PCAST
Definition
The President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, a US federal advisory body. Its 2016 report 'Forensic Science in Criminal Courts: Ensuring Scientific Validity of Feature-Comparison Methods' applied stricter validity criteria to several pattern-matching disciplines than the 2009 NAS report had.
- Full name
- President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology
- Jurisdiction
- US federal advisory body
- Key report
- 2016, 'Forensic Science in Criminal Courts: Ensuring Scientific Validity of Feature-Comparison Methods'
- Relation to NAS
- Applied stricter validity criteria than the 2009 NAS report
Common questions
How did PCAST's 2016 criteria differ from the earlier 2009 NAS report's approach?+
NAS 2009 broadly criticised the scientific foundation of several pattern disciplines and called for more research. PCAST went further by naming a specific standard, empirical black-box error-rate studies, that a method needed to meet before it could be called foundationally valid, and applied that standard discipline by discipline.
Is a PCAST finding binding on courts?+
No, PCAST is an advisory body and its report is not binding precedent. Courts have cited it in Daubert or Frye admissibility rulings with varying weight, and some have declined to follow its conclusions, so its influence depends on how individual judges treat it.
Related terms
- Black-Box Study
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- Contextual Bias
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- Foundational Validity
- The requirement, articulated in the 2009 US National Academy of Sciences report and taken up by courts and reform bodies, that a...
- Linear Sequential Unmasking (LSU)
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