Alle literatuur, aantekeningen van de hoorcolleges en aantekeningen van de werkgroepen van het vak Criminalistiek en Bewijswaardering aan de Universiteit Leiden.
Forensic evidence can help us to establish the following:
That a particular person was at a given place at a given time;
That a particular person carried out an activity, such as signing a cheque or breaking a
window;
That something was done with a particular instrument, for example, a door was forced
with a particular tool;
A relationship between two people, for example, a paternity disputes and incest or
immigration cases.
We propose to concentrate on how such evidence should be interpreted and incorporated
into the court process.
1.1 Three Principles.
() Locard’s principle: a perpetrator will either leave marks or traces on the crime scene or
carry traces from the crime scene. This is often misquoted as every contact leaves a trace.
() Principle of individuality: Two objects may be indistinguishable, but no two objects are
identical.
() Individualisation principle: if enough similarities are seen between two objects to
exclude the possibility of coincidence, then those objects must have come from the same
source.
The possibility of a coincidence can never be completely excluded. No general
criterion is possible for the number of coincidences needed to decide an individualisation.
How certain we could be would also depend on other evidence and information in the
case. Clearly, such issues and decisions are not up to the forensic scientist but rather the
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trier of fact. The role of the forensic scientist is not to decide the issue but to describe what
the evidence is worth. This principle should, therefore, not be used.
1.2 Dreyfus, Bertillon, and Poincare.
Anthropometry (or Bertillonage): required to take a series of photographs and
measurements of bone features, which were known not to change after adolescence. Later,
fingerprints were added to the features recorded (vingerafdrukken, geen vingersporen!). the
basis of the system was that it would be unlikely that any two people would have the same
measurements over the whole range of features. Pioncare made three important points about
Bertillon’s evidence.
1. Bertillon had erred in that the figure he produced was the probability of getting the
four similarities amongst four examined characteristics.
2. Events that have actually occurred might be seen beforehand as highly improbable.
3. Inverse probability problem: the difference between calculating in advance the
probability of an effect and calculating after the event the most probable cause of an
effect.
Pioncare went on to make the point that single items of evidence enable us to alter our
assessment of the probability of an event but they cannot determine the probability of an event
on their own.
To be able to calculate, form an observed event, the probability of a cause, we need
several data:
1. We need to know what was a priori, before the event, and the probability of this cause.
2. We then need to know, for each possible cause, the probability of the observed event.
1.3 Requirements for Forensic Scientific Evidence
A photograph is a questionable value, particularly if much time has passed since it was
taken. Similarly, physical descriptions can be broadcast on police radios; even the most
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rudimentary description will eliminate a large proportion of the population. However, when
identity is seriously challenged, descriptions and eyewitness identification are of questionable
value, perhaps because the question has become whether the perpetrator was the accused or
someone of similar appearance.
Lawyers often tend to ignore evidence that does not claim to provide certainty, but by
doing so, they lose relevant and probative evidence.
Hoorcollege 1 (6 September)
Forensic science: the application of scientific principles and technological practices for
the purposes of justice in the study and resolution of criminal, civil and regulatory issues
(American Academy of Forensic Sciences, 2003).
Forensic science: a systematic endeavor to describe how events of legal concern have
happened based on observation, hypothesis formation, and experiment (Sensabaugh, 1997).
Criminalistics: the science of individualisation (Kirk, 1963).
Criminalistiek: Terug redeneren (Berger, 2010).
Criminalistiek: that profession and scientific discipline directed to the recognition,
identification, individualisation, and evaluation of physical evidence by application of the
physical and natural sciences to law-sciences matters (American Board of Criminalistics).
Criminalistiek: that professional occupation concerned with the scientific analysis and
examination of physical evidence, its interpretation, and its presentation in court (California
Association of Criminalists).
Nederlands Forensisch Instituut (NFI).
Gesloten systemen: handheld devices / Open systemin: laptop en computers.
MFT: ondersteuning van de politie bij moordzaken, vooral in regio’s waar moordzaken
nauwelijks voorkomen.
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