Metric forensic anthropology decisions: Reliability and biasability of sectioning-point-based sex estimates

Subjective decisions make human cognitive processes more susceptible to bias and error. Specifically, research indicates that additional context biases forensic anthropologists’ morphological analyses. To address whether metric analyses are also subject to bias, we conducted a pilot study in which 52 experienced osteologists measured a difficult-to-classify human femur, with or without additional contextual information. Using a metric sectioning-point sex-estimation method, participants provided a sex estimate for individual skeletal element(s) and, when given multiple elements, the combined skeletal assemblage. Control group participants (n = 24) measured only the femur. In addition to the femur, bias group participants (n = 28) either measured a female humerus and viewed a female-biasing photograph (n = 14) or measured a male humerus and viewed a male-biasing photograph (n = 14). We explored whether the experts in the different groups would differ in: (1) femoral measurements; (2) femoral sex-estimation conclusions; and (3) final sex-estimation conclusions for the skeletal assemblage. Although the femoral measurements and femoral sex estimates were comparable across groups, the overall sex estimates in the female-biased group were impacted by contextual information—differing from both the control and male-biased groups (p < 0.001). Our results demonstrate that cognitive bias can occur even in metric sex-estimation conclusions. Specifically, this occurred when the metric data and single-element sex estimates were synthesized into an overall estimate. Thus, our results suggest that metric methods are most vulnerable to bias when data are synthesized into an overall conclusion, highlighting the need for bias countermeasures and comprehensive statistical frameworks for synthesizing metric data to mitigate the effects of cognitive bias.     

The Error in “Error Rate”: Why Error Rates Are So Needed,Yet So Elusive

Establishing error rates is crucial for knowing how well one is performing, determining whether improvement is needed, measuring whether interventions are effective, as well as for providing transparency. However, the flurry of activities in establishing error rates for the forensic sciences has largely overlooked some fundamental issues that make error rates a problematic construct and limit the ability to obtain a meaningful error rate. These include knowing the ground truth, establishing appropriate databases, determining what counts as an error, characterizing what is an acceptable error rate, ecological validity, and transparency within the adversarial legal system. Without addressing these practical and theoretical challenges, the very notion of a meaningful error rate is limited.     

Fingerprint error rate on close non‐matches

The accuracy of fingerprint identifications is critically important to the administration of criminal justice. Accuracy is challenging when two prints from different sources have many common features and few dissimilar features. Such print pairs, known as close non‐matches (CNMs), are increasingly likely to arise as ever‐growing databases are searched with greater frequency. In this study, 125 fingerprint agencies completed a mandatory proficiency test that included two pairs of CNMs. The false‐positive error rates on the two CNMs were 15.9% (17 out of 107, 95% C.I.: 9.5%, 24.2%) and 28.1% (27 out of 96, 95% C.I.: 19.4%, 38.2%), respectively. These CNM error rates are (a) inconsistent with the popular notion that fingerprint evidence is nearly infallible, and (b) larger than error rates reported in leading fingerprint studies. We conclude that, when the risk of CNMs is high, the probative value of a reported fingerprint identification may be severely diminished due to an elevated false‐positive error risk. We call for additional CNM research, including a replication and expansion of the present study using a representative selection of CNMs from database searches.     

Confidence in an election authority and satisfaction with democracy: Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment of a failed election in Sweden

Contemporary research on electoral integrity has focused on the functioning, evaluation, and legitimacy of electoral processes in emerging democracies. By contrast, this study investigates whether a failed election in a well-established democracy can affect individuals' evaluations of the electoral management body, the Election Authority, and whether those evaluations affect satisfaction with democracy. Using the case of a Swedish regional election in 2010 that had to be rerun due to procedural mistakes in the vote handling, we found that, in the short term, individuals’ confidence in the Election Authority was reduced after it was announced that the election had to be rerun because of the mistakes. Subsequently, this decreased confidence was strongly associated with less satisfaction with democracy at the regional and national level. As good news for the authority, after a successful rerun election, confidence rebounded to the levels prior to the failed election.     

论“本质错误”——以罗马法为中心

在罗马法中,本质错误与身份错误、行为性质的错误、标的物错误并称为使行为无效的四种实质性错误。本质错误与材料错误相关又不等同于材料错误。本质错误的内涵见于D.18,1,9,2中的"醋为酒卖"案,是在社会经济功能影响下的标的物之内在特性发生错误。本质错误的外延见于"古杯"案及D.18,1,11、D.18,1,14等文本,涵涉了大部分的材料错误和性别错误,并可以作为一种兜底条款适用于那些对诸如艺术品价值、作者发生错误的情形。本质错误在近代演化为法国法的"实质错误"、意大利法的"本质上的错误"、瑞士法的"重大错误"、德国法和我国台湾地区法的"性质错误",在赋予法官自由裁量权的功能上,它们和中国大陆民法的错误制度殊途同归。     

