Educating Jurors about Forensic Evidence: Using an Expert Witness and Judicial Instructions to Mitigate the Impact of Invalid Forensic Science Testimony

Invalid expert witness testimony that overstated the precision and accuracy of forensic science procedures has been highlighted as a common factor in many wrongful conviction cases. This study assessed the ability of an opposing expert witness and judicial instructions to mitigate the impact of invalid forensic science testimony. Participants (N = 155) acted as mock jurors in a sexual assault trial that contained both invalid forensic testimony regarding hair comparison evidence, and countering testimony from either a defense expert witness or judicial instructions. Results showed that the defense expert witness was successful in educating jurors regarding limitations in the initial expert's conclusions, leading to a greater number of not-guilty verdicts. The judicial instructions were shown to have no impact on verdict decisions. These findings suggest that providing opposing expert witnesses may be an effective safeguard against invalid forensic testimony in criminal trials.     

鉴定人的责任负担

鉴定人是司法鉴定活动的决定性因素。鼓励专家参与法庭服务与约束专家独立、客观实施鉴定这一对矛盾需要通过制度的合理设置达到一定的平衡状态,以适合诉讼活动的开展。鉴定人的责任负担是体现对鉴定人实施鉴定活动进行约束的主要手段,也是我国进一步深化司法鉴定体制改革不可回避的重要内容之一。     

司法鉴定科技需求的分析与展望

司法鉴定具有科学和法律的双重属性。司法鉴定在保障司法公正、维护社会公平正义、构建社会主义和谐社会中,发挥着重要作用。目前司法鉴定行业科技发展的现状已不能适应司法鉴定行业自身及社会进步的要求,针对司法鉴定科技发展存在的主要问题,对司法鉴定科学技术发展的现状、需求、可行性、目标和意义进行思考并提出相应建议。     

Assessing Cognitive Bias in Forensic Decisions: A Review and Outlook

In recent years, a number of studies have demonstrated that forensic examiners can be biased by task-irrelevant contextual information. However, concerns relating to methodological flaws and ecological validity attenuate how much the current body of knowledge can be applied to real-life operational settings. The current review takes a narrative approach to synthesizing the literature across forensic science. Further, the review considers three main issues: (i) primary research on contextual bias within forensic science; (ii) methodological criticisms of this research; (iii) an alternative perspective that task-irrelevant contextual information does not always lead to error. One suggestion for future research is outlined, which is that studies on contextual bias in forensic decisions should be conducted in collaboration between forensic scientists and cognitive psychologists. Only then can rigorous and ecological valid experiments be created that will be able to assess how task-irrelevant contextual information influences forensic analysis and judgments in operationally valid settings.     

Officials' Estimates of the Incidence of “Actual Innocence” Convictions

Evidence indicates that the conviction and imprisonment of factually innocent persons occur with some regularity. Most research focuses on causes, but the incidence of wrongful convictions is an important scientific and policy issue, especially as no official body gathers data on miscarriages of justice. Two methods are available for discovering the incidence of wrongful conviction: (1) enumerating specific cases and (2) having criminal justice experts estimate its incidence. Counts or catalogues of wrongful conviction necessarily undercount its incidence and are subject to accuracy challenges. We surveyed Michigan criminal justice officials, replicating a recent Ohio survey, to obtain an expert estimate of the incidence of wrongful conviction. All groups combined estimated that wrongful convictions occurred at a rate of less than ½ percent in their own jurisdiction and at a rate of 1–3 percent in the United States. Defense lawyers estimate higher rates of wrongful conviction than judges, who estimate higher rates than police officials and prosecutors. These differences may be explained by professional socialization. An overall wrongful conviction estimate of ½ percent extrapolates to about 5,000 wrongful felony convictions and the imprisonment of more than 2,000 innocent persons in the United States every year.     

Advancing Wrongful Conviction Scholarship: Toward New Conceptual Frameworks

As wrongful conviction scholarship grows, some scholars have suggested that existing research on miscarriages of justice lacks theoretical grounding and methodological sophistication, arguing that the use of social science theory may help to better understand wrongful convictions. In this article, we suggest that it may be useful to draw upon conceptual frameworks found in traditional criminal justice studies, discuss what such approaches might suggest about miscarriages of justice, and begin to explore the questions or topics they may encourage interested researchers to pursue. Furthermore, through this broad theoretical lens, we can see that criminal justice theory is present, at least implicitly, in some existing innocence literature, and that making such theoretical connections more explicit may help to move the study of wrongful conviction into the mainstream of criminal justice research.     

