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My column this week . . .

Monday, March 14th, 2011

. . . looks at recent efforts to reform the forensics system. My argument: They’re welcome, but they fail to address the underlying problems of cognitive bias and perverse incentives.

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This entry was posted on Monday, March 14th, 2011 at 12:56 pm by Radley Balko and is filed under Forensics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

3 Responses to “My column this week . . .”

  1. #1 |  Yizmo Gizmo |  March 14th, 2011 at 1:27 pm

    Around Raleigh/Durham NC (where I was shocked to learn troopers do not have videocameras in cars because too many officers were getting into trouble for protocol violations) the once revered SBI is now looking for a new name and a new location. Its name is so tarnished after bad publicity–did anyone see Rogue Justice on CNN–that it needs to change its name and find a new home.And shining star SBI agent Duane Deaver has lost his job after investigation into how Greg Taylor got convicted of murder for a splatter of blood that turned out to not even be blood. That’s right, convicted and sent to prison on a mud splatter.
    Hundreds of cases now have to be re-evaluated.
    If anything good is to come of this mess, the proposal is that crime scene data will be posted online for both prosecution and defense to view equally, from a distance.

  2. #2 |  Jay |  March 14th, 2011 at 2:15 pm

    “The government’s primary responsibility is to protect our rights and safety.”

    You sure about that, Radley?

  3. #3 |  Deoxy |  March 15th, 2011 at 11:35 am

    Good article. I’ve long been of the opinion that incentives really are the most important part of a system. The incentives WILL be followed.

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