The influence of perceived difficulty, availability of marks, and examination time on the conclusions of firearms examiners.

Keith L Monson, Erich D Smith, Eugene M Peters
{"title":"The influence of perceived difficulty, availability of marks, and examination time on the conclusions of firearms examiners.","authors":"Keith L Monson, Erich D Smith, Eugene M Peters","doi":"10.1111/1556-4029.70004","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Concurrent with studies on the accuracy, repeatability, and reproducibility of decisions based on comparisons of fired bullet and cartridge cases, we also collected the opinions of the participating examiners as to the characteristics of the specimens provided and the difficulty of making comparisons. Examiners rated the ease with which they determined every conclusion (easy, average, hard) and estimated qualitatively the amount of visual information available to them in determining a conclusion (limited, some, extensive). Comparisons deemed hard were perceived generally to have somewhat fewer markings conducive for assessment, while comparisons where the markings were limited produced a larger number of inconclusive determinations. Perceived difficulty increased with wider separation in firing order (within or between three defined segments of 700-850 total firings). The repeatability of these qualitative assessments exceeded 60% and their average reproducibility was ~50%. Examination times did not vary significantly when rendering decisions of identification, elimination, or inconclusive, although bullet identifications appear to have taken slightly longer than those for cartridge cases. Hard comparisons, where the amount of information was limited, were not treated substantially differently from any other types of comparison. No correlation was found between difficulty and number of comparisons attempted. These results tend to contradict assertions by critics that examiners are tempted to declare inconclusive decisions to save time and avoid rendering an elimination or identification conclusion, or that the results are non-representative of casework, or that perceived difficulty affected the degree of examiner participation.</p>","PeriodicalId":94080,"journal":{"name":"Journal of forensic sciences","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2025-02-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of forensic sciences","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1556-4029.70004","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0

Abstract

Concurrent with studies on the accuracy, repeatability, and reproducibility of decisions based on comparisons of fired bullet and cartridge cases, we also collected the opinions of the participating examiners as to the characteristics of the specimens provided and the difficulty of making comparisons. Examiners rated the ease with which they determined every conclusion (easy, average, hard) and estimated qualitatively the amount of visual information available to them in determining a conclusion (limited, some, extensive). Comparisons deemed hard were perceived generally to have somewhat fewer markings conducive for assessment, while comparisons where the markings were limited produced a larger number of inconclusive determinations. Perceived difficulty increased with wider separation in firing order (within or between three defined segments of 700-850 total firings). The repeatability of these qualitative assessments exceeded 60% and their average reproducibility was ~50%. Examination times did not vary significantly when rendering decisions of identification, elimination, or inconclusive, although bullet identifications appear to have taken slightly longer than those for cartridge cases. Hard comparisons, where the amount of information was limited, were not treated substantially differently from any other types of comparison. No correlation was found between difficulty and number of comparisons attempted. These results tend to contradict assertions by critics that examiners are tempted to declare inconclusive decisions to save time and avoid rendering an elimination or identification conclusion, or that the results are non-representative of casework, or that perceived difficulty affected the degree of examiner participation.

感知难度、分数可得性和考试时间对枪械审查员结论的影响。
在研究基于发射子弹和弹壳比较的准确性、可重复性和再现性的同时,我们还收集了参与审查员对所提供标本的特征和进行比较的难度的意见。考官对他们确定每个结论的难易程度(容易、一般、困难)进行评分,并定性地估计他们在确定结论时可获得的视觉信息的数量(有限、部分、广泛)。被认为困难的比较通常被认为具有较少有助于评估的标记,而标记有限的比较则产生较多的不确定的决定。感知难度随着射击顺序间隔的扩大而增加(在700-850次总射击的三个定义段内或之间)。这些定性评价的重复性超过60%,平均重复性为~50%。在作出鉴定、排除或不确定的决定时,检查时间没有显著变化,尽管子弹鉴定似乎比弹壳鉴定花费的时间稍长。在信息有限的情况下,硬比较与任何其他类型的比较没有实质性的区别。比较难度和次数之间没有相关性。这些结果往往与评论家的断言相矛盾,评论家认为审查员为了节省时间和避免给出排除或识别结论而试图宣布不确定的决定,或者结果不具有案例工作的代表性,或者感知到的困难影响了审查员的参与程度。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
求助全文
约1分钟内获得全文 求助全文
来源期刊
自引率
0.00%
发文量
0
×
引用
GB/T 7714-2015
复制
MLA
复制
APA
复制
导出至
BibTeX EndNote RefMan NoteFirst NoteExpress
×
提示
您的信息不完整,为了账户安全,请先补充。
现在去补充
×
提示
您因"违规操作"
具体请查看互助需知
我知道了
×
提示
确定
请完成安全验证×
copy
已复制链接
快去分享给好友吧!
我知道了
右上角分享
点击右上角分享
0
联系我们:info@booksci.cn Book学术提供免费学术资源搜索服务,方便国内外学者检索中英文文献。致力于提供最便捷和优质的服务体验。 Copyright © 2023 布克学术 All rights reserved.
京ICP备2023020795号-1
ghs 京公网安备 11010802042870号
Book学术文献互助
Book学术文献互助群
群 号:481959085
Book学术官方微信