Psychopathic individuals have trouble detecting threats.

Credit: © Marek / Fotolia 

For many decades fear has been put forth as a hallmark feature of psycho-

pathy, the impairments in which would lead to bold risk-taking behavior.

Psychopaths feel fear but see no danger

Researchers from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and Radboud University Nijmegen found proof that psychopathic individuals can feel fear, but have trouble in the automatic detection and responsivity to threat. For many decades fear has been put forth as a hallmark feature of psychopathy, the impairments in which would lead to bold risk-taking behavior. Sylco Hoppenbrouwers (VU Amsterdam), Erik Bulten and Inti Brazil (Radboud University) reviewed theoretical and empirical brain and behavioral data pertaining to fear and psychopathy and found that psychopathic individuals have trouble detecting threats. 

There was however little evidence that the conscious experience of fear was affected, indicating that the experience of fear may not be completely impaired in psychopathy. It's the first study to provide empirical evidence that the automatic and conscious processes can be independently affected within one psychiatric disorder. The results are published in Psychological Bulletin.

In their systematic review and meta-analysis, Hoppenbrouwers, Bulten and Brazil reviewed the available evidence for the potential existence of the relationship between fear and psychopathy in adult individuals. Importantly, their definition of fear was based on state of the art knowledge of the neurobiological and cognitive underpinnings of this emotion. They used this knowledge to generate a model that separates brain mechanisms involved in automatic detection and responding to threats from those involved in the conscious experience of fear as an emotion. Using this model as reference, they first performed a conceptual analysis of the work of earlier theorists, going back to as early as 1806. They found that only one theorist incorporated the construct of fear into an etiological model of psychopathy.

Fear isn't absent in psychopathic individuals
The evidence for impairments in brain areas involved in the experience of fear was less consistent than is often assumed, indicating that the experience of fear may not be completely impaired in psychopathy. The researchers then conclusively showed that psychopathic individuals have trouble in the automatic detection and responsivity to threat but may in fact feel fear, providing direct empirical support for the claim that the conscious experience of fear may not be impaired in these individuals. An additional meta-analysis examining the five other basic emotions found that there may also be impairments in the experience of happiness and anger, but the lack of consistency in the current literature precluded the generation of strong claims.

New model also applies to mood and anxiety disorders
The research by Hoppenbrouwers, Bulten and Brazil is the first to provide empirical evidence that the automatic and conscious processes can be separated. Furthermore, the proposed model not only applies to psychopathy, but can also be used to further increase conceptual precision and generate new hypotheses for research on mood and anxiety disorders. Inti Brazil: "While psychopathic individuals may suffer from a dysfunctional threat system, people with posttraumatic stress disorder may have a hyperactive threat system, which later leads to them feeling fearful." Sylco Hoppenbrouwers agrees: "As a consequence of our research, some very influential theories that assign prominent roles to fearlessness in the aetiology of psychopathy will need to be reconsidered and made consistent with current neuroscientific evidence. Such re-evaluations of key concepts will lead to increased precision in research and clinical practice which should ultimately pave the way toward more targeted and more effective treatment interventions."

Story Source: Materials provided by Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Sylco S. Hoppenbrouwers, Berend H. Bulten, Inti A. Brazil. Parsing fear: A reassessment of the evidence for fear deficits in psychopathy.. Psychological Bulletin, 2016

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The more we know, the easier we are to deceive

Dr Ciara Greene, University College Dublin

This confirms the reason academics, scientists and reputable journalists don't print things without thoroughly confirming their sources. At least two sources for a piece of information before posting anything. When I see anything posted with only a single source, I discount it until I have a chance to confirm the story from other independent sources.

I'm not alone in this, and this research clarifies why this is such an important practice.

*  *  *  *  *

The more we know, the easier we are to deceive

Knowing a lot about a subject means you are more likely to have false memories about it. That is the paradoxical conclusion of research presented by Dr Ciara Greene from University College Dublin to the annual conference of the British Psychological Society's Cognitive Psychology Section in Barcelona.

Dr Greene and Anthony O'Connell, then a Masters student at University College Cork, asked 489 participants to rank seven topics (football, politics, business, technology, film, science and pop music) from most to least interesting.

They were then asked if they remembered the events described in four news items about the topic they selected as the most interesting and four items about the topic selected as least interesting. In each case, three of the events depicted had really happened and one was fictional.

The results showed that if someone was interested in a topic, this increased the frequency of accurate memories relating to that topic. But it increased the number of false memories too -- 25 per cent of people experienced a false memory in relation to an interesting topic, compared with 10 per cent in relation to a less interesting topic.

