Forensics Quiz 1

Types of bias

Contextual and confirmation

Contextual Bias

Based on context

If an examiner received evidence from a crime scene and then samples from a suspect, the focus is directed towards that suspect

Confirmation bias

The tendency to look for or be partial towards results that one expects or wants and looks past evidence that does not confirm their expectations

Influence- trusting the results of senior examiners every time (everyone makes mistakes), treat any case you’re reviewing like the first time anyone has seen the case

Sequential unmasking

Process by which information (not needed for analysis) is kept from the analyst in order to shield them from potential bias

Meta Ethics

A branch of philosophy that concentrates on inherent existence and man’s understanding of “goodness”

Inherent existence- We are here and we exist

Man’s understanding of “good-ness”- there is a problem in saying this though because we are continuously arguing this point, and mankind itself cannot agree

Concerning the epistemology of ethics

What knowledge is, how knowledge is created, the extent and limits of that knowledge, and how people gain their beliefs

Source of Ethics: organizations, culture, upbringing, the same places that we get our values

Objectivism

Believe that values are innate- you are born with them, regardless of your understanding and because values are knowable- these values should universally govern human behavior

The problem is that values aren’t universal, which means that they can’t be entirely innate

Relativist

Values are defined depending on our environment, the understanding of right and wrong is relative to our experiences

There is no one definitive universal set of values to govern human behaviors

Normative ethics

Tells us how we should act

But the problem with that is it is based on what is normal (a concept which is 100% relative, and what is normal is constantly changing- it is a highly individualized construct of society)

Concerns itself with paradigms of ethical behavior and operates in a prescriptive manner to establish moral absolutes for how we should behave and live as human beings

The best we can do is the golden rule

Type of normative ethics

Virtue ethics, deontological, teleological, pragmatism

Virtue

“Stand-up-righted-ness”- about a person's internal moral state as a source of ethical behavior rather than compliance with an external code “Internal compass”

Deontological ethics

Duty- what we ought to do

Morality is based on adhering to a set of rules

Actions have moral implications that have to align themselves with your ethical obligations regardless of the consequences of the action

Teleological ethics

What is right is determined by what is good, and what is moral is determined by the consequences of the action

Goal oriented

Pragmatism

Morality is in a constant state of evolution, as time passes, we evolve into a new state of thinking, and our sense of right and wrong changes to reflect that

Applied ethics

How do people use morality

Mediate conflicts between parties and their views of right and wrong

Moral psychology: what people think about what is right

Overlap of ethics and psychology- why people make the decisions that they make

There are degrees to what is right- morally grey areas

Descriptive ethics

What people think and say is right

What people believe/have believed about society and morality and how to implement it

Pulls from anthropology sociology and culture to predict future behavior

Socrates

• Executed for corrupting youth because he rejected divine authority

• It makes sense that we want what we consider valuable- which is the virtue of the soul, which creates our morality 

  • We place a virtue value on things (it’s not just cool to have the expensive item- you might be more highly revered when you have it, which speaks to the value portion_

  • Evil then is committed in error, when we mistakenly value the wrong things

• It is, therefore, more important to keep in mind the long-term consequences rather than the short-term gain 

• The importance of morality is not for the benefit of society but for the internal well-being of the individual

Plato

• Expanded writings of methods of self-examination to encompass why an individual can attain the knowledge to live justly- and the ability to teach it

• Evolved to include the edict that the soul is constantly in the act of acquiring previous knowledge that has since been forgotten in the human form 

• Universal influences:

  • There are physical objects that are temporal and sensory, these are temptations of the flesh- they are poor sources of knowledge as they appeal to the whims of the human senses

  • There are eternal incorruptible forms in the universe- the ascetic and the intellectual truth 

  • Self-discipline is therefore the denial of sensory pleasure

Euthyphro

• A prosecutor who was thought disrespectful for prosecuting his father for murder

• If ethical action is approved by a deity, then there must be some absolute ethic that pre-exists divine authority- because then how did that deity know 

Aristotle

• A student of Plato 

• Eudaimonia

  • Well-being, happiness, and flourishing are the telos of all human beings

• Nicomachean ethics 

  • The meaning of life, and showing up and embracing the purpose of your life

• Rejected the form of “good”

  • Each item, practice, and individual, has its bit of goodness

• Man generally knows what to do in an ethical dilemma 

• Your desires and judgment should be in harmony, so you can experience real happiness, or else you will eternally be in conflict 

• We are what we repeatedly do

Epicurus

• Epicurian- liking the finer things in life, the cultivation of fine taste

  • Thought pleasure ought to be our ultimate goal- physical or mental 

• If deities exist, they are free from the ethical dilemmas that plague man

• Theories based on the emerging science of the time

Stoicism

Life should be based on reason, and you ought to be indifferent to pleasure and pain- they are sensations, but you should not prefer one over the other

Neo-Platonism

Resulted from the pessimism and desolation/desperation resulting from the fall of the Roman Empire

The world is a copy of the ideal reality, and the main pillar of existence is one’s mind.

