Collection and processing of forensic evidence - Paper 3

Question 1

Charlton

Answer 1

Found that fingerprint analysts were motivated by wanting to solve the crime

Question 2

Dror

Answer 2

One study found that analysts often lack inter-observer reliability
Other study high emotional context increased chance of an incorrect match - but sample was students

Question 3

Expectation bias

Answer 3

Ignoring what clashes with what was first expected

Question 4

Confirmation bias

Answer 4

Only accepting/finding what confirms beliefs

Question 5

Anchoring effects

Answer 5

Tendency to rely too heavily on the first piece of information you receive

Question 6

Hall and Player

Answer 6

70 Metropolitan police fingerprint analysis
Given £50 note with barely visible latent mark
Given report on crime - either low or high emotional context
High - forgery then murder
Low - forgery
DV - if they felt affected by emotional context and whether they would take the print to court
No real match to latent mark

Question 7

Hall and Player results

Answer 7

52% in high emotion condition felt affected
6% in low emotion condition
No difference in identifying print
Both groups mostly wouldn’t take them to court - slightly fewer in high emotion

Question 8

Hall and Player applications

Answer 8

Dror - independent checking, not knowing who original analyst was/who is checking
Or print line up