Much of forensic practice today involves human decisions about the origins of patterned sensory evidence, such as tool marks and fingerprints discovered at a crime scene. These decisions are made by trained observers who compare the evidential pattern to an exemplar pattern produced by the suspected source of the evidence. The decision consists of a determination as to whether the two patterns are similar enough to have come from the same source. Although forensic pattern comparison disciplines have for decades played a valued role in criminal investigation and prosecution, the extremely high personal and societal costs of failure—the conviction of innocent people—has elicited calls for caution and for the development of better practices. These calls have been heard by the scientific community involved in the study of human information processing, which has begun to offer much-needed perspectives on sensory measurement, discrimination, and classification in a forensic context. Here I draw from a well-established theoretical and empirical approach in sensory science to illustrate the vulnerabilities of contemporary pattern comparison disciplines and to suggest specific strategies for improvement.

中文翻译：

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如何做出更好的法医决策

今天的许多法医实践都涉及人类对图案化感官证据来源的判断，例如在犯罪现场发现的工具痕迹和指纹。这些决定是由训练有素的观察员做出的，他们将证据模式与可疑证据来源产生的范例模式进行比较。该决定包括确定这两个模式是否足够相似以来自同一来源。尽管几十年来法医模式比较学科在刑事调查和起诉中发挥了重要作用，但失败的极高个人和社会成本——无辜者被定罪——引起了人们对谨慎和发展更好做法的呼吁。参与人类信息处理研究的科学界已经听到了这些呼吁，它已经开始在法医环境中提供关于感官测量、歧视和分类的急需观点。在这里，我借鉴了感官科学中成熟的理论和实证方法来说明当代模式比较学科的弱点，并提出具体的改进策略。