And having a high level of knowledge about a topic -- as measured by the number of true memories recorded -- rather than just an interest, increased the frequency of false memories too. People who were more knowledgeable about a subject were nearly twice as likely to remember incidents relating to that topic that never happened.

Dr Greene said: "Increasing scientific and public understanding of the causes of false memory is an important goal, particularly in light of some of the more negative consequences associated with the phenomenon, including faulty eyewitness accounts and the controversies surrounding false memories of traumatic childhood events. I hope that promotion of knowledge about false memories may provide some inoculation against their harmful effects."

Story Source:  Materials provided by British Psychological Society (BPS).  "The more we know, the easier we are to deceive."  ScienceDaily, 25 August 2016. 

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Why prison populations continue to grow even as crime declines

www.plsqld.com

Why prisons continue to grow, even when crime declines

Study finds more offenders have criminal records

"It is much harder for judges to not give prison sentences to

repeat offenders, so we have more convicted people going to prison."

A new study may help explain why the number of people in prison in the United States continued to rise, even as the crime rate declined significantly. A sociologist found that the US criminal justice system continues to feel the reverberations from the increase in violent crime and imprisonment that occurred from the 1960s to the early 1990s.

The U.S. prison population continued to rise even after the crime rate began declining in the mid-1990s because judges were faced with more repeat offenders, a new study suggests.

Using data from Minnesota, an Ohio State University sociologist found that the U.S. criminal justice system felt the reverberations from the increase in violent crime and imprisonment that occurred from the 1960s to the early 1990s.

"The issue is that the average offender who appears before a judge for sentencing today has a much more extensive criminal record than they did in the past," said Ryan King, author of the study and professor of sociology at Ohio State.

King found that the average offender in Minnesota in 1981 had one prior felony. That increased to two prior felonies in 1991 and 2.5 prior felonies in 2013.

"It is much harder for judges to not give prison sentences to repeat offenders, so we have more convicted people going to prison."

In fact, the study found that 15 percent of convicted offenders received a prison sentence in 1981, which increased to 20 percent in 1995, and reached nearly 30 percent in 2013.

King said that it is important to try to replicate these results in other states. But he believes the findings would be similar in most states, because judges across the country emphasize prior records when sentencing offenders.

The data needed for a study like this is not available for a national sample. So King used 33 years of data that was held by the Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines Commission. This included case-level information on each of the approximately 355,000 felony convictions in the state between 1981 and 2013.

This data included the criminal history of the offender, the severity of the crime, the sentencing outcome and several demographic variables.

King found that in 1981, fewer than 40 percent of sentenced offenders had criminal records, but almost 60 percent did in 2001.

"Criminal activity can decrease, but the criminal record only goes up. Judges are dealing with more repeat offenders now," he said.

It's not that judges are treating repeat offenders more harshly now than in the past. In fact, once he controlled for criminal record over time, King found that judges appeared to be getting more lenient, not harsher.

Minnesota has guidelines for judges to consult when they are deciding on prison sentences for specific crimes and circumstances. Sentences that went below the guidelines increased from 18 percent to 23 percent from 2001 to 2013. Sentences that went above the guidelines decreased by about 2 percent in that same time period.

That suggests the problem isn't the length of prison sentences, but who is who is being sent to prison, King said.

"Judges' hands are tied, to some extent. It is hard to show leniency and maintain legitimacy in the public eye when you're dealing with a repeat offender, and judges are seeing more of them than they have in the past," he said.

If the United States wants to reduce the number of people in our prisons, King said these results suggest we need a new approach.

"Instead of focusing mainly on first-time offenders, we need to come up with new ways of dealing with offenders who have just one prior conviction," he said.

"If we could find ways to keep them out of prison, that would have a large impact."

Regardless of what else is done, the number of people in prison should decline if crime rates stay where they are, he said.

"But it is going to be a slow process. Our prison populations are going to go down much slower than they went up."

Story Source: Materials provided by Ohio State University, original written by Jeff Grabmeier."Why prisons continue to grow, even when crime declines: Study finds more offenders have criminal records."  ScienceDaily.  22 August 2016. 

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Ramen noodles supplanting cigarettes as currency among prisoners

Nissin - Raoh Japanese Instant Ramen Noodles Soy Sauce Taste 

Ramen noodles supplanting cigarettes

as currency among prisoners

Ramen noodles are supplanting the once popular cigarettes as a form of currency among state prisoners, but not in response to bans on tobacco products within prison systems, finds a new study.  Instead, study author Michael Gibson-Light, a doctoral candidate in the University of Arizona School of Sociology, found that inmates are trying to figure out ways to better feed themselves as certain prison services are being defunded.

