Anthropology 2235A/B Chapter Midterm: Anthro Reading (Midterm)

• School: Western University
• Department: Anthropology
• Course: Anthropology 2235A/B
• Professor: Eldon Molto

Document Summary

(1) forensic entomology: the use of insects in death investigations goes with lecture #2. Insects are usually the first to arrive at a death scene. Suggestion that humans have error but forensic techniques is unfalsfiable it is. Data from proficiency tests and other examinations suggest that forensic errors are not. Suggestion that error rates do not exist because they change over time and are not. A lot of methods have error rates that are above 50% which is troubling. Fingerprint examiners are usually a bit better off but of all examiners fail to correctly o o identify all latent prints in proficiency tests, 4-5% committed false positives. Misidentification rates do not show a clear pattern of improvement o. But because tests are relatively easy (according to the participants) and because they o know that the mistakes will be punished, test error rates are prob lower than in everyday case work. This is because we are not using blind testing.