Reproducibility is a contemporary discussion affecting many fields. Forensic science has experienced severe scrutiny from both the media and large oversight bodies.
I came across a fairly recent paper - “Beyond CSI: Calibrating public beliefs about the reliability of forensic science through openness and transparency” - https://osf.io/preprints/metaarxiv/tvcm6/ that makes three substantial contributions to this discussion.
It brings together and compares several studies in which laypeople debate the reliability of forensic science practices. It concludes that forensic practices do not enjoy high-reliability ratings from the public.
Secondly, it reviews three empirically-tested ways other scientific fields attempt to restore and maintain their credibility.
The authors also recommend “how forensic science can leverage transparency and openness to improve and maintain its long-term credibility.”
Do you also think that openness and transparency can lead to more efficient practice and research?
I think transparency s crucial to any scientific endeavor.
The article is really interesting about the problem of depicting forensic science as inerrant.
It is not any wonder that when the magical thinking finally breaks, that erosion of trust in the process takes place. What's interesting is when the article mentions that actual public perception is less trusting of forensic science, and I should imagine this is true more so for psychology.
I've often noted how often people don't trust verdicts or judgments of 'insanity', they view all of these cases or at least the greater number as the criminal pulling the wool over the eyes of the forensic psychologist.
I wonder whether the plethora of documentaries on forensic science hinder or hurt perception. The BBC did an excellent series on forensic science in the last couple of years.
Here's a link to more info. What I really enjoyed was the following of an actual case and the crucial role forensics plays not only in the gathering of the evidence but in its interpretation.
I thnk shows like this actually come the closest to giving the real picture of forensics as it used. I would suggest that people spend more time observing shows like this then fictional shows, which while entertaining may mislead.