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Fingerprints at the crime‐scene: Statistically certain, or probable?
Author(s) -
Neumann Cedric
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
significance
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.123
H-Index - 21
eISSN - 1740-9713
pISSN - 1740-9705
DOI - 10.1111/j.1740-9713.2012.00539.x
Subject(s) - certainty , economic justice , fingerprint (computing) , crime scene , psychology , criminology , law , computer science , epistemology , political science , artificial intelligence , philosophy
Fingerprints have been used for a century to identify criminals. But, astonishingly, fingerprint experts rely on subjective opinion, not on objective science. Yet they are required to claim absolute certainty for their judgements – a certainty that is mythical. Cedric Neumann brings probabilities and the hope of better justice to the courtroom; with Julian Champkin he explains the idea.