repeatability and reproducibility of decisions by latent fingerprint examiners重复性和再现性决策的潜在的指纹.pdfVIP

Repeatability and Reproducibility of Decisions by Latent Fingerprint Examiners 1 1 2 3 Bradford T. Ulery , R. Austin Hicklin , JoAnn Buscaglia *, Maria Antonia Roberts 1 Noblis, Falls Church, Virginia, United States of America, 2 Counterterrorism and Forensic Science Research Unit, Federal Bureau of Investigation Laboratory Division, Quantico, Virginia, United States of America, 3 Latent Print Support Unit, Federal Bureau of Investigation Laboratory Division, Quantico, Virginia, United States of America Abstract The interpretation of forensic fingerprint evidence relies on the expertise of latent print examiners. We tested latent print examiners on the extent to which they reached consistent decisions. This study assessed intra-examiner repeatability by retesting 72 examiners on comparisons of latent and exemplar fingerprints, after an interval of approximately seven months; each examiner was reassigned 25 image pairs for comparison, out of total pool of 744 image pairs. We compare these repeatability results with reproducibility (inter-examiner) results derived from our previous study. Examiners repeated 89.1% of their individualization decisions, and 90.1% of their exclusion decisions; most of the changed decisions resulted in inconclusive decisions. Repeatability of comparison decisions (individualization, exclusion, inconclusive) was 90.0% for mated pairs, and 85.9% for nonmated pairs. Repeatability and reproducibility were notably lower for comparisons assessed by the examiners as ‘‘difficult’’ than for ‘‘easy’’ or ‘‘moderate’’ comparisons, indicating that examiners’ assessments of difficulty may be useful for quality assurance. No false positive errors were repeated (n = 4); 30% of false negative errors were repe