美中贸易协调性的实证分析:垂直专业化视角

基于2005～2012年的月度数据进行实证分析,协整检验结果表明,美国对华出口与从中国进口存在长期稳定的协整关系。从误差修正模型看,短期内美国对华出口与从中国进口之间存在动态调整机制。根据格兰杰因果关系检验,在滞后6期内,美国对华出口与从中国进口之间只存在单向的因果关系,美国对华出口是美国从中国进口的格兰杰原因,美国对华出口增长是美国从中国进口增长的决定因素。脉冲响应函数分析表明,美国对华出口的某一冲击会给美国从中国进口增长带来同向冲击。这些实证结果表明垂直专业化分工在驱动着美中贸易,政府在制定平衡美中贸易的政策时,不应忽视垂直专业化分工以及市场对维持美中双边贸易均衡的约束机制。     

共犯的共犯初论

共犯的共犯是刑法理论和刑法立法上的"冷僻"地带。大陆法系国家的刑法理论纵然对其有些许论述,但依然难以称得上"系统"。对于共犯的共犯之概念,国内外刑法学界都未给出明确界定,而仅有一些"轻描淡写"的解释性表述。至于共犯的共犯之分类、理论归属、认识错误以及刑事责任的把握,则是整个刑法学界未有深入探讨的问题。然共犯的共犯在现实生活中并非仅存于想象之中,其依然会出现在各类共同犯罪之中,故对共犯的共犯诸问题的讨论对刑法理论的完善和司法实践中相关问题的解决大有裨益。     

电子通信错误对合同效力的影响

电子交易中往往会产生一些错误,这类错误与自动电文系统密切相关,主要包括两类：人为错误和信息系统产生的差错。对于电子通信中的人为错误问题,我国应参照美国、欧盟等立法,尤其是借鉴UECIC的规定,做出专门规定,自然人在与自动电文系统交易的过程中,允许发生错误的当事人在自动电文系统未向其提供更正错误的机会时撤回电子通信中发生错误的部分。由于问题的复杂性,电子商务的国内和国际立法都没有就信息系统本身出错的后果做出规定,宜由国内法院根据实际情况而提供不同的答案。     

日本货物进出口贸易协调性的动态分析及启示

日本货物出口与进口之间是否存在协同均衡增长的动态发展关系,是否存在维持进出口内在均衡的机制,文章基于2008年—2012年的月度数据进行了实证分析。协整检验结果表明,日本货物出口与进口存在长期稳定的协整关系。从误差修正模型看,短期内日本货物出口与进口之间存在动态调整机制。根据格兰杰因果关系检验,日本货物出口与日本货物进口存在单向和双向因果关系。脉冲响应函数分析表明,日本货物出口的某一冲击会给日本货物进口增长带来同向冲击。实证结果表明在垂直专业化分工背景下,尽管自动调节机制可以使日本货物进出口向长期均衡调整,但是由于全球需求放缓、向海外转移生产基地、日元持续升值和东日本大地震等不确定因素的综合影响,日本沦为经常项目逆差国的可能性正在加大。     

Metrological framework for selecting morphological characters to identify species and estimate developmental maturity of forensically significant insect specimens

Accurate age estimates of immature necrophagous insects associated with a human or animal body can provide evidence of how long the body has been dead. These estimates are based on species-specific details of the insects’ aging processes, and therefore require accurate species identification and developmental stage estimation. Many professionals who produce or use identified organisms as forensic evidence have little training in taxonomy or metrology, and appreciate the availability of formalized principles and standards for biological identification. Taxonomic identifications are usually most readily and economically made using categorical and qualitative morphological characters, but it may be necessary to use less convenient and potentially more ambiguous characters that are continuous and quantitative if two candidate species are closely related, or if identifying developmental stages within a species. Characters should be selected by criteria such as taxonomic specificity and metrological repeatability and relative error. We propose such a hierarchical framework, critique various measurements of immature insects, and suggest some standard approaches to determine the reliability of organismal identifications and measurements in estimating postmortem intervals. Relevant criteria for good characters include high repeatability (including low scope for ambiguity or parallax effects), pronounced discreteness, and small relative error in measurements. These same principles apply to individuation of unique objects in general.

Key points

• Metrological rigour can increase in forensic entomology by selecting measurements based on their metrological qualities.
• Selection of high-quality features for morphological identification of organisms should consider these criteria: (1) pronounced discreteness of features (minimising group overlap or maximizing interval); (2) high repeatability of assessment (such as symmetrical width rather than asymmetrical length); (3) small relative error in measurement (selecting the physically largest continuous rigid feature for measurement).
• These metrological principles also apply to individuation of unique objects in general.