The rise of ramen as currency in prison signals "punitive frugality," indicating that the burden and cost of care is shifting away from prison systems and onto prisoners and their support networks, said Gibson-Light).

"Punitive frugality is not a formal prison policy, but rather an observable trend in prison administration practice in institutions throughout the country," Gibson-Light said.

"Throughout the nation, we can observe prison cost-cutting and cost-shifting as well as changes in the informal economic practices of inmates," he said. "Services are cut back and many costs are passed on to inmates in an effort to respond to calls to remain both tough on crime and cost effective."

The research Gibson-Light will present is part of a larger project investigating the lives of inmate laborers in a male state prison in the U.S. Sunbelt. During his 12-month investigation from May 2015 to May 2016, Gibson-Light conducted interviews with nearly 60 inmates and prison staff members, and also observed prisoners involved in work. Ultimately, he began to study monetary practices among inmates, and how such men were responding to declining services.

The U.S. Bureau of Prisons reported that states spent about $48.5 billion on corrections in 2010, marking a 5.6 percent decline compared with 2009, and that -- dating back to 1982 -- per capita state corrections expenditures have not kept pace with the number of inmates.

"Prison staff members as well as members of the inmate population provided narratives of the history of changes in prison food -- the past few decades have seen steady decreases in the quality and quantity of inmate food," Gibson-Light said.

"Prisoners are so unhappy with the quality and quantity of prison food that they receive that they have begun relying on ramen noodles -- a cheap, durable food product -- as a form of money in the underground economy," he said. "Because it is cheap, tasty, and rich in calories, ramen has become so valuable that it is used to exchange for other goods."

Those other goods include other food items, clothing, hygiene products, and even services, such as laundry and bunk cleaning, Gibson-Light said. Others use ramen noodles as bargaining chips in gambling when playing card games or participating in football pools, he said.

And ramen noodles are not merely replacing cigarettes. Gibson-Light said the same is happening with noodles replacing stamps and envelopes as forms of in-demand currency.

Gibson-Light believes it is important to highlight the clear connection between prison practices and the daily lives of inmates and their support networks.  Although Gibson-Light's findings are related to his study at one prison, he points to other investigations indicating that the trend toward using ramen noodles for exchanges is evident in prisons that have not banned tobacco use.

"What we are seeing is a collective response -- across inmate populations and security levels, across prison cliques and racial groups, and even across states -- to changes and cutbacks in prison food services," he said.

Gibson-Light called for a deeper study of prison food services, and what implications the decline in support could mean for the quality of care for prisoners.

"The form of money is not something that changes often or easily, even in the prison underground economy; it takes a major issue or shock to initiate such a change," he said. "The use of cigarettes as money in U.S. prisons happened in American Civil War military prisons and likely far earlier. The fact that this practice has suddenly changed has potentially serious implications."

Story Source:  Materials provided by American Sociological Association. "Ramen noodles supplanting cigarettes as currency among prisoners."  ScienceDaily, 22 August 2016.

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Attn Mystery Writers: Female CSI Workers More Stressed Than Males

Female forensic scientists more stressed than males

Fueled by shows like "CSI" and "Bones," the field has surged in popularity, particularly among women, who greatly outnumber men in undergraduate and graduate forensic science programs.

Females working in forensic science labs were almost two times more likely to report high stress levels than males, according to the study, funded by the U.S. Department of Justice. Forensic scientists aid criminal investigations by collecting and analyzing evidence such as fingerprints, ballistics and DNA.

"It's not clear why female scientists reported more stress than males," said Thomas J. Holt, MSU professor of criminal justice, "though it may stem from differences in the experiences of female scientists who are not sworn law-enforcement officers working in a quasi-military structure where more males are sworn officers, particularly in supervisory roles."

Employment for forensic science technicians is expected to grow 27 percent between 2014 and 2024, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Fueled by shows like "CSI" and "Bones," the field has surged in popularity, particularly among women, who greatly outnumber men in undergraduate and graduate forensic science programs.

At MSU -- home of the nation's first forensic science program, started in 1946 -- Holt led one of the first studies to examine the job satisfaction and stress of forensic scientists. The researchers surveyed 670 scientists in 25 states; 62 percent of participants were women.

Overall, forensic scientists were happy with their jobs, but also stressed. "The fact that forensic scientists appear to have as much stress as police and corrections officers was somewhat surprising," Holt said.