How Cross‐Examination on Subjectivity and Bias Affects Jurors’ Evaluations of Forensic Science Evidence

Contextual bias has been widely discussed as a possible problem in forensic science. The trial simulation experiment reported here examined reactions of jurors at a county courthouse to cross‐examination and arguments about contextual bias in a hypothetical case. We varied whether the key prosecution witness (a forensic odontologist) was cross‐examined about the subjectivity of his interpretations and about his exposure to potentially biasing task‐irrelevant information. Jurors found the expert less credible and were less likely to convict when the expert admitted that his interpretation rested on subjective judgment, and when he admitted having been exposed to potentially biasing task‐irrelevant contextual information (relative to when these issues were not raised by the lawyers). The findings suggest, however, that forensic scientists can immunize themselves against such challenges and maximize the weight jurors give their evidence by adopting context management procedures that blind them to task‐irrelevant information.     

分子印迹技术及其在司法鉴定领域的应用

分子印迹技术（MIT）是制备对特定目标分子具有分子识别功能聚合物（MIPs）的一门技术,由于MIPs具有的选择性,被广泛应用于各领域。对MIT和MIPs进行了介绍,并对其在司法鉴定领域的应用进行了综述。     

侦查机关所属鉴定机构和鉴定人备案登记问题的探讨

侦查机关所属鉴定机构和鉴定人备案登记的特殊性超越了法律的规定形式．其正当性和合法性存在不足。司法行政部门在直面现实的基础上,应当严格侦查机关所属鉴定机构和鉴定人备案登记管理程序,完善外在的责任形式,从而消除备案登记对统一司法鉴定管理体制可能带来的影响。     

法庭科学实践教学探索

法庭科学是以科学技术手段确认相关法律事实的证据,是诉讼活动与科学技术密切结合的产物。在社会法制化程度日趋提高的今天,法庭科学已经成为法学专业培养高级人才不可缺少的一门重要学科。由于法庭科学具有自然科学的属性,专业性、实践性很强,针对缺少法庭科学前期基础的法学学生而言,采用实验及多媒体组合等多种实践教学模式不仅能够缩短教学时间、提高教学效率,突破教学的重点和难点,保证教学质量,而且能够充分发挥学生学习的主动性,极大地促进其能力的培养和综合素质的提高。本文通过对法庭科学人才素质培养目标的论证,阐述了法庭科学实践教学的主要模式及必备的条件,并结合现阶段法庭科学实践教学中存在的主要问题,有针对性地提出了相关的完善措施。     

司法鉴定机构质量管理规范探讨

本文根据国际质量管理和质量控制的一般原理,融合司法鉴定的法律法规和行业特性,全面分析控制司法鉴定质量的技术和管理要素,以组织管理、资源保障、过程控制、持续改进为主题,提出司法鉴定机构质量管理规范的基本框架和内容。     

Context Effects in Forensic Entomology and Use of Sequential Unmasking in Casework

Context effects are pervasive in forensic science, and are being recognized by a growing number of disciplines as a threat to objectivity. Cognitive processes can be affected by extraneous context information, and many proactive scientists are therefore introducing context‐minimizing systems into their laboratories. Forensic entomologists are also subject to context effects, both in the processes they undertake (e.g., evidence collection) and decisions they make (e.g., whether an invertebrate taxon is found in a certain geographic area). We stratify the risk of bias into low, medium, and high for the decisions and processes undertaken by forensic entomologists, and propose that knowledge of the time the deceased was last seen alive is the most potentially biasing piece of information for forensic entomologists. Sequential unmasking is identified as the best system for minimizing context information, illustrated with the results of a casework trial (n = 19) using this approach in Victoria, Australia.     

An Approach to Speaker Identification

This presentation will provide standards upon which any attempts to meet the challenge of identifying speakers by voice should be based. It is organized into a model based on (i) application of a rigorous research program validating the system, (ii) an upgrading of the organization of the SI area, and (iii) exploitation of new technology. The second part of the presentation will describe an illustrative speech/voice approach to SI development. This effort is also based on an extensive corpus of research. It is suggested that application of the cited standards, plus the illustrative model, will permit reasonable progress to be made. Finally, a number of procedural recommendations are made; they should enhance the efficacy of the proposed approach.     