Christianity

• St Augustine as father figure

• Ethics comes from Jesus Christ and the New Testament, which tells his teachings

  • Expects you to treat god as the ultimate authority

Rene Descartes

• Philosophy is a tree

  • Metaphysics (the roots), physics (the trunk), and practical sciences (the branches) In this analogy, the branches produce the necessary life-supporting elements, or the practical sciences, which are distinct yet interrelated

    • Knowledge, however, requires a bottom-up approach that begins with questioning predetermined notions and establishing an inscrutable foundation.

• The Christian approach is the basis for modern scientific practice

Hobbes

Social contract- people live together in a society by a contract that establishes moral and political rules of behavior

Rousseau

• Sympathy is a distinguishing figure of humanity

• Heavily influenced by roman catholic and protestant churches

• Individuals must submit or give up their freedom and individuality for the greater good of society

Hegel

• German idealist

• Nothing exists without the mind, while the world exists, our knowledge about the outside world is limited by our experiences

Ralph Waldo Emerson

• Essayist

• Americans should return to self-reliance- living off the land and raising your own food

• Believed in miracles, and the perpetual openness of the human mind to the influence of light and power

  • Believed in ecstasy

• Henry David Thorough was a naturalist to the extreme- renounced society entirely and prescribed civil disobedience 

Believed in a simplistic life free from materialism (promotes more ethical behavior)

Niche

• Believed the world is full of suffering that lacks purpose and meaning, and overcoming that suffering is an important exercise for our character

  • Questioned good and bad, and said Heaven is not a real place

• What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger

Frued

• The development of psychoanalysis addressed the recurrent human need to acknowledge a god or higher power

  • As children, we rely on our parents for guidance, so as adults we seek a higher power

    • God is the ideal image of a god for an omnipotent protector

Marx

• His ideas served as the basis for communism

• He emphasized the idea of class struggle as the basis for every society and the dangerous instability created by capitalism

• One sense of goodness, justice, or liberty, is relative and informed by social status

Ethical dilemmas in forensics

Professional credentials, laboratory and analytical procedures, interpretation of analytical data, private vs public practive, obligations and maintenance of procesioal skil, and biases

Professional credentials

Misrepresentation and certifications

Laboratory and analytical procedures

• Drylabbing

• Insufficient analysis 

  • Including not taking the next step of analysis, like after comparing a fingerprint to another, not putting that fingerprint into AFIS

• Indiscriminate analysis 

  • Primary testing is not enough

• Analyzing to fit the written law

  • Weights of drug submissions

    • Class weights to fit the law (what quantity makes it a felony or a higher level felony)

Interpretation of analytical data

• Conformational bias 

• Lab reports vs certification of analysis

• Terminology

• Deceptive and confusing testimony vs an outright lie

• Excessive equivocacy

  • Failing to hold a founded opinion

• Advocacy

  • Understanding and or overstating the evidentiary value

Privately employed forensic scientists

• These labs have a reputation for being biased toward who is paying them

  • So they have an ADDED responsibility of being completely infallible

  • A lot of private labs have government contracts, so you must therefore have an added layer of credibility 

Public forensic science

• To whom does one report, and who signs your paycheck 

• Pressure to “get the bad guy off the street”

Rules to accepting a gift

• Gift ban- you cannot accept a gift for doing your job

  • By law, anything offered to us valued over $100 has to be 

    • 1) Returned with a vigorous thank you 

    • 2) Shared with everyone in the office

    • 3) If it is accepted, you have to donate the equivalent value to a charity in that person’s (the giver) name

      • There are legal forms for this  

    • The safest bet is to decline- but if it’s food, share it if you can, that’s hard to return

• Pay attention to everyone’s intentions- even someone offering for you to join them at lunch

How do we enforce ethical standards?

• Learn from systems where things work and where things done

• Reasonable and responsive ideals

• Principles

  • Accept ethical norms

  • Enumerated and published codes of conduct

    • Reach out to the people who know the positions and the lab in the creation of a list of ethics

    • Position of consensus among managers and people higher than them

  • Cyclical and continuing education to ensure updates are not only known but understood and cover all aspects of the code

  • Availability to all practitioners and all other interested parties

    • You have to know the rules and be able to produce them to enforce them 

  • Documented acceptance of the code and acknowledgment that it has been read and understood

    • If you join a professional organization, you have to read their code of ethics and sign to prove you understand them

Performance = Procedure

• Performance should be dictated by procedure

• ISP latent print policy states that if you ex. Have three prints, and one identifies a suspect, you do not have to identify the others, and you can push the case on

Action = Character

• Actions speak louder than words

• Ex. If you do the extra work to identify the additional prints (past minimum dictated by policy), it is reflective of your diligence, it gives the agency more information, overall very good

Focalism

The tendency to place too much importance or emphasis on a single factor or piece of information when making judgements or decisions