Specific findings include:

• About 78 percent of participants reported mid to high levels of jobs stress, with female forensic scientists reporting higher levels than males. This finding is consistent with past research that found higher stress levels among female police officers.
• About 84 percent of forensic scientists reported mid to high levels of job satisfaction.
• Scientists who testified more often in court were happier with their jobs. About 51 percent of participants had testified one to five times in the previous year, and about 27 percent had testified six or more times.
• Forensic scientists worked on average about 42 hours per week. Despite dwindling state and local budgets, Holt noted that law enforcement and prosecutors are placing increasing emphasis on the use of forensic evidence and that forensic science labs are under pressure to clear case backlogs such as rape kits.

"Managers of forensic science labs should consider ways to minimize the overtime that scientists work, though this may be difficult if scientists must work more than 40 hours a week to clear backlogs or because of state mandates and a lack of trained staff to more evenly distribute hours," Holt said.

He added that well-defined policies and clear lines of communications should be established across the whole organization -- from forensic science laboratories to police departments to prosecutors' offices.

"This can give forensic scientists direct access to upper management and foster trust between all parties," Holt said.

Story Source:  Materials provided by Michigan State University. "Female forensic scientists more stressed than males." ScienceDaily, 18 August 2016.

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Cracking cases with nuclear forensics

Credit: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Dept. of Energy; photographer Jason Richards

Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Joe Giaquinto investigates chemical clues for

trace-level radioactivity. Giaquinto leads ORNL’s Nuclear Analytical Chemistry

and Isotopics Laboratory, which makes critical contributions to nuclear forensics

and nonproliferation.

Specialized team uses nuclear forensics

to solve mysteries and safeguard materials

A group of nuclear detectives at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory takes on tough challenges, from detecting illicit uranium using isotopic "fingerprints" to investigating Presidential assassination conspiracies.

"A very big capability at Oak Ridge exists for nuclear analytics, all the way from helping commercial production of nuclear power to making sure the world's nuclear materials are properly accounted for," said ORNL's Joseph Giaquinto, leader of the Nuclear Analytical Chemistry and Isotopics Laboratories, or NACIL. "My group is a specialized analytical group. We focus in the nuclear arena, from nuclear fuels R&D to nuclear forensics and safeguarding nonproliferation."

From the Manhattan Project in the 1940s to the High Flux Isotope Reactor's 50th anniversary and its selection as an American Nuclear Society Nuclear Historic Landmark, ORNL has been the preeminent destination for nuclear R&D.

Now NACIL researchers are bringing attention once again to ORNL's nuclear capabilities. Equipped with the world's best elemental mass spectrometers, superb cleanrooms and unmatched experience, the ORNL scientists are in high demand.

For instance, within the NACIL group are the analytical laboratories which were the first to be approved for as a network analytical laboratory for the United Nation's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), assisting the "Atoms for Peace" organization's goal of safeguarding nuclear nonproliferation with global tests to detect illicit uranium enrichment activity.

In 2011 ORNL invested in its nuclear analytical chemistry group, converting the Mouse House, an underused facility that once held the national lab's groundbreaking genetics program, into the state-of-the-art Ultra-Trace Forensics Science Facility. Over the last two years the U.S. Department of State provided NACIL investments totaling more than $1.5 million to replace aging mass spectrometers with state-of-the-art instruments with capabilities unmatched in sensitivity and precision. Under Giaquinto's six-year leadership, the group's funding for nuclear forensics work has skyrocketed, increasing nearly 10-fold over previous years.

With growing project requests coming from myriad sources like the State Department, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, NASA and IAEA, the ORNL scientists are applying seventy-plus years of nuclear know-how to tackle some of the world's most pressing nuclear security problems.

Sleuthing for success NACIL scientists have examined numerous nuclear "crime scenes." They unraveled the mysteries behind President John F. Kennedy's assassination and President Zachary Taylor's sudden death using mere hair strands, fingernail shards and bullet fragments. They analyzed ratios of elements in mixed-oxide fuel for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, profiling the alternative fuel source's safety and effectiveness. And they reached even higher, helping in the development of a production process to create the source materials for NASA's deep-space battery for the next era of interplanetary exploration.

NACIL's twenty-plus researchers collaborate from several sites throughout the national laboratory's campus. The team's ingenuity and experience are invoked on a variety of global projects, such as teaching analytical practices at international Centers of Excellence for safeguards and, in the case of NACIL's Rob Smith, co-patenting a chemical detector that can "sniff out" secret graves.

The team often works with radioactive materials, assisting in development of methods for extracting high-purity isotopes for medical use and performing detailed chemical extractions and isolations. Measurements like these enable improved simulations for irradiation of the material, providing a radiochemical template for better understanding nuclear materials.

