Interpreting Evidence : Evaluating Forensic Science in the Courtroom

This book explains the correct logical approach to analysis of forensic scientific evidence. The focus is on general methods of analysis applicable to all forms of evidence. It starts by explaining the general principles and then applies them to issues in DNA and other important forms of scientific evidence as examples. Like the first edition, the book analyses real legal cases and judgments rather than hypothetical examples and shows how the problems perceived in those cases would have been solved by a correct logical approach. The book is written to be understood both by forensic scientists preparing their evidence and by lawyers and judges who have to deal with it. The analysis is tied back both to basic scientific principles and to the principles of the law of evidence. This book will also be essential reading for law students taking evidence or forensic science papers and science students studying the application of their scientific specialisation to forensic questions.

Bernard Robertson, Barrister, Inner Temple and New Zealand
Bernard Robertson is a graduate of Oxford, of the LSE, and of the National Police Staff College, Bramshill as well as being a Barrister of the Inner Temple and of New Zealand. After ten years in the Metropolitan Police, Bernard emigrated to New Zealand and taught the law of evidence at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. He and Professor Vignaux have written numerous papers on Bayesian analysis of scientific evidence and of evidence and court decision making in general. He has also been editor of The New Zealand Law Journal and of The New Zealand Law Reports, ensuring that he has kept in touch with a wide range of legal issues, including civil litigation.

G. A.Vignaux, Emeritus Professor,?Victoria University, New Zealand
G A (Tony) Vignaux (retired) was a physicist and an Operations Research worker, and latterly a Professor of Operations Research at Victoria University. Prior to starting work on legal questions he published on the use of Bayesian methods in physics. With Bernard Robertson he has been invited to address conferences and has been consulted on several legal cases and by enquiries into miscarriage of justice. He has participated in teaching evidence and forensic science to law students at postgraduate level.

Charles Berger, Principal Scientist,?Netherlands Forensic Institute,?The NetherlandsCharles Berger is principal scientist at the Netherlands Forensic Institute (NFI), and professor of Criminalistics at Leiden University. He specializes in subjects such as evidence interpretation and forensic inference. At the NFI he is active in a number of areas such as education and research about which he publishes internationally. He also supports the NFI experts, advises the management and oversees scientific quality. He is involved in promoting logically correct reasoning and concluding, introducing more objective methods, and interpretation at the activity level. For such improvements it is essential to explain them as often and as well as possible to all the stakeholders in the justice system. It is an exciting challenge at the interfaces of the worlds of science, police, and law.