Lecture 11 - Bias in Forensic Science

Question 1

What is Bias in terms of a noun?

Answer 1

Incliniation or prejudice for or against one person or group, especially in a way considered to be unfair

Question 2

What is bias in terms of forensic biology?

Answer 2

A bias is skew that predisposes a process to produce a particulary outcome

Question 3

What causes peopl to be biased?

Answer 3

• Nurture
• Nature

Question 4

What is nuture in terms of forensic bias?

Answer 4

At a young age, children learn to discriminate between “them” and “us”

Question 5

What is nature in terms of forensic bias?

Answer 5

Likes versus dislikes without being conscious of their prejudice

Its human nature to assign judgment based on first impressions

Question 6

What is lesson one of the brain?

Answer 6

Your brain doesn’t what is doesn’t expect to see (and it’s blind to blindness)

Question 7

What is lesson two of the brain?

Answer 7

Your brain will find meaning wherever it can (even when there is none)

Question 8

What is lesson three of the brain?

Answer 8

Your brain does some things automatically, despite your best efforts

Question 9

What is lesson four of the brain?

Answer 9

Your brain makes assumptions

Question 10

What is lesson five of the brain?

Answer 10

Your brain has great difficulty ignoring context

Question 11

What is lesson six of the brain?

Answer 11

Once seen, context cannot be “unseen”

Question 12

What is lesson seven of the brain?

Answer 12

Your brain interperets information in light of the information it already has

Question 13

What is lesson eight of the brain?

Answer 13

Your brain will look to confirm what it already thinks or wants to think

Question 14

What is lesson nine of the brain?

Answer 14

Your brain will do almost anything to justify its decisions (even the terrible ones)

Question 15

What is confirmation bias?

Answer 15

When a prior hypothesis is formed and the examiner then looks fofr evidence in support for it

Question 16

What is contextual bias?

Answer 16

When extraneous information skews reasoning or judgment leading to a biased outcome

Question 17

What is expectation bias?

Answer 17

Expectation of what an individual will find affects what is actually found

Question 18

Why is forensic science vulnerable to bias?

FIrst 5 points

Answer 18

• Evidence that is often highly ambiguous
• Lack of objective standards
• Many contextual cues
• Perception of infallibility
• Limited potential for mistakes to be immediately identified

Question 19

Why is forensic science vulnerable to bias?

Second 6 points

Answer 19

• 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

Question 20

What do experts do differently in terms of bias?

Answer 20

• Filter (they fliter out irrelevant information)
• Simplify
• Experience (utilize past experience)
• Quickly (do things quickly)

Question 21

What are the costs of expertise?

Answer 21

• 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)

Question 22

What does it mean when experts are confident?

Answer 22

Experts tend to be highly confident in their abilities

Question 23

What does it mean when experts are immune?

Answer 23

Experts tend to believe that they are immune to bais

Question 24

What can we do to prevent forensic bias?

Answer 24

• Awareness
• Blind control
• Peer review
• Appraisals and checks