Item — HN Reader

Not a recent thing, if anything things are getting better over time, just slowly. I remember reading stuff about how "forensic science" has been the realm of quackery for as long as I have known how to read.

Police are incentivised to find whatever thingamajig will support their conclusions. Courts are not equipped to provide meta-review of every forensic claim. And for the bright, rational, scientific minds out there, working in forensics is relatively low-prestige and low-pay.

1 comments

The fact that this was ever used in a courtroom is disturbing, but before we start collectively clutching our pearls, remember that authors are selling clicks, and it us the nature of articles like these to overstate the problem.

I am less concerned by the obvious nonsense like this, than I am about the far more dangerous nonsense that comes from legit, credentialed, FBI-endorsed “scientists” which a rational, informed, well intentioned judge or juror might give serious weight, (like bite marks, blood splatter, profiling, etc.)