decisions (even the terrible ones)
What is confirmation bias?
When a prior hypothesis is formed and the examiner then looks fofr evidence in support for it
What is contextual bias?
When extraneous information skews reasoning or judgment leading to a biased outcome
What is expectation bias?
Expectation of what an individual will find affects what is actually found
Why is forensic science vulnerable to bias?
FIrst 5 points
- Evidence that is often highly ambiguous
- Lack of objective standards
- Many contextual cues
- Perception of infallibility
- Limited potential for mistakes to be immediately identified
Why is forensic science vulnerable to bias?
Second 6 points
- Negative consequences of unsolved crime
- Knowing the nature and details of the crime
- Pressure from detectives
- Time and resourcing pressure
- Working within, and as part of the police
- Appearing in court in an adversarial system
What do experts do differently in terms of bias?
- Filter (they fliter out irrelevant information)
- Simplify
- Experience (utilize past experience)
- Quickly (do things quickly)
What are the costs of expertise?
- Automatic (automatically increases)
- Explain (decisions become less easily articulated)
- Expect (have more defined expectations)
- Context (rely more on extraneous factors)
- History (make more “snap” judgements)
What does it mean when experts are confident?
Experts tend to be highly confident in their abilities
What does it mean when experts are immune?
Experts tend to believe that they are immune to bais
What can we do to prevent forensic bias?
- Awareness
- Blind control
- Peer review
- Appraisals and checks
