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Michael J Saks

Publications and source records attributed to Michael J Saks.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

The coming paradigm shift in forensic identification science.

Converging legal and scientific forces are pushing the traditional forensic identification sciences toward fundamental change. The assumption of discernible uniqueness that resides at the core of these fields is weakened by evidence of errors in proficiency testing and in actual cases. Changes in the law pertaining to the admissibility of expert evidence in court, together with the emergence of DNA typing as a model for a scientifically defensible approach to questions of shared identity, are driving the older forensic sciences toward a new scientific paradigm.

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On the "general acceptance" of handwriting identification principles.

Informed by the admissibility requirements of the broad and narrow Frye tests as well as Daubert's general acceptance factor, the present study elicited the views of a homogeneous group of forensic document examiners and a heterogeneous group of handwriting scientists regarding the degree to which a set of principles relating to the nature of handwriting and its identification were generally accepted within the respondents' fields. Among forensic document examiners, the greatest agreement was found concerning the process of examination, and somewhat less agreement on other matters. Forensic document examiners and handwriting scientists appear not to agree on the acceptability of most of the propositions.

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