AND REFER TO THESE TEXTS, TITLE, AUTHOR, PAGES:


Disclosure in Criminal Proceedings, D. Corker; Sweet and Maxwell, London, 1996
Limitations of Expert Evidence, S Leadbeatter, ed, Royal College of Physicians, London, 1996
The Role of Forensic Science Evidence in Criminal Proceedings,
P Roberts and C Willmore, Research study No. 11 prepared for the 1993 Royal Commission on Criminal Justice, HMSO, London, 1993
Interpreting Evidence; Evaluating Forensic Science in the Court B Robertson and G A Vignaux, Wiley, Chichester, 1995
Statistics and the Evaluation of Evidence for Forensic Scientists, C G G Aitken, John Wiley and Sons

YOU MUST SATISFY THESE ADMISSION REQUIREMENTS:
Progress to level 3 of a forensic award

YOU WILL NEED ACCESS TO THESE RESOURCES:

Standard lecture room facilities, access to library and to computers with www and distributed learning access.
Blackboard VLE

THESE LEARNING STRATEGIES WILL OCCUPY YOUR TIME:

12x 2h lecture/tutorial will be used to deliver the core material. One session is likely to involve attendance at a session in court
In 126h of independent study time, you will consult the literature especially in relation to carrying out research into the legal system and the application of Bayesian statistics to the evaluation of evidence, either suggested by tutors or of your own choosing.

WHICH WILL BE ASSESSED BY:

Additional Assessment Information:
Students will be required to complete 2 pieces of summative assessment.
Outcomes 1 and 2 by an assignment set by the Law School. Exact details may vary from year to year but on all occasions students will be given details of what is expected. (70%)
Outcome 3 by end of module test (1h) (30%)

Students will be provided with formative assessment and feedback via
Group work in which students criticise each others written work against criteria set by the staff.
A self-assessed formative assignment in Bayesian statistics

The content is effectively sub-divided into three sections. Law will deliver 50% of the module, and the remainder will be divided 50:50 between the use of experts to lecture on court appearances as expert witnesses and the use of statistics for the evaluation of scientific evidence.

The court system and its personnel. The conduct of a case from investigation to verdict and appeal. The nature of adversarial justice and the process of proof within it. The rules of evidence. The role and responsibilities of the expert witness. Presenting evidence in court-examination and cross-examination. There will be lectures on presenting evidence in court by expert witnesses from various areas of forensic sciences (to be delivered by guest speakers). Learning in earlier modules about the roles of Bayesian and non-Bayesian statistics in forensic science will be consolidated in this module. The fundamentals of statistical analysis will be revised and then buillt upon so that meaningful contrast can be made between the ability of Bayesian statistics to compare the individual with the population, and that of other statistical methods to compare samples and test for significance. The roles of both Bayesian and non-Bayesian approaches to statistical analysis within the forensic science context will be explored.