Nakhaeizadeh Sherry, Hanson Ian, Dozzi Nathalie
Department of Security and Crime Science, University College London, 35 Tavistock Square, London WC1H 9EZ, U.K.
J Forensic Sci. 2014 Sep;59(5):1177-83. doi: 10.1111/1556-4029.12473. Epub 2014 Mar 26.
The potential for contextual information to bias assessments in the forensic sciences has been demonstrated, in several forensic disiplines. In this paper, biasability potential within forensic anthropology was examined by analyzing the effects of external manipulations on judgments and decision-making in visual trauma assessment. Three separate websites were created containing fourteen identical images. Participants were randomly assigned to one website. Each website provided different contextual information, to assess variation of interpretation of the same images between contexts. The results indicated a higher scoring of trauma identification responses for the Mass grave context. Furthermore, a significant biasing effect was detected in the interpretation of four images. Less experienced participants were more likely to indicate presence of trauma. This research demonstrates bias impact in forensic anthropological trauma assessments and highlights the importance of recognizing and limiting cognitive vulnerabilities that forensic anthropologists might bring to the analysis.
在多个法医学学科中，上下文信息致使法医学评估产生偏差的可能性已得到证实。本文通过分析外部操纵对视觉创伤评估中判断和决策的影响，研究了法医人类学中的偏差可能性。创建了三个单独的网站，其中包含十四张相同的图像。参与者被随机分配到一个网站。每个网站提供不同的上下文信息，以评估相同图像在不同上下文之间解释的差异。结果表明，在万人坑背景下，创伤识别反应得分更高。此外，在四张图像的解释中检测到显著的偏差效应。经验较少的参与者更有可能指出存在创伤。这项研究证明了法医人类学创伤评估中的偏差影响，并强调了认识和限制法医人类学家在分析中可能带来的认知弱点的重要性。
