scholarly journals Myths about fingerprint evidence: Basic facts countering miscarriage of justice. Part 1

2021 ◽  
Vol 59 ◽  
pp. 95-115
Author(s):  
Saleh Mansour ◽  
Shital Zade ◽  
Shipra Rohatgi ◽  
Slobodan Oklevski

The long practice of fingerprint science is accompanied by confusing thoughts affecting the interpretation of the fingerprint evidence recovered from a crime scene, and, consequently, prosecutors and judges’ decisions as well. However, despite the tremendous scientific and technological developments relating to fingerprint enhancement, processing, and usage, which clarify precise facts regarding the influence of deposition circumstances, substrate, light, air, temperature, and time factors on fingerprint secretions, misconceptions about fingerprints are still widespread within the law enforcement and judicial system. This problem prevents the proper usage of fingerprints in fighting crimes and supporting the justice system by strong physical evidence. This study aims to highlight some scientific facts about fingerprints as well as a new approach and reconceptualization of fingermarks as a tool for crime scene investigation and training. The article discusses twenty-four myths about fingerprints – part 1 covers ten of them and part 2 discusses the other fourteen. 

2021 ◽  
Vol 59 ◽  
pp. 117-138
Author(s):  
Saleh Mansour ◽  
Shital Zade ◽  
Shipra Rohatgi ◽  
Slobodan Oklevski

This is the second part of the study that aims at highlighting twenty-four myths about fingerprint evidence. In this paper, the authors are going to explicate and clarify the difference between the scientific facts and the wrongful concepts that negatively affect the justice system and the effective usage of fingerprint evidence starting from the initial investigation at the crime scene until the final trial at the courtroom.


Author(s):  
Jan Euteneuer ◽  
Cornelius Courts

AbstractMolecular ballistics combines molecular biological, forensic ballistic, and wound ballistic insights and approaches in the description, collection, objective investigation, and contextualization of the complex patterns of biological evidence that are generated by gunshots at biological targets. Setting out in 2010 with two seminal publications proving the principle that DNA from backspatter collected from inside surfaces of firearms can be retreived and successfully be analyzed, molecular ballistics covered a lot of ground until today. In this review, 10 years later, we begin with a comprehensive description and brief history of the field and lay out its intersections with other forensic disciplines like wound ballistics, forensic molecular biology, blood pattern analysis, and crime scene investigation. In an application guide section, we aim to raise consciousness to backspatter traces and the inside surfaces of firearms as sources of forensic evidence. Covering crime scene practical as well as forensic genetic aspects, we introduce operational requirements and lay out possible procedures, including forensic RNA analysis, when searching for, collecting, analyzing, and contextualizing such trace material. We discuss the intricacies and rationales of ballistic model building, employing different tissue, skin, and bone simulants and the advantages of the “triple-contrast” method in molecular ballistics and give advice on how to stage experimental shootings in molecular ballistic research. Finally, we take a look at future applications and prospects of molecular ballistics.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Liu Ying ◽  
Zhang Qian Nan ◽  
Wang Fu Ping ◽  
Chiew Tuan Kiang ◽  
Lim Keng Pang ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Kelly Gallagher-Mackay

AbstractThe Nunavut Land Claim Agreement commits federal and territorial governments to the recruitment and training of Inuit for positions throughout government. In the justice sector, there is currently a major shortage of Inuit lawyers or future judges. However, there also appears to be a fundamental mismatch between what existing law schools offer and what Inuit students are prepared to accept. A northern-based law school might remedy some of these problems. However, support for a law school requires un-thinking certain key tenets of legal education as we know it in Canada. In particular, it may require a step outside the university-based law school system. Universities appear to be accepted as the exclusive guardian of the concept of academic standards. Admission standards, in particular, serve as both a positivist technology of exclusion, and a political rationale for the persistence of majoritarian institutions as the major means of training members of disadvantaged communities. Distinctive institutions – eventually working with university-based law schools – have the potential to help bridge the education gap between Inuit and other Canadians. In so doing, they have the potential to train a critical mass of Inuit to meaningfully adapt the justice system to become a pillar of the public government in the Inuit homeland of Nunavut.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yen-Ru Chen ◽  
You-Qi Chang-Liao ◽  
Cheng-yu Lin ◽  
Deng-Ruei Tsai ◽  
Jia-He Lim ◽  
...  

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