Forensic science and the law

Forensic Science today makes an important contribution to the operation of the Criminal Justice System providing evidence which could help decide the guilt of a suspect. Forensic Science is able to do so because it has developed to operate within the reality determined by the Criminal Justice System. Changes that are occurring today seem to upset the relationship between Forensic Sciences and the Criminal Justice System by the creation of communication problems. Examples of these problems exist in the changes occurring in the concept of death made necessary by organ transplants. These changes have shifted the focus from the quantity of life to the quality of life and make it impossible for the Forensic Scientist to answer honestly the questions that might be put him. The need for reforms in the law in view of social changes has been recognized and in many countries attempts at such changes are afoot. With these changes a new reality is being defined. Forensic Science, being a discipline that comes first in contact with a multitude of emergent problems, has a part to play in the definition of this reality.     

Social science and the Courts

Social scientists have increasingly become involved in the submission of amicus curiae or friend of the court briefs in legal cases being decided by state and federal courts. This increase has triggered considerable debate about the use of briefs to communicate relevant social science research. This article evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of various methods of summarizing social science research for the courts. It also reviews the procedures for submitting briefs developed by the American Psychology-Law Society which, in collaboration with the American Psychological Association, has submitted its first brief inMaryland v. Craig, a case recently decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.The authors wish to thank James Ogloff, Kathy Roesch, and Claudia Worrell for their comments on an earlier draft     

Product development and the science of chaos

The needs of specialized markets can be deciphered from complex patterns that are derived from the experience of scientists and marketers. These patterns involve the new science called chaos, which enables researchers to extract regions of order and pattern from apparently random and unpredictable data. The technique to construct these patterns has been conceived and developed by the author.     

社会科学、人文科学的滞后和困顿是世界邪教猖獗的主要原因--兼论自然科学与社会科学、人文科学之关系

自然科学与社会科学、人文科学都是影响人类社会进步的重要力量,应保持协调发展.世纪之交的世界范围内出现的邪教逆流,主要是由于自然科学的高速发展,而社会科学发展相对滞后和出现困顿所造成的.自然科学并非无所不能,它只解决人类的物质生活问题,而解决不了人类的精神生活问题.只有使社会科学、人文科学不落后于自然科学的发展和普及,人类才会防止和避免邪教的滋生和蔓延,才会真正走上和谐、幸福之路.     

Context effects in forensic science: a review and application of the science of science to crime laboratory practice in the United States.

This article discusses the phenomenon of "context effects" by reviewing the findings and practices of a range of scientific fields, including astronomy, physics, biology, medicine, and especially the relevant research and theory from psychology. Context information, such as expectations about what one is supposed to see or conclude, has been found to have a small but relentless impact on human perception, judgment, and decision-making. The article then considers the vulnerability of forensic science practice to context effects, and concludes by suggesting that forensic science adopt practices familiar in other fields of scientific work, in particular blind or double-blind testing and also the use of evidence line-ups.     

Social science data and the APA

The wisdom of the American Psychological Association's submitting amicus briefs to affect social or legal policy is questioned by an analysis of the brief claimed to be a strong example of the effective use of social science data in the public policy arena; namely, the APA brief (Bersoff & Ogden, 1987) inLockhart v. McCree (1986). The data relied upon in the brief do not appear to support the assertions based upon them, and other data are adduced to develop the critique. It is concluded that it is mischievous for the Association to address itself to the courts by generalizing a data base well beyond its useful limits: The adversarial and scientific methods of establishing truth are in several respects antithetical.     

Proof of cancer causation and expert evidence: bringing science to the law and the law to science

This article discusses the medico-scientific and the legal views of cancer causation and how these two approaches impact on expert evidence. Cancer cause lends itself well to an exploration of the critical issues which surround its proof and the role of expert evidence in this proof. The article does not seek to identify or to resolve all the controversies or inconsistencies in the area. Rather, it sets up a basic framework for the general presentation and testing of expert medico-scientific evidence in litigation related to cancer causation. Specifically, it seeks to identify the technical questions of law and medical science regarding which medico-scientific disciplines can be relevant to proving cancer causation, and who the relevant expert witnesses to achieve this task would be. Emerging areas of cancer causation are then examined in light of this framework.     

