de Gruijter Madeleine, Nee Claire, de Poot Christianne J
Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, Forensic Science Department, Weesperzijde 190, 1097 DZ Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
International Centre for Research in Forensic Psychology, University of Portsmouth, King Henry Building, King Henry 1st St, Portsmouth PO1 2DY, UK.
Sci Justice. 2017 Jul;57(4):296-306. doi: 10.1016/j.scijus.2017.03.006. Epub 2017 Mar 31.
New technologies will allow Crime Scene Investigators (CSIs) in the near future to analyse traces at the crime scene and receive identification information while still conducting the investigation. These developments could have considerable effects on the way an investigation is conducted. CSIs may start reasoning based on possible database-matches which could influence scenario formation (i.e. the construction of narratives that explain the observed traces) during very early phases of the investigation. The goal of this study is to gain more insight into the influence of the rapid identification information on the reconstruction of the crime and the evaluation of traces by addressing two questions, namely 1) is scenario formation influenced from the moment that ID information is provided and 2) do database matches influence the evaluation of traces and the reconstruction of the crime. We asked 48 CSIs from England to investigate a potential murder crime scene on a computer. Our findings show that the interpretation of the crime scene by CSIs is affected by the moment identification information is provided. This information has a higher influence on scenario formation when provided after an initial scenario has been formed. Also, CSIs seem to attach great value to traces that produce matches with databases and hence yield a name of a known person. Similar traces that did not provide matches were considered less important. We question whether this kind of selective attention is desirable as it may cause ignorance of other relevant information at the crime scene.
新技术将使犯罪现场调查人员在不久的将来能够在犯罪现场分析痕迹，并在仍在进行调查时获取身份识别信息。这些发展可能会对调查的进行方式产生重大影响。犯罪现场调查人员可能会开始基于可能的数据库匹配进行推理，这可能会在调查的非常早期阶段影响情景构建（即构建解释观察到的痕迹的叙述）。本研究的目的是通过解决两个问题，即1）从提供身份识别信息的那一刻起，情景构建是否受到影响，以及2）数据库匹配是否会影响痕迹评估和犯罪重建，来更深入地了解快速身份识别信息对犯罪重建和痕迹评估的影响。我们邀请了48名来自英国的犯罪现场调查人员在电脑上调查一个潜在的谋杀犯罪现场。我们的研究结果表明，犯罪现场调查人员对犯罪现场的解读会受到提供身份识别信息时间的影响。当在初始情景形成后提供此信息时，该信息对情景构建的影响更大。此外，犯罪现场调查人员似乎非常重视与数据库匹配并因此得出已知人员姓名的痕迹。未提供匹配的类似痕迹则被认为不太重要。我们质疑这种选择性关注是否可取，因为它可能会导致忽视犯罪现场的其他相关信息。