Examinations to find remnants of trace-level radioactive material are a cornerstone of NACIL efforts. A large portion of the group's trace-level forensic work began as a pilot project two years ago -- and was so successful that the program is now an ORNL mainstay. The development of rapid techniques for separating elements and their isotopes and methods for detecting trace "fingerprints" in nuclear materials now benefit their multiple national sponsors in the arena of nuclear forensics.

To assure smear kits are not contaminated prior to sample collection, chemists screen them in HFIR's irradiation facilities before the kits are deployed in the field. The IAEA, the world's nuclear watchdog, can then use the approved kits to swipe nuclear facilities to detect if a nation has broken promises to abate enrichment and violated nonproliferation agreements.

But it is neutron activation analysis, or NAA, that gives this team its unique capabilities. Access to the world's highest continuous thermal neutron flux enables the lowest detection limits for uranium and plutonium of any global NAA facility. ORNL scientists use it to characterize nuclear materials by scrutinizing their ratio of major, minor and trace chemical elements.

Researchers bombard an unknown sample (say, a swipe from an IAEA test) with neutrons from HFIR until a gamma ray is released, creating a unique and detectable "fingerprint" of the sample's fissile material. Matching the evidence to established reference standards identifies the sample's contents.

Currently ORNL's David Glasgow is developing a method to further improve the fingerprint of nuclear isotopes. "The Neutron Activation Analysis Lab [located at HFIR] provides high-fidelity irradiated nuclear forensics materials to the research community," Glasgow said. "In addition, we use specialized nuclear methods that yield bulk and isotopic data of fissile traces to analyze materials of interest to the nuclear forensics and nonproliferation missions."

Meanwhile, NACIL's latest experiment involves advancing procedures for expanded characterizations of spent nuclear fuel. Accurate and comprehensive analyses are vital at all stages of the fuel cycle, and the researchers are developing standards and methods for testing materials based on this work. ORNL computational scientist Ian Gauld, for example, models nuclear fuels and irradiated test materials. He works closely with NACIL scientists examining aging spent nuclear fuel to compare experiment with theory-based calculations to improve predictive models of fuel behavior. Such validation efforts may also help ORNL's radiochemical detectives support future forensics activities.

With the advent of the Ultra-Trace Forensics Science Facility and a multi-sponsored mass spectrometry center at ORNL -- complete with strict clean rooms, a small energy footprint, new protective glove boxes and a walk-in hood for forensic analysis -- there is undeniable potential for a NACIL future that honors its past.

Story Source:  Materials provided by Oak Ridge National Laboratory.  "Cracking cases with nuclear forensics: Specialized team uses nuclear forensics to solve mysteries and safeguard materials." ScienceDaily, 25 January 2016. 

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Eyewitness identification reforms may have unintended consequences

Eyewitness identification reforms 

may have unintended consequences

Research by a University of California, Riverside psychologist raises serious questions about eyewitness identification procedures that are being adopted by police departments across the United States.  These new procedures are designed to reduce the kinds of false identification errors that can lead to wrongful convictions of innocent people.

While it has long been held that these changes reduce false identifications with little or no loss of correct identifications, UC Riverside psychology professor Steven E. Clark suggests that that is not the case.

The loss of correct identifications can be significant, Clark says. Importantly, the new procedures may, under some circumstances, lead to identification evidence that is less accurate than the identification evidence from the procedures they are designed to replace. Policymakers need to look very carefully at the data from empirical studies as they consider adopting new procedures, he cautions.

Clark has been involved in more than 200 criminal and civil cases, has consulted with prosecution and defense attorneys, and has testified as an expert in federal and state courts in six states, including California. Much of his research has been funded by the National Science Foundation.

In the paper, the psychologist notes that the reforms are directed at fundamental aspects of the identification process: How lineups are constructed, what witnesses are told and how they are instructed prior to the lineup, the way that the lineup is presented, and what police officers should and should not say and do during the identification procedure.

"Whether policymakers decide to adopt or not adopt these new procedures is up to them," he says. "In order to make those policy decisions, they need to know clearly what the benefits are and what the costs are."

The blind line-up
For some of the new procedures the cost-benefit trade-offs are clear. For other procedures, Clark suggests that the critical research has not been done. For example, one of the new procedures coming into use requires that the police officer who shows the lineup not know which person in the lineup is the suspect. In this "blind" procedure, the police officer would not know whether the suspect was second, third or sixth in the lineup. The blind procedure prevents police officers from deliberately or inadvertently cuing witnesses about who they should pick from the lineup.

