bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Bloodstain Pattern Interpretation
Authors: Macdonell Herbert L. 
Published: September 2009

Abstract
Bloodstains which result from an accident or criminal action may often allow an accurate reconstruction of the event that produced them. This chapter gives a brief introduction to bloodstain patterns and their interpretation. It is based upon physical laws and is illustrated with many examples that were produced in the laboratory as well as many case applications. A short history of this discipline is included as well as the physics of why blood behaves the way it does when being deposited on a surface or is acted upon by some external force.
Palynology
Authors: Bryant Vaughn M. 
Published: September 2009

AbstractForensic pollen studies in the United States of America and to a great degree in other regions of the world as well are currently one of the most highly under utilized and neglected techniques available to assist in solving criminal and civil cases. During the past century, there has been a very limited attempt to use pollen evidence in either criminal or civil cases, for a variety of reasons, including a lack of available information about the technique, a very limited number of specialists trained to do forensic pollen work, and an almost total absence of academic centers that are able to train needed specialists, or forensic facilities able, or willing, to fund research in this area. We outline examples of how forensic pollen evidence has proved helpful in finding and convicting criminals guilty of various types of crimes. The paucity of use of forensic palynology can change provided steps are taken to encourage the routine collection, analysis, and use of pollen evidence in both criminal and civil cases.
DNA
Authors: Walsh Simon J. 
Published: September 2009

Abstract

Biologically, humans consist of trillions of cells organized into physical matter occurring as tissue (such as bone or muscle), organs (such as skin or eyes), or fluid (such as blood or semen). Forensic biology attempts to investigate at a cellular and subcellular level traces of this matter deposited during a criminal offence. The component of human cells that plays the most significant role in this sophisticated scientific analysis is a molecule known as
deoxyribonucleic acid
or DNA.
MitochondrialDNA: Profiling
Authors: Melton Terry 
Published: September 2009

AbstractMitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis is a routine adjunct to crime scene investigation. Introduced in the early 1990s to aid with the identification of military remains, and implemented since then by the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory in Rockville, Maryland in all military conflicts, it was first used in criminal justice proceedings by the FBI in 1996 in Tennessee v. Paul William Ware. In that case, a single hair located in the throat of a victim linked Ware to a homicide. MtDNA provides a valuable locus for forensic DNA typing in certain circumstances, especially for skeletal remains, shed hairs or hair fragments, and degraded samples of all types. In general it is used when STR (short tandem repeat) testing is not possible due to limited or degraded nuclear DNA because mtDNA is naturally abundant and resistant to degradation. MtDNA cannot be a unique identifier, as can nuclear DNA, due to its pattern of maternal inheritance, nor does it have the statistical power of a nuclear DNA match; as such, it is used as supplementary circumstantial evidence in criminal cases. MtDNA analysis has played a large role in the identification of missing persons when applied to skeletal remains.
Statistical Evidence in Court
Authors: Koehler Jonathan J. 
Published: September 2009

Abstract
This article examines the different ways that forensic science matches may be characterized at trial and what jurors think about those matches. The focus is on common but erroneous match characterizations, and misconceptions jurors may have about the meaning of a match. There is also discussion about the significance of error rates and how presentation of match statistics affects jurors' beliefs about the strength of the evidence. A final section counsels forensic scientists to avoid mischaracterizing the strength of match evidence and to be forthcoming about the assumptions behind the statistics they offer.
DNADatabases and Evidentiary Issues
Authors: Walsh Simon J. , Buckleton John S. 
Published: September 2009

AbstractDNA databases can be used as an investigative and/or an evaluative tool. Despite DNA databases having established themselves in an investigative sense, there remain some peculiarities regarding the integration of outcomes from DNA databases into evidence. The major issues are the likelihood of adventitious matches between profiles, robustness of the interpretation model, and controversy around the appropriate approach for reporting a DNA match statistic in cases where the suspect was identified by a database search. Each of these issues has had some significant bearing in criminal trials and, as such, they require the attention of forensic scientists to ameliorate their effect on public confidence or legal outcomes.
Friction Ridge Examination (Fingerprints): Interpretation of
Authors: Champod Christophe 
Published: September 2009

Abstract
This article presents the current state of affairs regarding the assessment of fingerprint evidence, typically when a mark, showing a friction ridge skin impression, is compared against a known impression (or print) from a suspect. Both the empirical approach (based on the concept of a numerical standard) and the holistic approach (without any predefined minimum number of minutiae) are discussed. Regardless of the approach, the mechanisms used by practitioners to reach definite decisions remain rather obscure and lack transparency. That is currently at the heart of most critical views expressed by scholars debating the reliability of the field. The author suggests moving toward a probabilistic approach (without resorting to categorical opinions) based on structured, systematic, and peer‐reviewed research.
Microscopy: Light Microscopes
Authors: Hopen Thomas J. , Davis Malcolm 
Published: September 2009

