Government Technology - February 2008 - (Page 20)

Bias in Forensics? Some prosecutors complain the CSI Effect creates unrealistic expectations among jurors who demand cut-and-dry forensic evidence that proves innocence or guilt. But that pressure may help counteract a pro-prosecution bias in the nation’s crime labs, according to one forensic evidence expert. “It’s unintentional, but it’s something subliminal and there’s a tendency to be somewhat biased” said Dan Krane, CEO and DNA specialist at Forensic Bioinformatics in Fairborn, Ohio. “The bias, in turn, causes them to overlook things that an outside expert who’s working for the defense might be able to pick up on and bring to their attention during the course of a trial.” Crime samples are often degraded or mixed with other materials, and that makes them difﬁcult to interpret, making analysis by lab personnel sometimes subjective. “The analysts will have to ﬁll in gaps more or less,” he said, “and they have an unintended tendency to ﬁll them in a way that’s most favorable to the prosecution. “I think it balances out,” Krane continued. “There are these unrealistic expectations about what they can do, but there’s also this putting them on a pedestal that may not be entirely justiﬁed.” Krane advocates blind testing or even double-blind forensic testing. “That’s what you expect when you talk about checking for the efﬁcacy of a new drug or some new treatment in the medical ﬁeld, and yet in forensics, it’s surprising what a novel idea that is.” Case Closed. Sort of. CSI and similar shows create the false perception that there’s always plenty of physical evidence at a crime scene, and that technology exists to infallibly provide conclusive results on that evidence. The reality is altogether different. Crime According to the scenes are messy, and most Human Genome crime labs resemble highProject, DNA school science labs, sometesting is conducted times staffed with forensic by probing for the presence of markers technicians who possess on both suspect and high-school educations. crime-scene DNA. Most people in the crimiMatching a single nal justice field agree that marker does not mean television crime shows affect the samples are from real-life cases, but opinions the same source. The differ on whether the impact more markers that is good or bad. The consenmatch, however, the sus is that jurors’ heightened more likely the DNA is technological expectations from the same source. prompt more evidence to Each probe adds be sent to labs for testing, time and expense to the process. A single which can unnecessarily unmatched marker slow the pace of trials and can eliminate increase the cost of criminal a suspect. investigations. On the other hand, the popularity of high-tech crime programs on TV has spurred nationwide interest in forensics, which could eventually cause life to imitate television. Unreal Expectations CSI is one of the highest rated TV shows, right up there with Dancing With the Stars and Desperate Housewives. Viewers are fascinated by beautiful-but-brainy, do-it-all cops who carry guns, question suspects, work with “I call them investigators in miniskirts,” said Marquis, who is also a National District Attorneys Association vice president. “I mean, the formula is pretty clear. You always have an older male and a female who are kind of hot, and then a younger male and female lead who are very hot. It’s done for dramatic license, and of course, they have CSI people doing arrests and investigations, which they never do [in real life].” Real analysts do their work in the lab — they don’t venture onto a crime scene, said Dan Krane, CEO and DNA specialist at Forensic Bioinformatics in Fairborn, Ohio. “Going to a crime scene, collecting evidence and then performing tests upon it — and then coming to court and testifying about it — that’s just not done by one person,” he said. “It’s a real production-line sort of approach.” And although at least some of the technology on TV is authentic, it’s often portrayed as more agile and foolproof than it really is. Marquis pointed to a CSI episode featuring a gas chromatograph, which is a real instrument, but it was shown in an unlikely location: an investigator’s van. “They cost “It’s conceivable that in another 10 or 15 years, there may even be handheld things that you could use at a crime scene as opposed to the refrigerator-sized things that are the workhorses right now.” Dan Krane, CEO and DNA specialist at Forensic Bioinformatics in Fairborn, Ohio the district attorney, and use a battery of fancy tests that exclude the innocent and prove the guilt of the defendant. To those who actually prosecute and defend criminal cases for a living, the image bears little resemblance to reality. FEB_08 about $60,000 to $80,000, and nobody in their right mind would ever mount one in a car. Because the first time you go over a pothole, you’d have to recalibrate the entire machine,” he said, “but it is a real machine, and it’s used for detecting drugs.” In the scene, an investigator tests for the presence of a drug by swabbing a sink at the crime scene with a probe, which looks like an elongated Q-tip. The probe turns bright blue, suggesting a positive test. “It’s television, so it always has to be a glowing blue,” Marquis said. “It’s really a black sludge.” The material on the probe is then examined by the gas chromatograph, which produces a results chart within seconds. “It is, in fact, what would be generated in about two and a half weeks when you send it in for analysis,” Marquis said. “So in that case, they weren’t making stuff up; there are really gas chromatographs. But the process was so easy and so fast that I think it creates false expectations.” 20 http://www.govtech.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Government Technology - February 2008

Government Technology - February 2008 Contents Point of View Big Picture The Last Mile On the Screen Products Four Questions for... CSI Effect Bad Medicine Making Health Care Personal Cashing In GIS for Less Nabbing Speedsters First Person: Records Management Chatter Box Oregon Data Centers Go Green Products Two Cents Spectrum Up Close Personal Computing signal:noise Government Solutions - Spring 2008 Power Play Double Duty Cleaning House Twice Prepared Smart Move The Path to Success Foundation for Service

Government Technology - February 2008

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