HW2:
CONTINUED
You probably never noticed, but much of what your read has a claim/evidence/warrant structure.
Let's look at another article about this week's theme. In a 2007 article in the New Yorker magazine, Jeffrey Toobin addressed the shaky science behind much of what we call "forensic science"
Here's an edited paragraph taken from the middle of that article.
 |
| Lisa Faber, the supervisor of the N.Y.P.D. crime lab’s hair-and-fibre unit |
Faber’s brief summary defined the dilemma at
the heart of forensicscience. “There are really two kinds of forensic
science,” says Michael J. Saks, a professor of law and psychology at
Arizona StateUniversity, and a prominent critic of the way such science
is used in
courtrooms. “The first is very
straightforward. It says, ‘We have a dead body.
Let’s see what chemicals are in the blood. Is there alcohol? Cocaine?’
That is real science applied to a forensics problem. The other half of
forensic science has been invented by and for police departments, and
that includes finger-prints, handwriting, tool marks, tire marks, hair
and fibre All of those essentially share one belief, which is that
there are no two specimens that are alike except those from the same
source.” Saks and other experts argue that there is no objective basis
for making the link between a “q” and a “k.” There is no scientific
evidence, no
validation studies, or anything else that
scientists usually demand, for that proposition—that, say, two hairs
that look alike came from the same person. It's faith based science. |
You'll see that this paragraph is organized around claim/evidence/warrant.
| Claim |
Faber’s brief summary defined the dilemma at the heart of forensic science. |
| Evidence |
“There are really two kinds of
forensic science,” says Michael J. Saks, a professor of
law and psychology at Arizona StateUniversity, and a
prominent critic of the way such science is used in
courtrooms. “The first is very straightforward. It says,
‘We have a dead body. Let’s see what chemicals are in
the blood. Is there alcohol? Cocaine?’ That is real
science applied to a forensics problem. The other half of
forensic science has been invented by and for police
departments, and that includes finger-prints, handwriting, tool
marks, tire marks, hair and fibre All of those essentially share one
belief, which is that there are no two specimens that are alike
except those from the same source.” |
| Warrant |
There is no scientific evidence, no validation studies, or anything
else that scientists usually demand, for that proposition—that,
say, two hairs that look alike came from the same person. It's
faith based science. |
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