"The principle behind blind lineup administration is solid," Clark says. "If the criminal justice system is concerned that the police might inadvertently communicate their expectations to witnesses, then a good solution is for the police to not have expectations by not knowing which person in the lineup is the suspect. However, many ideas that seem right in principle don't actually work, or have unintended side effects. The principle behind the blind lineup may be solid, but solid data would be better."

Clark's research examines the results from dozens of eyewitness identification studies that have been conducted and published over the last 32 years. The trade-off between false identifications avoided versus correct identifications lost is consistent, he says.

This trade-off raises an important question: How many correct identifications is the justice system willing to lose in order to avoid a false identification? Clark explains that under some conditions that trade-off may be very high, with many correct identifications lost for each false identification avoided.

Is that a trade-off that the criminal justice system is willing to accept? It depends, Clark says.

"In our justice system there is a view that a false conviction is a far worse error than a false acquittal," he says. "However, false identifications do not always lead to prosecution or false convictions, and false non-identifications do not always lead to false acquittals. This raises a question about the justice system's ability to correct its mistakes.

"Whether the justice system prefers one eyewitness identification procedure over another depends on many factors, the nature of the trade-off -- for example, how many correct identifications are lost in exchange for each false identification that is avoided -- and what the consequences of those errors are. There are many other considerations as well, in terms of due process and procedural justice. Policymakers have a lot to chew on."

Story Source:  Materials provided by University of California - Riverside, original written by Bettye Miller.  S. E. Clark. Costs and Benefits of Eyewitness Identification Reform: Psychological Science and Public Policy. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 2012.

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How to use eyewitness identifications: Cautiously

As a science geek, I do watch the many true-crime shows, especially those that rely on forensic science to identify and convict culprits.  But as this latest series of reports indicate, the science isn't perfect, in fact in some cases, the science is plainly flawed.

Fortunately, researchers and defense attorneys are aware of the flaws and can use this information to help protect the truly innocent.

Here's another report on a flaw in forensics with suggestions on how to correctly us eyewitness testimony.  The full report is available in the attribution line.

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Using eyewitness identifications: 

New report urges caution

A new report from the National Research Council recommends best practices that law enforcement agencies and courts should follow to improve the likelihood that eyewitness identifications used in criminal cases will be accurate. Science has provided an increasingly clear picture of the inherent limits in human visual perception and memory that can lead to errors, as well as the ways unintentional cues during law enforcement processes can compromise eyewitness identifications, the report says.

"Human visual perception and memory are changeable, the ability to recognize individuals is imperfect, and policies governing law enforcement procedures are not standard -- and any of these limitations can produce mistaken identifications with serious consequences," said Thomas Albright, director of the Vision Center Laboratory at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and co-chair of the committee that wrote the report. The report focuses on identifications of strangers rather than of family members or others well-known to the witness.

Problems with eyewitness identifications have long been documented, and many of the cases in which DNA evidence later exonerated an innocent person involved at least one mistaken eyewitness. Research in recent decades has revealed many factors that can lead to such mistaken identifications, the report says. Conditions during the commission of the crime such as dim lighting, brief viewing times, stress, or the presence of a visually distracting element such as a gun or knife can influence people's perceptions. Gaps in sensory input are filled by expectations that are based on an individual's prior experiences with the world, which can bias perceptions. Studies also have shown that eyewitnesses are more likely to make mistakes when making an identification among people of another race rather than when making an identification of a person from the eyewitness's own race.

In addition, memory is often an unfaithful record of what was perceived through sight; people's memories are continuously evolving. As memories are processed, encoded, stored, and retrieved, many factors can compromise their fidelity to actual events. Although the individual may be unaware of it, memories are forgotten, reconstructed, updated, and distorted.

Standardized Procedures for Eyewitness IDs Needed
The law enforcement community, while operating under considerable pressure and with limited resources, is already working to improve the accuracy of eyewitness identifications, the report says. However, these efforts have not been uniform and often fall short because of insufficient training, the absence of standard operating procedures, and the presence of actions and statements that unintentionally influence eyewitnesses.

Caution should be exercised in using eyewitness identification procedures and when relying on these identifications in court, the report says. For example, police departments should implement standardized procedures for handling lineups, including using "double-blind" processes to prevent cues and biases from creeping in. Judges should ensure, through expert testimony or jury instructions, that jurors understand factors that may affect the accuracy of an eyewitness identification in a particular case.

