Major Crime Scene Unit, Victoria Police Forensic Services Department, 31 Forensic Drive Macleod, VIC 3085, Australia.
Office of the Chief Forensic Scientist, Victoria Police Forensic Services Department, 31 Forensic Drive Macleod, VIC 3085, Australia.
Sci Justice. 2023 Sep;63(5):598-611. doi: 10.1016/j.scijus.2023.07.004. Epub 2023 Jul 22.
The value of a footwear examiner's opinion centres on their ability to determine whether a particular shoe made an impression with greater accuracy than a novice. However, there has been limited research on the expertise of footwear examiners and the accuracy and reproducibility of their decisions. In the current study, we measured the accuracy and consensus of 31 footwear examiners versus a comparison group of 29 novices. Participants completed 20 ground truth known mock shoe comparisons. Results demonstrated that footwear examiners were more accurate than novices, regardless of comparison difficulty. Overall, on trials where probative decisions were given, examiners made false identifications and false exclusions on a total of 3% and 2% of trials, while novices made false identifications and false exclusions on a total of 19% and 17% of trials. Examiners also demonstrated better consensus in their opinions than novices, although both groups demonstrated low levels of agreement in their responses and variability in their interpretation of the conclusion scale. In summary, these findings support the proposition that footwear examiners show expert-level performance in matching known and unknown footwear impressions. These performance estimates may help the criminal justice system to appropriately value footwear examination evidence.
鞋印鉴定专家意见的价值在于其能够更准确地判断特定鞋子是否留下了痕迹，而不是新手。然而，关于鞋印鉴定专家的专业知识以及其判断的准确性和可重复性的研究有限。在当前的研究中，我们测量了 31 名鞋印鉴定专家与 29 名新手的准确性和一致性。参与者完成了 20 项已知的模拟鞋印对比。结果表明，无论对比难度如何，鞋印鉴定专家都比新手更准确。总体而言，在给出确凿判断的试验中，鉴定专家在总共 3%和 2%的试验中做出了错误的识别和错误的排除，而新手在总共 19%和 17%的试验中做出了错误的识别和错误的排除。鉴定专家的意见也比新手更一致，尽管两组对结论尺度的解释都存在低水平的一致性和可变性。总之，这些发现支持了鞋印鉴定专家在匹配已知和未知鞋印方面表现出专家水平的说法。这些绩效估计可能有助于刑事司法系统对鞋印鉴定证据进行适当的评估。
