Extra Effort During Memory Retrieval May Be Associated with Increases in Eyewitness Confidence

When testifying in court, witnesses are motivated to try as hard as possible to give an accurate account. This study tested the proposition that extra effort by eyewitnesses during a memory test can lead to higher confidence ratings without any accompanying changes in accuracy. Participant-witnesses answered multiple-choice questions about a classroom visitor who had spoken 5 days earlier. In the high-motivation condition participants could earn prizes based on their memory test performance; in the low-motivation condition there were no special incentives. Although the motivation manipulation did not affect mean witness confidence, the confidence–accuracy and effort–accuracy correlations were substantially smaller in the high-motivation condition than in the low-motivation condition. Furthermore, the confidence ratings for those participants who reported expending high levels of effort in both motivation conditions were significantly higher than the confidence ratings for the low-effort participants, despite the fact that response accuracy did not differ as a function of reported effort. These findings have important implications for understanding how pressures to perform well in the courtroom can affect eyewitness confidence.     

Analysis of the CODIS autosomal STR loci in four main Colombian regions

Genotype polymorphism studies at the 13 loci STRs included in the combined DNA index system [CODIS and PCR-based short tandem repeat loci, in: Proceedings of the Second European Symposium on Human Identification, Promega Corporation, Madison, WI, 1998, pp. 73-88; J. Forensic Sci. 46 (2001) 453] (CODIS: D3S1358, HUMvWA31, HUMFGA, D8S1179 D21S11, D18S51, D5S818, D13S317, D7S820, HUMTH01, HUMTPOX, HUMCSF1PO and D16S539) were carried out in a sample of 1429 unrelated Colombian individuals belonging to 25 different departments. As many other countries in Latino-America, Colombia shows an important admixture component, basically integrated by Amerindians, European-descendants and African-descendants. Due to the fact that only partial population analyses have been carried out in the country, the main aim of the present analysis is to establish a database of forensic interest based on the widely used CODIS systems covering the main Colombian regions.     

ASTM standards for fire debris analysis: a review

The American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) recently updated its standards E 1387 and E 1618 for the analysis of fire debris. The changes in the classification of ignitable liquids are presented in this review. Furthermore, a new standard on extraction of fire debris with solid phase microextraction (SPME) was released. Advantages and drawbacks of this technique are presented and discussed. Also, the standard on cleanup by acid stripping has not been reapproved.Fire debris analysts that use the standards should be aware of these changes.     

Australia: court reduces prison sentence of person with HIV

In August 2002, the Court of Appeals of the state of Victoria, Australia, reduced the non-parole portion of a man's prison sentence from two years to 18 months because imprisonment would be a greater burden on someone with HIV than on a healthy person.