Inference in Forensic Science
Dr. Ian W. Evett
Forensic Science Service
Priory House
Gooch Street North
Birmingham
B5 6QQ
Abstract
Forensic science is an interesting discipline because of the cultural
differences between the legal and scientific fields. Inferential
procedures are determined to a large extent by the adversary system,
and the modern forensic scientist does not necessarily correspond with
the popular stereotypes. Consideration of the nature of the ``expert
opinion'' leads to interesting questions of epistemology, partially
clarified by adopting a Bayesian view of evidence. Some of these
issues will be explored by simple examples and it is hoped to
stimulate discussion of the problems of knowledge elicitation.
MaxEnt 94 Abstracts / mas@mrao.cam.ac.uk