Citation

Nakhaeizadeh S, Morgan RM, Rando C, Dror IE. J. Forensic Sci. 2018; 63(2): 403-411.

Affiliation

Cognitive Consultants International (CCI-HQ), London, UK.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, American Society for Testing and Materials, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/1556-4029.13569

PMID

28678377

Abstract

Thirty-eight participants took part in a study that investigated the potential cascading effects of initial exposure to extraneous context upon subsequent decision-making. Participants investigated a mock crime scene, which included the excavation of clandestine burials that had a male skeletal cast dressed either in female or gender neutral clothing. This was followed by a forensic anthropological assessment of the skeletal remains, with a control group assessing the same male skeletal cast without any clothing context. The results indicated that the sex assessment was highly dependent upon the context in which participants were exposed to prior to the analysis. This was especially noticeable in the female clothing context where only one participant determined the male skeletal cast to be male. The results demonstrate the importance of understanding the role of context in forensic anthropology at an early stage of an investigation and its potential cascading effect on subsequent assessments.

© 2017 The Authors. Journal of Forensic Sciences published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of American Academy of Forensic Sciences.

Language: en

Keywords

bias; cognitive forensics; contextual information; crime scene; decision-making; forensic anthropology; forensic science; human factors