Criminology 1500 words Assignment

CSI through the ages

Bob Mead, 2019

DNA Profiling

• Its impact on the investigation of crime

• A perspective on the Pre (before 1980) and Post DNA Era in Crime Scene Investigation

• Snowball the cat

Objectives

1. Breadth objective • To recognise the need to avoid tunnel vision in problem solving

• To recognise the need to consider all alternative explanations

• To recognise the value in involving other disciplines and subdisciplines in problem solving to achieve this: Step outside the box!

• The Good,

• The Bad,

• The Ugly.

Objectives

2. Discipline-specific objectives • To gain an appreciation of how DNA profiling has changed the nature of crime

scene investigations over the last 30 years

• To be aware that DNA and other scientific evidence can influence jurors disproportionately due to a CSI effect

• To be aware of investigator bias in the gathering of scientific evidence, such as DNA, which can affect outcomes

• To be aware that DNA evidence can generate tunnel vision in investigations, which can lead to miscarriages of justice

The Good

1. The Saturday night strangler • The remarkable resolution of a 30 year old case due to advances in forensic

science, molecular biology, genetics, psychology and computer technology • Advances in psychological profiling

• Advances in DNA technologies

• The use of familial (family-related) DNA similarities

• Availability of automated data bases

• A broad multidisciplinary approach to solving a cold case

The story

• The original investigation • In 1973 the bodies of two 16-year-old girls were found dumped in South

Wales. The friends had been raped and strangled on their way home from a disco. Less than a year later, the police trail had gone cold. It was not until a breakthrough in DNA profiling some 30 years after the murders that detectives at last had a chance of finding the killer

The story

• 35,000 index cards • Queer person • Rumours • Psycopath • Psychics • Pregnant women • Suspicious acts

• 10,500 nominal suspects • 11,000 car questionnaires • 4,000 statements from Austin owners • 10,000 Misc. statements

Operation Magnum

• The re-investigation of the crime • January 2000

• 27 years after the killings

Psychological Profiling (an interdisciplinary approach)

• White • Aged 20s – mid 30s • History of minor property crime • Known to police as a juvenile • History of assaults • Animal cruelty • Unskilled • Absent father • Troubled marriage • Solo sports interests

Joseph Kappen

• Dead category • “we were looking for a father and getting to him through his son”

• Familial DNA (DNA profiles from relatives)

• Paul Kappen … a car thief

The Good

2. 1910 Dr Hawley Harvey Crippen • 100 years later they found, that the filleted remains recovered from under the

coal cellar at 39 Hilldrop Cr. Were not related to Cora Crippen

• In fact Dr. Foran found by analysing the DNA on Spilbury’s slide that the remains were those of a male!

• Crippen was hanged in error!

The Bad

1. Police and prosecutors can exert subtle pressure on analysts in an attempt get the DNA result they want • Context effect

DNA Lab Notes

• “Suspect-known crip gang member – keeps ‘skating’ on charges – never serves time. This robbery he gets hit in the head with bar stool – left blood trail. Miller [detective] wants to connect this guy scene w/DNA…” • “Death penalty case! Need to eliminate item #57 [name of individual]

as a possible suspect”

• The analyst is identifying with prosecutorial goals due to the context in which the information was provided • Investigator Bias!

The Bad

2. The CSI effect on juries • Jurors place enormous weight on scientific testimony (particularly DNA

evidence), thanks to CSI • Professionals who have all the answers • Better than any other evidence

• This imposes a high level of responsibility on expert witnesses • Expert witnesses must be aware of the potential impact of their evidence

on the jury; must be careful not to overrate their evidence and they must present their evidence objectively • This doesn’t always happen – experts sometimes identify with the side

(prosecution or Defence) that has engaged their service and is paying them!

The Bad

3. Misunderstanding of DNA evidence – The Prosecutors Fallacy • The fallacy assumes that the probability that a piece of evidence would

implicate a randomly chosen member of the population is equal to the probability that it would implicate the defendant

• DNA example • A partial profile was obtained from DNA recovered from a crime scene and it

‘matched’ the DNA of the defendant at those loci (the sites along the DNA that were analysed)

• It is calculated that the probability of that DNA matching a random member of the community is 1 in 500,000

• It is, however, a fallacy to extrapolate from that and claim that there is only 1 chance in 500,000 that someone other that the defendant committed the crime

Why is it a Fallacy?