加强科技法学学科建设纵横论

新年伊始,科技法学研究又掀起新高潮。1月10日中国科技法学会在上海召开了“科技法学学科建设研讨会”,中国科技法学会会长段瑞春教授、中国科技法学会副会长曹昌祯教授参加了会议。来自上海市人大教科文卫委员会、上海市科委、上海市信息委、上海市知识产权局、复旦大学、上海交通大学、同济大学、华东政法学院、上海大学、上海政法学院、上海电视大学和上海社科院法学所的专家学者参加了研讨。与会专家围绕科技法学的学科建设展开了认真积极地讨论,大家踊跃发言,各抒己见,欲罢不能。现将部分专家学者的发言整理刊发,以飨读者。     

法治文明与立法科学化——立法技术略论

建设法治国家,实现法治文明,必须首先实现立法的科学化。而要实现这一目标,就必须着力提高中国的立法技术。应当在厘清立法技术的概念及其内容的基础上,针对传统立法技术中存在的问题提出相应的解决办法。     

Race categorization and the regulation of business and science

Despite the lack of consensus regarding the meaning or significance of race or ethnicity amongst scientists and the lay public, there are legal requirements and guidelines that dictate the collection of racial and ethnic data across a range of institutions. Legal regulations are typically created through a political process and then face varying kinds of resistance when the state tries to implement them. We explore the nature of this opposition by comparing responses from businesses, scientists, and science-oriented businesses (pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies) to U.S. state regulations that used politically derived racial categorizations, originally created to pursue civil rights goals. We argue that insights from cultural sociology regarding institutional and cultural boundaries can aid understanding of the nature of resistance to regulation. The Food and Drug Administration's guidelines for research by pharmaceutical companies imposed race categories on science-based businesses, leading to objections that emphasized the autonomy and validity of science. In contrast, similar race categories regulating first business by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and later scientific research sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) encountered little challenge. We argue that pharmaceutical companies had the motive (profit) that NIH-supported scientists lacked and a legitimate discourse (boundary work of science) that businesses regulated by the EEOC did not have. The study suggests the utility of a comparative cultural sociology of the politics of legal regulation, particularly when understanding race-related regulation and the importance of examining legal regulations for exploring how the meaning of race or ethnicity are contested and constructed in law.     

Behavioral science and the juvenile death penalty

Behavioral science data included in an amicus brief has been introduced into a recent Supreme Court decision (Thompson v. Oklahoma) involving the juvenile death penalty. However, a close examination of the data fails to provide support for either the pro- or antijuvenile death penalty position.     

DNA双股螺旋结构与迅猛发展的法庭科学——纪念人类DNA双股螺旋结构发现50周年

自1953年Watson和Crick发表DNA双股螺旋结构,它为人类生命科学,尤其是法庭科学的发展带来了历史性的变化。法庭科学从个体识别和亲子鉴定的排除到认定,经历了DNA指纹图、AMP-FLP及SNP的3个阶段。同时线粒体DNA的应用也在广泛开展。另外数据库的建设和完善成为法庭科学的发展方向。总之,DNA双股螺旋结构对法庭科学革命性变化起了决定性的作用。     

Prevention science,drug abuse prevention,and Life Skills Training: Comments on the state of the science

There has been tremendous growth in the field of prevention science over the past two decades. The defining features of contemporary prevention science are high quality empirical research using rigorous and well-established scientific methods, careful hyphothesis testing, and the systematic accumulation of knowledge. One area where substantial progress has been made is in our understanding of the etiology and prevention of tobacoo, alcohol, and illicit drug abuse. In this paper, we review the growth in prevention as a scientific enterprise, discuss advances in drug abuse prevention research, and review the effectiveness of one approach to the problem of adolescent drug abuse, the Life Skills Traning (LST) program, and the methodological strengths of the LST evaluation research. In addition, we provide a response to criticism regarding two types of data analysis in evaluation research, and show that these analyses can help address a number of important research questions with implications for theory and practice. First, the analysis of high fidelity subsamples can address research questions about the importance of program implementation fidelity; and second, composite measures of concurrent tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana use (i.e., polydrug use) are useful in testing research questions about program effects on more serious levels of drug involvement. With an increasing number of ramdomized controlled trials underway, the field of prevention science is contributing to a new generation of evidence-based approaches and policies that, if widely utilized, offer the potential of reducing the mortality and morbidity associated with a number of major health and social problems.