Forensic Evidence Essay

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Forensic evidence is crucial in the judicial system today, as it is used to ensure fairness of proceedings, helping to guide the judge and jury to a conclusion and maintaining the evolution of common law. Because of its increasing popularity in court and glamorous advertisement from the media, the general public’s confidence in the forensic disciplines has increased. This “CSI effect” has had the general consequence of making the public assume that evidence is reliable as it is conveyed by “experts” in particular fields (Kalisher, 2014). However, it has been proven that forensic evidence can be incorrect, wrongly conveyed or interpreted by an expert or deliberately falsified which inevitably leads to catastrophic outcomes (Kalisher, 2014). …show more content…

Indeed, improper/invalid forensic standards result in 47% of miscarriages of justice today (The Innocence Project, 1992). Pejorative terms such as “junk science” continue to arise in court rulings to describing these unacceptable evidential standards. Case law rulings from the US and Law Commissions of 2012 in the UK have formed the criteria that must be met by disciplines to accurately be viewed as acceptable in court, and aid the judge and jury to “assess” the reliability of the expert evidence. But what is and can be considered as “junk science”? An in depth evaluation of the current issue of forensic “junk science” will be discussed and why certain disciplines, specifically forensic anthropology methodologies and research methods, could be described as such. It will emphasise on cases from the US, although the issue of “junk science” is as relevant in the UK judicial

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