Abstract
The most commonly used instrument in a forensic science laboratory is the light microscope. Of all the available microscope types, the low magnification and ease of use make the stereomicroscope the instrument of choice for preliminary examinations. With little or no preparation of the sample, the stereomicroscope allows an examiner to evaluate and segregate evidence for further examination. A compound microscope, either with brightfield or polarized light, is used to characterize and identify particulate material based on physical features and optical properties. For the trace evidence analyst, it is the polarized light microscope that is the most widely employed analytical instrument since the examiner can characterize and identity almost any type of particulate material. The epi‐fluorescence microscope has become a valuable tool to distinguish similar samples based on their fluorescent properties. The comparison microscope is used extensively in several forensic disciplines to directly compare two samples simultaneously. This article covers the different types of microscopes described above and gives insight into their use in the forensic laboratory.
Deception: Detection of and Brain Imaging
Authors: Ganis Giorgio , Kosslyn Stephen M. 
Published: September 2009

AbstractThe detection of deception is critical for national security and forensics. Numerous studies have shown that observers cannot discriminate truth tellers from liars on the basis of overt behavior. Although methods based on measuring peripheral psychophysiological variables (such as heart rate and skin conductance) have resulted in better deception detection rates, these methods are still not sufficiently accurate for many applications (e.g., security screening settings in which liars are very infrequent in the pool). In an effort to achieve better detection rates, researchers have begun to examine signals generated directly by the brain. Event‐related potentials (ERPs) are the most commonly used technique for brain‐based detection of deception, but functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has also been used in recent years. The accuracy rates reported so far by using these techniques are still typically under 90%, although ongoing work on paradigm development, brain monitoring methods, and statistical analyses is likely to improve these rates in the future. Finally, the effect of countermeasures on these accuracy rates is still under investigation for ERPs, but has not been examined with fMRI.
Visitation Rights
Authors: Bernet William , Kenan Joseph 
Published: September 2009

Abstract
This article summarizes the procedure for how a mental health professional should conduct a child custody evaluation. The authors address the format for the evaluation, including the initial conference with both parents together, the individual meetings with each parent, the meetings with the child(ren), outside information that should be collected, psychological testing, and the wrap‐up conference with the parents and their attorneys. The article also discusses the critical factors that should be considered in drawing conclusions and making recommendations, such as the child's attachment to the parents, the child's preference, and the possibility of indoctrination and parental alienation. An outline is provided for the written report of the child custody evaluation.
Children: Suggestibility of
Authors: Block Stephanie , Segovia Daisy A. , Goodman Gail S. 
Published: September 2009

Abstract

Suggestibility is of special concern when children provide eyewitness accounts. Although research is mixed on the extent to which misinformation adversely affects children's memory
per se
, it is clear that young children's reports can be susceptible to internal and external influences. Risks of suggestibility can be reduced by interviewing children as soon as possible after incidents, avoiding presentation of false information, limiting parental and peer pressure on children to conform to false suggestions, and refraining from induction of false stereotypes. Additionally, research shows that interview techniques utilizing free recall and open‐ended questions help reduce suggestibility in children's memory reports. Examples of such interviews include the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) protocol and revised cognitive interview. Individual differences in children, such as in language ability, parental attachment style, and inhibition skill, may be associated with reduced suggestibility, but often inconsistently; caution should be taken when considering these factors' predictive power. Research is mixed in terms of whether child witnesses of negative/traumatic events as opposed to neutral events are more or less suggestible. It is important to reduce suggestibility in interview contexts both to prevent wrongful convictions and to protect the credibility of accurate child witnesses.
Delusions
Authors: Silva J. Arturo , Leong Gregory B. , Weinstock Robert 
Published: September 2009

AbstractDelusions involve false beliefs not based on external reality and proof or evidence to the contrary. Delusions are symptoms of underlying psychiatric or medical conditions. The content of delusions varies widely. In a variety of clinical and forensic contexts, the presence of delusions may be particularly relevant. In addition, malingering of delusions as well as denial of actual delusions may complicate clinical or forensic assessment.
Interrogation
Authors: Costanzo Mark , Leo Richard A. 
Published: September 2009

