Exam 4: The Psychology of Forensic Identification: Dna, Fingerprints, and Physical Trace Evidence

Biometrics is the:

The most frequently used DNA database system in the world is called CODIS. It is maintained by the:

If a measure or observation consistently produces similar results through repeated measurements, it is known as:

How does reliability differ from validity? Use examples to illustrate both.

Diego is a forensic expert who is asked to testify whether the wound that the victim died from came from a knife found in the suspect's car. Diego has confirmed a high level of agreement between the knife and the wound, which in his professional opinion means the wound was produced by the knife in question. This type of opinion is called a(n):

When comparing the latent prints with the suspect's fingerprints, a _____ makes a decision on whether there is a _____.

In forensic identification, it is crucial to know whether a specific technique, for example, hair analysis, can actually measure if one hair matches another one. If the technique doesn't do a good job, it means it has:

Jurors have great difficulty making sense of _____ statements so they need additional explanations about the meaning of _____.

To reduce error and bias, a blind test can be administered to a forensic examiner, which means that the examiner:

Who pioneered the use of fingerprints in establishing identity?

Two fingerprint examiners have independently concluded that the suspect can be excluded as the source of the print. This scenario illustrates the _____ of fingerprint analysis as a measure.

Temporal consistency is sometimes referred to as:

A false positive means that a(n):

According to the text, forensic experts testifying in court often cannot provide scientific data about error rates. Instead, they are more likely to invoke their:

A survey was administered to high school seniors in Anytown. According to the survey results, fewer than 0.5% of the students drove drunk in the previous 6 months. A month later, the survey was repeated and it again indicated that fewer than 0.5% of Anytown seniors drove drunk in the previous 6 months. Based on this information, the survey has:

The main similarity between Bertillon's anthropometry and modern biometrics is that both:

How can errors in forensic investigations be reduced?

Forensic identification is less likely to result in inconclusive findings when a _____ left at the crime scene is _____.

A survey was administered to high school seniors in Anytown. According to the survey results, fewer than 5 of them drove drunk in the previous 6 months. However, Anytown police records indicate that more than 15 Anytown seniors were arrested for driving drunk in the previous 6 months. Based on this information, the survey has:

Ebony works as a fingerprint examiner. In a blind test, she is asked to determine if the two fingerprints match. She does not know that it is the same pair of fingerprints she has evaluated a few months before. To compare her previous decision with her current decision would allow us to measure: