The Role Of Contextual Information In Forensic Investigations

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The psychological effects on perception, from contextual information, can dramatically hinder the forensic experts, in such a way, that they come to a completely inaccurate conclusion of any forensic evidence. According to Bernstein et al (2013), perception is the process of taking sensations from the environment, and interpreting them using information and experience to understand the world. In regards to contextual information, perception can be altered or influenced by information that is received from the outside world (Holt et al. 2015). The effects of contextual information alter the perceptual capabilities of a forensic investigator; it is a phenomenon known as figure-ground discrimination (or perceptual discrimination). When perceptual …show more content…

According to Aronson, Wilson & Akert (2010), contextual information can create obstacles in problem-solving capabilities, in a way that leads to a reasoning heuristic, known as anchoring heuristic. An anchoring heuristic is a problem-solving shortcut which involves making judgements, based on existing information. In forensic investigations the forensic analysts’ forms a hypothesis based on the contextual information, anchoring to a premise that does not allow new evidence or information that refutes it (Aronson, Wilson & Akert, 2010). According to German and Barrett (2005), problem-solving obstacles can manifest itself in a way that is coined, functional fixedness; so when forensic analysts examine the crime scene, contextual information can prevent them from seeing the same type of evidence in a different way. For example, if a gun was the murder weapon at a crime scene, functional fixedness would alter the reasoning and problem-solving capabilities that would lead a person to assume (before they have seen the body) that the victim was killed by a bullet; when in fact the victim was killed by blunt force trauma from the handle of the gun. This mental set of fixed reasoning or problem-solving can persist, even when it is not the best reasoning method available (Sweller & Gee, 1978). The effect …show more content…

Contextual information also affects the human comparative part of fingerprint analysis, in ways that alter the matching of the same fingerprints, years apart; however, when contextual information is provided, it actually helps 20% of forensic technicians, but that still leaves 80% hindered by contextual information (Dror et al, 2006). Contextual information affects the psychological aspects of perception and problem-solving, in a way that can obscure information that does not support the context, and it can even affect how forensic technician’s view and handle forensic evidence (Bernstein et al, 2013). However, there are some advantages of contextual information, because it can give the forensic division a mental shortcut, saving time and money; however, these shortcuts lead to inaccurate and biased conclusions. This essay has shown that contextual information creates erroneous mistakes and prejudiced results in forensic investigations. A possible way to remove the negative effects of contextual information is to have the forensic technicians, not know the context of the crime so that they do not

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