Contents



Preface

*Forensic Analysis - Scientific and Medical Techniques and Evidence under the Microscope*  is an edited collection of cutting-edge analyses of diverse contemporary aspects of forensic science and forensic medicine. It is a truly international collection. It contains eleven chapters from scholars in Australia, China, Egypt, France, India, Iraq, Italy, the Netherlands, Russia and Saudi Arabia. The aim of the collection is to provide information about the parameters of expertise in relation to a number of areas that are being utilised as a part of criminal investigations and that are coming before courts

Key aspects of the evaluation of forensic science and forensic medicine are the concepts of reliability and validity. While validity focuses upon the accuracy of a measure, in forensic matters reliability tends to be the more important issue in terms of the value of expert evidence. Evaluation of the reliability of expert opinion evidence is controversial in all countries and there are diverse yardsticks by which it can be measured, including formal recourse to factors such as falsifiability, error rate, extent of publication in recognised, peer-reviewed journals and reputation amongst colleagues in the same field. When areas are "novel" in the sense of still emerging from the iconoclastic or emerging toward the generally accepted by reference to objective criteria, there can be a tension between the actual techniques and the theories underlying them and the prejudicial effect that they may exert on courts (especially jurors) called upon to evaluate them. This can be so for countries that utilise admissibility criteria for such evidence but also for countries that focus upon the need to determine the probative value of such evidence.

In all such instances, there is a need for scientific and medical rigor with the employment of standardised methods, criteria for interpretation and retention of primary samples for re-testing as required. The caliber of those who undertake the forensic work is critical, as is the quality of the testing facilities, and adherence to ethical probity in disclosure and interpretation of results that may be other than criminal investigators are hoping for. There is always a need for transparency of processes and candid acknowledgment of the status of techniques and theories that as yet may not have fully fledged statistical bases enabling definitive interpretation of test results. In such scenarios courts and tribunals need to exercise circumspection in the reliance that they place upon such evidence, ensuring that witnesses giving evidence about such matters are made accountable for the opinions that they express. This highlights the need for legal practitioners to make themselves sufficiently familiar with the controversies about and limitations in scientific and medical techniques to be able to ask probing questions that expose

The book begins with a review by Freckelton (Chapter 1) of the controversial and emerging area of **forensic gait analysis evidence**, which is given by practitioners from a number of disciplines, including podiatry, photogrammetry, biomechanics and anatomy, and has been the subject of diverse judicial decisions about admissibility in Canada, the United

**The Book**

internationally or will soon do so.

**Reliability and Probative Value**

parameters of expertise and accuracy.

**The Chapters**
