FBI OIG Report (2006)
Definition
The FBI Office of Inspector General's report published November 2006 reconstructing the Mayfield misidentification. Found that confirmation bias, non-independent verification, and contextual contamination were the primary causes, and made 18 recommendations for FBI fingerprint examination reform.
Related terms
- ACE-V
- Analysis, Comparison, Evaluation, Verification: the four-stage method for latent print examination used by accredited forensic fingerprint laboratories. Analysis examines the latent in...
- Blind Verification
- The procedure in which a second fingerprint examiner independently performs the Analysis and Comparison stages without knowledge of the first examiner's conclusion....
- Confirmation Bias
- The cognitive tendency to search for, interpret, favour, and recall information in a way that confirms or supports one's prior beliefs or...
- Contextual Bias
- The influence of case-relevant background information (suspect financial difficulties, police intelligence) on the direction of an examiner's technical analysis. Demonstrated experimentally for...
- Evaluative Reporting
- A framework for expressing forensic conclusions in terms of the probability of the evidence given the prosecution hypothesis versus the defence hypothesis...
- Linear ACE-V
- An implementation of ACE-V methodology that enforces strict sequential documentation: analysis of the latent mark must be completed and recorded before the...
- OSAC Friction Ridge Subcommittee
- The NIST-housed committee that produces formal consensus standards for friction ridge examination in the United States, operating within the Biology Scientific Area...
- Sequential Unmasking
- An information-sequencing protocol in which the examiner receives the questioned material first, completes and documents the analysis before receiving the known standards,...
- SWGFAST
- Scientific Working Group for Friction Ridge Analysis, Study and Technology; the predecessor body to the OSAC Friction Ridge Subcommittee; produced documentation standards...
Explained in
- ACE-V Methodology and the Brandon Mayfield Madrid Bombing ErrorThe FBI Office of Inspector General's report published November 2006 reconstructing the Mayfield misidentification. Found that confirmation bias, non-independe...