AbstractInterrogations are designed to persuade a presumably guilty suspect to admit that he committed a crime. Although the “third degree” was once common in the United States, it is now rare for interrogators to rely on physical abuse as a means of extracting criminal confessions. Instead of physical force, police now rely on psychological coercion. Over the course of an interrogation, police strive to convince the suspect that the evidence against him is compelling and that admitting guilt is the only sensible course of action. The interrogator seeks to create the impression that confessing will actually improve the suspect's otherwise hopeless situation. Sometimes an innocent suspect will be misclassified by police as guilty and subjected to psychologically powerful interrogation techniques. A significant number of these innocent suspects will offer a false confession. Methods of reducing the risk of false confessions and subsequent wrongful convictions (e.g., video recording of interrogations and expert testimony at trial) are discussed.
Juvenile Justice: Adolescent Development
Authors: Steinberg Laurence 
Published: September 2009

Abstract
Some have argued that courts ought to assess defendants' maturity on a case‐by‐case basis, pointing to the fact that older adolescents, in particular, vary in their capacity for mature decision‐making. But the tools needed to measure psychosocial maturity on an individual basis are not well developed, nor is it possible to distinguish reliably between mature and immature adolescents on the basis of brain images. Consequently, assessing maturity on an individual basis, as we do with other mitigating factors, is likely to produce many errors. However, the maturing process follows a similar pattern across virtually all teenagers.
Therefore it is both logical and efficient to treat adolescents as a special legal category—and to refer the vast majority of offenders under the age of 18 to juvenile court, where they will be treated as responsible but less blameworthy, and where they will receive less punishment and more rehabilitation and treatment than typical adult offenders. The juvenile system does not excuse youths of their crimes; rather, it acknowledges the development stage and its role in the crimes committed, and punishes appropriately.
Malingering: Forensic Evaluations
Authors: Vitacco Michael J. 
Published: September 2009

AbstractMalingering for the purposes of evading criminal prosecution or obtaining drugs is commonly seen in forensic settings, and forensic mental health clinicians often face difficult decisions when evaluating and treating these individuals. In civil settings, malingering is often related to obtaining potentially large financial settlements. In order to appropriately assess and manage malingering, clinicians must have in‐depth knowledge of the following: (i) prevalence rates of (ii) common reasons for countertransference toward malingering patients; (iii) empirically validated measures of malingering; and (iv) clinical issues related with the evaluation of malingering.
Memory: Repressed
Authors: Fowler Nicci B. , Nelson Kally J. , Loftus Elizabeth F. 
Published: September 2009

Abstract
Assertions by some writers that people repress horrific memories and reliably recover them later have led to a controversy within the social science professional community and the legal field. Despite the lack of proof that massive repression exists, it remains the primary issue of debate in the overall disagreement between proponents and critics of repression. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, claims of recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) affected many families and spurred creative interpretation and changes in legal statutes to bring these cases into the courtroom. While it is certainly possible that people can refrain from thinking about unpleasant experiences and be reminded of them later, this constitutes ordinary forgetting and remembering. Virtually no credible scientific evidence has been produced to support the notion of some special processes such as repression. Many individuals reporting recovered memories of CSA during this era had been subjected to questionable therapeutic techniques, such as guided imagery, hypnosis, and dream interpretation designed to ferret out allegedly buried CSA memories. Critics of repression worry that such suggestive procedures induce false memories. Some false memories may even be very similar to true memories and can be embellished and later reported with great emotion.
Mental Status: Examination
Authors: Yang Suzanne , Smith Delaney M. 
Published: September 2009

AbstractThe Mental Status Examination (MSE) is a means of gathering and recording information regarding an individual's mental state in a clinical interview. It is commonly used by treating clinicians to communicate information in the medical record and is often included in a forensic mental health report in order to convey the evaluee's mental condition at the time of examination. In this article, we review the similarities and differences between clinical treatment interviews and the forensic interview, with regards to the data obtained in each setting. We then summarize the major categories of descriptive data that are generally included in the MSE, whether in the context of treatment or in the context of a forensic evaluation. The MSE is of interest in the forensic setting in two main instances: in forensic evaluations by mental health experts and in medical records that are subpoenaed for civil or criminal cases. The article concludes with a brief comment on the reliability and limitations of the MSE.
Profiles: Psychological and Behavioral
Authors: Edwards Carl N. 
Published: September 2009