Many police departments have begun to use sequential lineups -- in which the witnesses are shown one person or photo at a time -- instead of simultaneous lineups, which show several people or photos at once. However, additional research is needed to determine which procedure is superior, the report says. It recommends the establishment of a National Research Initiative on Eyewitness Identification to better understand best practices for conducting lineups and photo arrays, assessing witnesses' confidence levels, and understanding other aspects of eyewitness identifications.

"At this point, more research needs to be done to tell us whether sequential or simultaneous lineups are more effective at producing accurate identifications," said co-chair Jed Rakoff, senior judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. "But there are many practices that have been validated by scientific methods and research that we already know can reduce the likelihood of erroneous identifications, and law enforcement agencies and courts should implement and follow them consistently."

Best Practices for Law Enforcement
To increase the likelihood of accuracy in eyewitness identifications, the report recommends that law enforcement agencies use the following practices in handling eyewitness identifications.

• Train all law enforcement officers in eyewitness identification. An eyewitness's memory of an incident can be contaminated by a wide variety of influences, including interaction with the police. All law enforcement agencies should provide their officers and agents with training about vision and memory, practices for minimizing contamination, and effective eyewitness identification protocols. Police officers should be trained to ask open-ended questions, avoid suggestiveness, and efficiently manage scenes with multiple witnesses (for example, minimizing interactions among witnesses).
• Implement double-blind lineup and photo array procedures. Even if a line-up administrator doesn't verbally tell the witness which person in a lineup or photo array is the suspect, he or she could still convey the suspect's identity through unintended body gestures, facial expressions, or other nonverbal cues. Using a double-blind procedure, in which neither the witness nor the administrator knows which person in the lineup or photo array is the suspect, can avoid this inadvertent bias.
• Develop and use standardized witness instructions. The report recommends the development of a standard set of easily understood instructions to use when engaging a witness in an identification procedure. Witnesses should be instructed that the perpetrator may or may not be in the photo array or lineup and that, regardless of whether the witness identifies a suspect, the investigation will continue. Such instructions should be used consistently in all photo arrays and lineups and could either be pre-recorded or read aloud by administrators.
• Document witness confidence judgments. Evidence indicates that an eyewitness's level of confidence in their identifications at the time of trial is not a reliable predictor of their accuracy. The relationship between confidence and accuracy is likely to be strongest at the time of initial identification. Law enforcement should document the witness's level of confidence verbatim at the time when she or he first identifies a suspect.
• Videotape the witness identification process. To obtain and preserve a permanent record of the conditions associated with the initial identification, the committee recommended that video recording of eyewitness identification procedures become standard practice.

Best Practices for Courts
The federal standard governing the admissibility of eyewitness testimony is set forth in the Manson vs. Braithwaite test under the Due Process Clause of the U.S. Constitution. But the test was set out in 1977 before much of the applied research on eyewitness identification had been conducted, and it includes factors that are not diagnostic of reliability. The best guidance for legal regulation of eyewitness identification evidence comes not from constitutional rulings but from the careful use and understanding of scientific evidence, the report says. It recommends best practices for judges to follow in assessing and using eyewitness testimony.

• Conduct pre-trial judicial inquiry. Judges have an obligation to ensure the reliability of evidence presented at a trial and should make basic inquiries about eyewitness identification evidence being offered. When assessing the reliability of an eyewitness identification, it is important to know which eyewitness identification procedures the agency had in place and the degree to which they were followed. If indicators of unreliable eyewitness identifications are present, judges should follow applicable procedural law in deciding whether to exclude the identifications or use a lesser sanction. A judge could limit portions of the eyewitness's testimony, for example, or ensure that the jury is provided with a scientific framework within which to evaluate the evidence.
• Make juries aware of prior identifications. The accepted practice of in-court eyewitness identifications can influence juries in ways that cross-examination, expert testimony, or jury instructions are unable to counter effectively. Moreover, the passage of time since the initial identification may mean that a courtroom identification is a less accurate test of an eyewitness's memory. Whenever the eyewitness identifies a suspect in the courtroom, juries should hear detailed information about any earlier identification, including the procedures used and the confidence expressed by the witness at that time. An eyewitness identification should not typically occur for the first time in a courtroom.
• Use scientific framework expert testimony. Many scientifically established aspects of eyewitness memory are counterintuitive and may defy expectations, and jurors need assistance in understanding the factors that may affect the accuracy of an identification. In many cases this information can be most effectively conveyed by expert testimony. Judges should have the discretion to allow expert testimony explaining relevant research on eyewitness memory and identifications. Local jurisdictions should make efforts to ensure that defendants receive funding to obtain access to qualified experts.
• Use jury instructions as an alternative means to convey information. These instructions can be used as an alternative way to convey information about eyewitness identification factors the jury should consider. Jury instructions should, in clear language, explain the relevant principles, allowing judges to focus the instructions on factors relevant to the specific case. Appropriate legal organizations, together with law enforcement, prosecutors, defense counsel, and judges, should convene a body to establish model jury instructions regarding eyewitness identifications.