公安机关鉴定人员面临错鉴责任风险

错案时有发生,错案与错误的科学证据有着密切关系。在全面推进依法治国、建设社会主义法治国家的大背景下,公安部对《公安机关人民警察执法过错责任追究规定》做了修订,其中的内容涉及鉴定人员出具虚假、错误鉴定意见的法律责任。除了相关部门加大投入、提高鉴定人员的待遇之外,作者提出了5条建议:加强对鉴定人员的职业伦理教育;鉴定人员应当努力提升自身的业务水平;规范实验室管理,严格鉴定程序;做好送检的检材、样本等物证的交接与保管;增强鉴定文书书写制作意识,保存好鉴定档案。     

Error and its Meaning in Forensic Science

The discussion of “error” has gained momentum in forensic science in the wake of the Daubert guidelines and has intensified with the National Academy of Sciences' Report. Error has many different meanings, and too often, forensic practitioners themselves as well as the courts misunderstand scientific error and statistical error rates, often confusing them with practitioner error (or mistakes). Here, we present an overview of these concepts as they pertain to forensic science applications, discussing the difference between practitioner error (including mistakes), instrument error, statistical error, and method error. We urge forensic practitioners to ensure that potential sources of error and method limitations are understood and clearly communicated and advocate that the legal community be informed regarding the differences between interobserver errors, uncertainty, variation, and mistakes.     

比较法视野下的司法鉴定制度的反思

司法鉴定是依据科学的基础原理由专业的鉴定人员做出结论的实证技术活动。它是科学的产物,但是不一定等于科学。如果不能对错误司法鉴定进行区分、鉴别的话,其结果只能是一个盲人领着一群盲人。司法鉴定制度有其独特的运行规律,也有其异域的可以借鉴之处,这些也是保证司法鉴定科学、合法、准确必须抓住的要素。     

从证据学角度探讨法医学及其分支学科的重新定义

从证据学角度,对法医学及其分支学科进行了重新定义和划分。同时,为了从人文科学和自然科学两个方面理顺法医学的学科定位,尝试澄清了＂证据科学＂与＂法（庭）科学＂、＂应用医学＂与＂特种医学＂等相关上下位学科和平行学科的概念。     

论侦查机关内设鉴定机构的法律性质

刑事侦查机关内设鉴定机构所从事的司法鉴定活动的法律定性在理论上尚存争议。从司法鉴定的性质看,对鉴定人与鉴定机构的关系剖析基础上论证侦查机关内设鉴定机构实行自然人鉴定人制度．并对其独立性及回避等诉讼程序问题进行探讨。     

刑事技术、刑事技术鉴定与司法鉴定关系之考量

刑事技术、刑事技术鉴定与司法鉴定作为科学技术发展到一定程度和阶段的产物,因其自身技术手段应用的结果被理论与实践模糊与混用而衍生弊害,影响了"侦查的科学化"、制约了"审判的科学化",甚至阻碍了司法鉴定制度改革的深化。对其模糊而混用的成因与流变进行追溯、考察发现,对它们在技术涉及的范围、可靠程度及其结果的功能上的差距,应当予以区分。在深化司法鉴定制度改革过程中,除应对刑事技术、刑事技术鉴定与司法鉴定在理论上作出初步界分外,还需要建立司法鉴定技术准入制度及淘汰制度、刑事技术鉴定向司法鉴定的转化机制以与之调适。     

How Media Exposure Relates to Laypersons’ Understanding of Psychopathy

While conceptualization of psychopathy has evolved, so too has the public's relationship with psychology changed. Concurrently, portrayal of psychopaths has made several shifts, both through nonfiction sources and in popular film and television. Psychopathic villains of the mid‐20th century have made space for a growing cast of protagonist psychopaths. This study examined whether a relationship existed between exposure to fictional psychopaths and how lay individuals conceptualize psychopathy. Specifically, this study explored conceptualization differences based on exposure to antagonist versus protagonist fictional psychopaths. Surveyed community participants supported earlier research suggesting mixed misunderstanding of psychopathy. Additionally, higher exposure to protagonist psychopaths was associated with higher endorsement of flattering distractor traits, reflecting a kind of romanticized psychopathy. These findings have legal, practical, and ethical implications, including the potential for biased jurors, confounded research about psychopathy's labeling effect, and questions about how psychologists should respond on an individual and systemic level.