The Forensic Institute Newsletter

Sue has also been a driving force behind the creation of the British Association for Human Identification http://www.bahid.org/index.php (a member’s only site, for the most part).

Digital Evidence

Digital evidence is becoming increasingly important. The Institute are actively promoting training and consultancy in this technical area in conjunction with Dr Angus Marshall. See Website

Fire Investigation in Scotland

This project, funded by the Association of British Insurers and the Arson Prevention Bureau has been going for 5 months now. Meetings have taken place with a number of interested parties. The full details of the project are on our website. Get in touch if you have something to contribute or would like more information.

The Forensic Institute Research Network

We are launching an initiative to use online collaboration as a catalyst to research across a wide range of forensic disciplines. The approach is functionally based, rather than being based on the traditional scientific disciplines. There is already considerable interest in this project from across the world. See Website

Writers Day Course October 2003

Bookings are already made for these courses being organised in London (6^th or 10^th October 2003) and Manchester (7^th October). See Website

In conjunction with this and the other courses we have organised for writers, we are going to have a new part of our website devoted to crime writing. The first stage of this will be a page with links or publicity for authors’ books when they have attended one of our courses. This may expand to question and answer sessions, or even ‘crime writing howlers’. Who knows? Any ideas for how we could develop this idea would be most welcome.

Out and about

Dr Allan Jamieson, Director of The Institute, gave two sell-out presentations at the Edinburgh International Book Festival in August (http://programme.edbookfest.co.uk/events/event-346, and http://programme.edbookfest.co.uk/events/event-419).

One event was a presentation on forensic science in fiction and the other was as part of the panel on a debate on the wisdom of having everyone on a National DNA Database. "Great fun," was how Allan described the events, "Especially when some of my ex-colleagues from the Police showed up at the debate. The thought of them actually paying to hear me speak was very touching." An interview and appearance on radio 4’s Open Book programme followed.

Allan is also speaking at the ‘Storyshop’ event in Dundee on 19^th October.

He delivered a talk on ‘Forensic Futures’ at the summer meeting of the Forensic Science Society in Leicester, was the external validator for some forensic courses at Nothumbria University, helped Paisley University in the design of their new forensic science degree, and is off to London to perform his role as External Examiner at Kings College, London.

…and yet more work!

Dr Jamieson is very proud to have added Chair-elect of the Scottish Council of the Institute of Biology (IoB) to his other duties. The appointment is expected to be ratified at the November AGM of the Institute. He is already a Fellow of the IoB.

The Forensic Institute - Conference proposals

The Institute’s conference programme for 2004 will begin in Edinburgh in February/March with proposed topics being;

The Evaluation of Evidence, Digital Evidence and Legal Alchemy

The Evaluation of Evidence

The purpose of the conference is to present and debate the latest thinking in the evaluation of scientific evidence in criminal cases.

Day 1

• 0930 Coffee and registration
• 0950 Introduction and welcome1000 Legal background How a lawyer sees the role of the expert in reporting opinion evidence.
• 1030 Interpretation and evaluation

• 1100 Coffee
• 1130 Trace evidence and the use of survey data Current availability of prevalence, persistence, shedability etc. information
• 1200 Bayes’ as an evaluation tool Principles of the Bayesian method
• 1230 Other approaches Other options, and difficulties with the Bayesian method
• 1300 Lunch
• 1400 Report contents – an unattainable ideal?
• 1430 Workshops Bayes Collecting and using environmental data
• 1630 Roundup and panel discussion
• 1700 Close

Day 2

• 1000 Reporting and presenting evidence Presenting opinion in an impartial, helpful, and relevant way.
• 1030 Research in evaluating evidence Techniques for testing the relevance and sufficiency of scientific evidence
• 1100 Research in legal reasoning on scientific evidence How the law handles the issues of the expert witness and expertise
• 1130 Case Study
• 1230 Lunch
• 1400 Workshops Presentation of evidence in court Writing reports
• 1600 Panel discussion
• 1645 Conclusion
• 1700 Close

If you are interested in attending or speaking at this conference, or have suggestions for topics to include, please contact .

Digital Evidence

This conference will present the variety and complexity of topics that now form this increasingly important subject. The content of the programme is currently being developed. If you are interested in attending or speaking at this conference, or have suggestions for topics, please contact

Legal Alchemy

(The use and abuse of science in the law)

This evening seminar will explore the strengths and weaknesses of scientific and medical expert evidence by discussing what the term scientific means and how to identify whether a particular statement merits the descriptor. The presentation of evidence by experts is fundamentally an issue of the relationship between the lawyer and the expert in that the expert is constrained to present only that evidence that the lawyer permits through cross-examination. Improving the quality of this relationship and the consequent improvement of the standard of evidence will be discussed.

More info will appear on the website – or contact to register your interest.

If you would like to contribute something to the newsletter or have any ideas on how we can develop the usefulness of our website, let us know.