Related stories:

• Bite-mark analysis can lead to false convictions
• Forensic sciences 'fraught with error'
• Inside the Minds of Murderers
• Is detecting a lie even possible?
• It's Getting Harder to Hide Murder
• Criminals, genetics and the courts
• Killing for Money: Does Crime Pay?
• People Can 'Beat' Guilt Detection Tests
• Questioning Longstanding Forensic Identification
• The serious flaw of DNA evidence that convicts the innocent

Story Source: Materials provided by National Academy of Sciences. "Using eyewitness identifications: New report urges caution." ScienceDaily, 2 October 2014. 

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Bite-mark analysis can lead to false convictions

www.pjstar.com

At least 24 men convicted or charged with murder or rape based on bite

marks on the flesh of victims have been exonerated since 2000, many

after spending more than a decade in prison. Source: The Peoria Journal Star.  

Bite-mark analysis can lead to false convictions

Since 2000, at least 25 people convicted on bite-mark evidence 

have been exonerated due to advances in DNA testing.

Forensic science is a vital crime-fighting tool in today's criminal justice system. But it can also lead to false convictions, according to H. David Sheets, PhD. Landmark research by the Canisius College physics professor proves that bite-mark analysis is "far from an exact science."

Bite-mark analysis compares the teeth of crime suspects to bite-mark patterns on victims. Historically, forensic odontologists (dentists who provide forensic dental identifications in criminal investigations and mass disasters) operate under two general guidelines when interpreting bite-mark evidence. First, that everyone's dental impression is unique to the individual, "similar to fingerprints," Sheets explains. Second, that human skin -- the most common material on which a bite mark is inflicted -- reliably records an individual's dental impression.

Bite-mark analysis is widely accepted in criminal courts and often presented as key evidence in prosecutions. "People assume that it's close to fingerprints in terms of accuracy," Sheets says. "But the notions that a person's dentition is unique or that the human skin can accurately record an individual's bite mark have never been validated scientifically."

Sheets and his colleagues, Mary A. Bush, DDS and Peter J. Bush, from the University at Buffalo (UB) School of Dental Medicine, sought to do just that.

Using a variety of dental impressions, they examined more than 1,000 human dentitions and studied hundreds of bite marks in cadaver skin. With the help of computer analysis and applied statistics, the team then worked to match its database of bite marks to the correct dental impressions.

"When the dental alignments were similar, it was difficult to distinguish exactly which set of teeth made which bites," Sheets says. "That tells us that a single bite mark is not distinct enough to be linked to a specific individual. It can actually point to many different individuals." This means that a false identification is possible, which can lead a police investigation away from the real perpetrator and toward an innocent individual.

The Canisius-UB studies are among the largest conducted on bite-mark analysis and the first to use human-skin models (rather than animal models, wax or Styrofoam). More notable is that its findings call into question criminal convictions that rested entirely on bite-mark evidence.

Since 2000, at least 25 people convicted on bite-mark evidence have been exonerated due to advances in DNA testing, according to the Innocence Project. The national organization, which works to free wrongfully convicted individuals, is now using the Canisius-UB studies to help build a case for having bite-mark evidence cast out of criminal proceedings.

"This is an example of where science can help prevent future wrongful convictions and perhaps even provide some social justice to those already convicted," Sheets concludes.

In addition to Sheets' research on bite-mark analysis, he is a member of the Expert Working Group on Human Factors in Handwriting Analysis. Appointed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), which provide oversight to the federal forensic community, the Expert Working Group on Handwriting Analysis is one of several discipline-specific groups charged with identifying the human factors that affect the outcomes of forensic analyses and developing best practices, based on scientific research, that will reduce the likelihood of errors in the future.

Related stories:

• Inside the Minds of Murderers
• Is detecting a lie even possible?
• It's Getting Harder to Hide Murder
• Criminals, genetics and the courts
• Killing for Money: Does Crime Pay?
• People Can 'Beat' Guilt Detection Tests
• Questioning Longstanding Forensic Identification
• The serious flaw of DNA evidence that convicts the innocent

Story Source:  Materials provided by Canisius College.  "Bite-mark analysis can lead to false convictions, landmark research shows." ScienceDaily, 8 January 2016.

Read More