Glossary

Activity-level question

What specifics actions were done by the suspect, e.g. hitting the victim with a bat, stealing from him, etc.

Adversarial Criminal Justice System

A legal system where two sides present their cases to a neutral judge or jury, who determine pass judgement.

Analytical

There is an error in the science, e.g. machine calibration error leads to incorrect chemical analysis of forensic evidence.

Cell tower data

Data collected from cellular towers to identity where a phone was at a particular time.

Cognition research

Studying how people perceive, learn, remember, think, reason, and understand.

DNA

DNA can be from one person or multiple. DNA of people who were never in a room could be recovered because of transfer and persistence of DNA on items carried into the room. DNA can also be airborne.

DNA profiles

These are used to compare a suspect’s DNA to DNA evidence collected at the crime scene to determine if they are the same. This means that the suspect was at the scene, or the suspect’s DNA evidence was transferred to the scene.

Fingermark

Fingermarks come from an individual who’s identity is not known. Fingerprints come from an individual who’s identity is known and as such can be attributed to them.

IoT devices

Internet of Things (IoT) These are objects using the internet to connect and exchange information.

Offence level question

For example, whether a crime is murder vs manslaughter.

Practitioner

The science is sound but the scientist’s judgement introduces error, e.g. a suspect has confessed and the scientist finds fingerprint evidence that matches the suspect even though it is ambiguous.

Systemic failures

There is a problem in the way the system handles the evidence, e.g., evidence is contaminated by other evidence from another crime scene due to inadequate lab procedures.

Traces

Remnants of a crime such as DNA. Fingerprints, semen, text messages.