Assessing the Validity of Forensic Decisions Through Interrater Reliability

本项目将调查在发射弹壳比较技术背景下法医决策的可靠性和有效性。它通过审查不确定的法医决定是由真正模糊的物证还是由非证据因素造成的来做到这一点。该项目还将研究由两种不同来源产生的模式证据是否有足够的区别，以便法医检查人员能够一致地检测到。该项目将采用实验方法来检验对发射的弹壳进行法医分析的有效性。通过判读信度，本研究将评估多个法医鉴定人在评估相同证据时得出相似结论的倾向。该项目还将确定两种不同武器在发射后的弹壳上留下的工具痕迹是否足够明显，以便由不同的检查人员检测到。这些比较将使项目能够测试模式匹配法医技术的有效性，这些技术必须依赖于主观的人类判断。由于这项研究解决了与众多法医技术相关的问题，它将显著推进整个法医科学决策的证明价值的知识。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project will investigate the reliability and validity of forensic decision making in the context of the technique of fired cartridge case comparison. It does so by examining whether inconclusive forensic decisions result from truly ambiguous physical evidence or from non-evidentiary factors. The project additionally will study whether pattern evidence produced by two different sources is sufficiently distinct to be consistently detected by forensic examiners. The project will employ an experimental approach to test the validity of forensic analyses of fired cartridge cases. Through interrater reliability, the research will assess the tendency for multiple forensic examiners to reach similar conclusions when evaluating the same evidence. The project also will ascertain whether the toolmarks left on fired cartridge cases by two discrete weapons are sufficiently distinct to be detected by different examiners. These comparisons will enable the project to test the validity of pattern matching forensic techniques that necessarily rely on subjective human judgments. As this research addresses issues relevant to a multitude of forensic techniques, it will significantly advance knowledge about the probative value of decision making throughout the forensic sciences.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.