Feature Channels: Crime and Forensic Science

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Nick Stokes of CSI using fingerprints to identify the murdered and Charlie Eppes of Numbers solving crimes via mathematical equations lead many people to assume that forensic science is a highly technical field relying on experts that always have a definitive answer about culpability. In fact, forensic statistics is a relatively new field that is working to establish investigative techniques and quantitative methods that ensure accuracy in suspect identification. There are about 25 statisticians worldwide working in forensics science. Two of these happen to be in the mathematics and statistics department at South Dakota State University and have recently received a $780,300 grant to advance the science.

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News of a school shooting or a homicide involving a teenage suspect always leads to the question of why? It is human nature to want an explanation, but too often, the rush to judgment clouds reality, said Matt DeLisi, a professor of sociology at Iowa State.

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Responding to the large number of people with serious mental illnesses in the criminal justice system will require more than mental health services, according to a new report.

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Where people look when watching video evidence varies wildly and has profound consequences for bias in legal punishment decisions, a team of researchers at NYU and Yale Law School has found. This study raises questions about why people fail to be objective when confronted with video evidence.

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Lone wolf terrorist attacks are not on the rise as popular culture might lead one to believe — but the attacks are more personal, use high-velocity firearms and targeting military and police.

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Researchers at Johns Hopkins have identified a highly sensitive means of analyzing very tiny amounts of DNA. The discovery, they say, could increase the ability of forensic scientists to match genetic material in some criminal investigations. It could also prevent the need for a painful, invasive test given to transplant patients at risk of rejecting their donor organs and replace it with a blood test that reveals traces of donor DNA.

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Web-based training targeted at college-aged men is an effective tool for reducing the number of sexual assaults on U.S. campuses, according to a researcher in the School of Public Health at Georgia State University.

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Chris Slobogin of Vanderbilt Law School backs the use of scientific risk assessment in criminal sentencing.

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The U.S. military has made progress by conducting sexual assault training, but a new University of Michigan study raises questions about the effectiveness of those efforts.

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A significant arrest of six suspected poachers took place here on Sept. 7 in a joint operation conducted by the Mecula District police, Luwire scouts and Niassa National Reserve WCS scouts.

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Disturbing news for women on college campuses: a new study from the University at Buffalo Research Institute on Addictions indicates that female college students who are victims of sexual assault are at a much higher risk of becoming victims again.

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Dr. Laura McNeal, assistant law professor at the University of Louisville and legal fellow at Charles Hamilton Houston Institute at Harvard Law School is available to offer legal insight surrounding the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO.

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As the hashtag #Ferguson trends on Twitter more than a week following Michael Brown’s deadly shooting by a police officer in this suburb of St. Louis, Mo., University of Vermont professor @RashadShabazz was deeply engaged in the conversation. It’s a topic that Shabazz, UVM assistant professor of geography and protégé of renowned activist Angela Davis, understands well -- his current research looks at issues surrounding the policing of black communities, the projection of young black men as criminals and the geographies of race and racism. With persistent images suggestive of a war zone in a small American town, and a frenzy of both social and mainstream media reporting the story, Shabazz offers an academic perspective.

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Experts at Drexel University in Philadelphia are available to assist the news media with their coverage of the situation in Ferguson, Missouri, and its implications from a variety of perspectives.

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