'

 
Syllabus | Handouts | Prof | Grades | Home

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.

 

click here to continue to the exercises