• There are 2 million people in Perth, so the probability suggests that there are2,000,000 divided by 500,000 (ie 4) people in Perth with DNA that matches the partial profile obtained from the DNA at the crime scene • There is, statistically speaking, 3 chances out of 4 that the crime was,

therefore, committed by someone other than the defendant!

• Rapist caught by DNA • “Jurors were told this week the DNA evidence concluded Frank was 100 billion

times more likely to be the culprit in both rapes than anyone else” • The Prosecutor’s Fallacy

The Ugly

1. The Faceless Phantom of Heilbronn

• On April 25, 2007, a 22-year-old female police officer was fatally shot in Heilbronn in Germany. DNA, presumably from the perpetrator of the crime was found at the scene and the same DNA was found at the scene of numerous subsequent crimes in different parts of Germany:

The Ugly

• On a cup after the killing of a 62-year-old woman in 1993

• On a kitchen drawer after the killing of a 61-year-old man in 2001

• On a toy pistol after the 2004 robbery of gemstone traders

• On a projectile after after a fight between two brothers in 2005

• On a syringe containing heroin found in 2001

• On a stone after a burglary in 2006

• After a 2007 burglary at an optometrist’s store

• After 20 thefts of cars and motorbikes between 2003 and 2007

• After 4 cases of home invasion in 2008

• After an apartment break-in in 2008

• After the robbery of a woman in 2008 in a club house

The Ugly

• DNA profiling showed that the DNA was from a female of eastern European origin • She was never seen by any witness at any of the crime scenes, so she

became known as: • The faceless Phantom of Heilbronn

• But who was she? • She was a Middle Eastern woman who worked in a DNA swab manufacturing

factory

• She was not a criminal… just a “contaminator” • Blind belief in the infallibility of DNA evidence: Tunnel Vision

The Uglier

• Advances in DNA profiling techniques have improved the sensitivity of the analysis so that small amounts of contaminating DNA can be a problem

2. The tainted case of Farah Jama

The Farah Jama Case

• 19 year old Somalia student living in Melbourne in 2006 • Sentenced to 6 years imprisonment for sexually assaulting a 48 year

old woman in an over 30s nightclub • The conviction was based solely on his DNA being found on a cervical

swab taken from the victim in a sexual assault clinic • It was subsequently discovered that a DNA swap was taken from Jama

in the same clinic room the previous day for an unrelated matter • A speck of his DNA contaminated a trolley in the room and it was

accidentally transferred to a swab taken from the victim • He was eventually acquitted after spending 15 months in jail and he

was awarded an ex-gratia payment of $525,000 AUD

The Uglier

• A blind belief in DNA profiling resulted in tunnel vision in spite of overwhelming evidence suggesting his innocence • A 19 year old Muslim • The woman was supposedly assaulted in an over 30s nightclub • None of the 800 patrons saw Jama or any other person of similar ethnic background

at the club that evening • Jama did not drink alcohol • No fingerprints and no CCTV • Jama’s DNA was found on one swab only • The Judge described Jama as “offensive, repugnant and intolerable in this society.” • There was little or no evidence of assault or that any crime had actually been

committed… simply drunk and medicated • Too few sperm cells (1 intact sperm and 15 heads) for a rape case

The Uglier

• The Vincent report into the Farah Jama case “in this present case, the obviously unreserved acceptance of the reliability of DNA evidence appears to have so confined thought that it enabled all involved to leap over a veritable mountain of improbabilities and unexplained aspects that could be seen to block the path to conviction. It is almost incredible that, in consequence of a minute particle, by some mechanism settling on a swab, slide or trolley surface, a chain of events could be started that culminated in the conviction of an individual for a crime that had never been committed by him or anyone else.”

Beware of Tunnel Vision

“the tendency to focus exclusively on a single or limited objective or view” • Broaden your thinking and involve other disciplines and sub-discipines

in your problem solving where relevant • Think outside the box!

• New area of crime investigation – Crime Science • Concerned with why, where, when, by whom, and how a particular offence

was committed… trends and hots spots • Truly interdisciplinary in nature

• Criminology – Architecture – Forensic Science – Engineering – Psychology – Computer Science – Sociology – Geography