Ulery Et Al. 2011
Definition
The FBI black-box study that tested 169 fingerprint examiners on 744 latent-exemplar pairs, finding a false-positive rate of 0.1%. The study empirically refuted the categorical zero-error-rate claim and provided the first large-scale measurement of fingerprint examiner accuracy in a controlled setting.
- Examiners tested
- 169
- Pairs examined
- 744 latent-exemplar pairs
- False-positive rate
- 0.1 percent
- Significance
- First large-scale controlled accuracy measurement
Common questions
What claim did this study empirically refute?+
It refuted the categorical assertion, long made by some fingerprint examiners and advocates, that latent print identification carries a zero error rate, by directly measuring and reporting a nonzero false-positive rate under controlled conditions.
How does this study connect to the post-2009 NAS debate over fingerprint evidence?+
The 2009 NAS report had criticised the fingerprint discipline for lacking empirical error-rate data to support certainty claims, and this study was conducted partly in response, supplying the kind of black-box performance data the report said was missing.
Related terms
- 2009 NAS Report
- The National Academy of Sciences report Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States, which found that fingerprint individualization claims lacked empirical population-frequency...
- Categorical Identification
- The historical fingerprint testimony model in which the examiner declares that the latent print originated from the named person to the exclusion...
- ENFSI Evaluative Reporting Framework
- The ENFSI Guideline for Evaluative Reporting in Forensic Science (2015), which specifies that forensic identification opinions should be expressed as likelihood ratios...
- FRStat
- The fingerprint statistical scoring model developed by the FBI Laboratory and Iowa State University (Professor Alicia Carriquiry). Takes ACE-V comparison documentation as...
- Likelihood Ratio (LR)
- The ratio of two conditional probabilities: the probability of the observed evidence given the prosecution's hypothesis (same source), divided by the probability...
- NIST ELFT-EFS (2012)
- The NIST Evaluation of Latent Fingerprint Technologies: Extended Feature Sets, a large-scale evaluation of both automated AFIS algorithms and human examiner performance....
- Population Frequency Database
- The reference dataset from which the denominator of a fingerprint likelihood ratio is estimated: the frequency with which a given configuration of...
- R V. T (2010)
- UK Court of Appeal decision on footwear evidence likelihood ratios that expressed caution about numerical LR presentation where the underlying database was...
- Verbal Scale
- The ENFSI translation of numerical likelihood ratios into courtroom language: very strong support (LR over 10,000), strong support (LR 1,000-10,000), moderate support...