AbstractThe often misused termprofileis best restricted to investigative tools used to narrow down likely suspects and establish reasonable suspicion necessary to justify an action in the field. Reasonable suspicion is reviewed on a case‐by‐case basis to assure protection of suspect rights. As evidence at trial, profiles easily become little more than a means to either link a defendant to undesirable traits or stereotypes; or for the defense to attribute by association positive or sympathetic attributes to a defendant. Although behavioral science evidence may be proffered for use at trial, including statistical compilations, such evidence should have relevance to the applicable party as an individual, and the termprofileavoided when possible.Expert testimony concerning a trait of an accused may only be used as evidence that the accused possesses such a trait. It must be left to the jury to determine whether and how such a trait may influence the facts of the case. While the termprofilemay appear to give behavioral evidence an aura of scientific respectability, such labels themselves do nothing to enhance the stature of the substantive underlying observations. In fact, if anything, good science and credible observation are more readily accepted without them.
Behavioral Science Evidence
Authors: Edwards Carl N. 
Published: September 2009

Abstract
Human beings have understood and accommodated the relationship between individual differences, conduct, and culpability since before recorded history. Henry de Bracton, built on this foundation in the thirteenth century, created a modern judiciary that could unite disparate clans into a nation under law. Bracton also reasoned that law involved two components: the physical fact of whether a person committed a crime, and a corresponding requirement of mental accountability. The prerogative of granting dispensations on the basis of mental accountability was reserved for kings and religious officials until the United States rejected royal and religious rule, and enacted laws that transferred behavioral dispensations to trial juries. Behavioral evidence now accounts for the single largest category of expert testimony in the United States, and the academic literature on the topic is followed worldwide.

Insanity is not a medical or psychiatric term; it is a
legal
concept that must be determined as a question of fact. The behavioral sciences today bear little resemblance to where they were 50 or even 30 years ago. Questions of motive and state of mind are, by definition, unique to a given person at a specific time. The task of an expert witness is to assist the trier of fact. The reality that the vast majority of people may fit a particular pattern is irrelevant, if there is any chance that the person being evaluated may be an exception. The fact that behavioral experts may disagree often, reflects nothing more than one expert arguing the rule, and another the exception.

“Novel” behavioral theories and classifications have had a tendency to create both “victims” and causes of action. Typically, these proposed conditions are advanced during a period of social change, anxiety, and as a seeming means of righting some historic wrong. Case congregations provide a vivid record of shifts and corrections in the judicial process. Most problems are self‐correcting, given an open forum and a public, both willing to accept new ideas in its effort to do the right thing, and also able to recognize mistakes.
Psychological Testing
Authors: Andrews Paul 
Published: September 2009

AbstractPsychological testing, one aspect of psychological assessment, has developed clinically along two paths which provide information about an individual. While cognitive testing provides data about skills such as intelligence and memory, personality testing produces information about emotional states, behavioral patterns, and interpersonal tendencies. This article traces the modern development of psychological testing with particular emphasis on personality testing with adults. Application of personality testing within a forensic context is discussed.
Intersecting Lines: Documents
Authors: Shiver Farrell C. 
Published: September 2009

AbstractThe sequence of intersecting lines may play an important role in the forensic examination of a document. The determination that elements of a document were prepared out of the proper sequence provides evidence that the document has been altered. While most line intersection problems involve writing inks, they may also involve typewriting, computer‐printed text, paper folds, and indentations. Many methods have been suggested to determine the order of intersecting lines. Some are more effective than the others. This article reviews a number of techniques.
Paper Analysis
Authors: Murphy John P. 
Published: September 2009

AbstractAnalysis of the paper on which documents are written can give important information. The information derived can assist in detecting document fraud, or in linking particular criminal suspects with materials, documents and or other samples of paper associated with the crime under investigation. The paper discusses (i) paper properties and standard paper test methods and (ii) fiber analysis of paper as a means of discriminating one paper from the other. The above subjects are discussed in general terms and references are provided to standard pulp and paper test methods to which the reader may refer for more in‐depth study.
Firearm Examination: Ballistics
Authors: Jackson Michael 
Published: September 2009

Abstract

The study of forensic ballistics can be divided into four fields of study, namely, internal, intermediate, external, and terminal ballistics. Internal ballistics deals with the events that take place within the firearm. Intermediate ballistics covers a transition phase between internal and external ballistics and occurs around the muzzle of the firearm. External ballistics deals with the trajectory of the projectile between the muzzle of the firearm and the target. External ballistics covers the various factors that have an influence on the flight of a projectile. Terminal ballistics is a study of the projectile's impact with the target. Terminal ballistics looks at the effects that the projectile has on the target and the effects that the target has on the projectile. When the target is a person, the term
wound ballistics
is more appropriately used.