Read more
Handbook of Forensic Statistics is a collection of chapters by leading authorities in forensic statistics. Written for statisticians, scientists, and legal professionals having a broad range of statistical expertise, it summarizes and compares basic methods of statistical inference (frequentist, likelihoodist, and Bayesian) for trace and other evidence that links individuals to crimes, the modern history and key controversies in the field, and the psychological and legal aspects of such scientific evidence.
Specific topics include uncertainty in measurements and conclusions; statistically valid statements of weight of evidence or source conclusions; admissibility and presentation of statistical findings; and the state of the art of methods (including problems and pitfalls) for collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data in such areas as forensic biology, chemistry, and pattern and impression evidence. The particular types of evidence that are discussed include DNA, latent fingerprints, firearms and toolmarks, glass, handwriting, shoeprints, and voice exemplars.
List of contents
1. The history of forensic inference and statistics: a thematic perspective. 2. Frequentist methods for statistical inference. 3. Bayesian methods and forensic inference. 4. Comparing philosophies of statistical inference. 5. Decision theory. 6. Association does not imply discrimination: Clarifying when matches are (and are not) meaningful. 7. Validation of forensic automatic likelihood ratio methods. 8. Bayesian networks in forensic science. 9. How well do lay people comprehend statistical statements from forensic scientists? 10. Forensic statistics in the courtroom. 11. DNA frequencies and probabilities. 12. Kinship. 13. Statistical support for conclusions in fingerprint examinations. 14. Probabilistic considerations when interpreting data base search and selection effects. 15. Comparing handwriting in questioned documents. 16. An introduction to firearms examination for researchers in statistics. 17. Shoeprints: the path from practice to science. 18. Forensic glass evidence. 19. Estimation of insect age for assessing minimum post-mortem interval in forensic entomology casework. 20. Statistical models in forensic voice comparison. 21. Bringing new statistical approaches to eyewitness evidence.
About the author
David Banks is a professor in Department of Statistical Science at Duke University. He is a former coordinating editor of the Journal of the American Statistical Association, director of the Statistical and Applied Mathematical Sciences Institute, and a Fellow of the ASA and the Institute of Mathematical Statistics. Karen Kafadar is a Commonwealth Professor and the chair of the Department of Statistics at the University of Virginia. She is a former president of the ASA; a Fellow of the International Statistics Institute, the ASA and the AAAS; and a former member of the Forensic Science Standards Board (FSSB) of the Organization of Scientific Area Committees for Forensic Science (OSAC). David Kaye is Distinguished Professor of Law Emeritus at Pennsylvania State University and Regents’ Professor of Law and Life Sciences Emeritus at Arizona State University. He is a former editor of Jurimetrics Journal; a member of the FSSB; and the 2020 recipient of the Association of American Law Schools’ Wigmore Lifetime Achievement Award for contributions to the understanding of the proof process and the rules of evidence. Maria Tackett is an assistant professor of the practice in Department of Statistical Science at Duke University.
Summary
Provides a definitive review of the state of best practice for statistical testimony across a wide range of the forensic sciences, including DNA and fingerprint matching, handwriting analysis, foot prints, eye witness identification, tool marks, bite marks, etc.
Report
"In conclusion, this book is an impressive and comprehensive body of work, well-structured, well-written and perfectly presented, that can be useful for both professionals in statistics and forensics fields."
- Gia Jgarkava, International Society for Slinical Biostatistics, 72, 2021
