ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at how in practice, in concrete cases, scientific experts’ contributions are incorporated in the criminal justice decisions ultimately taken, so as to make sense of the expanding role of scientific evidence and scientific experts within Japanese criminal justice and its impact on “traditional”, statements-focused criminal justice practices. The Legal Research and Training Institute (LRTI) document addresses scientific evidence in general, but focuses especially on DNA evidence. The LRTI document illustrates a sociology of knowledge-like awareness of how legal findings are conditioned by the agreed upon scientific criteria valid at one particular point in time. Scientific evidence refers to a definite amount of evidence material that has been analyzed on the basis of scientific principles. The chapter addresses the question of how professional judges have been making sense of scientific evidence in general, and DNA evidence in particular, and how the scientists producing such evidence are institutionally affiliated with investigative authorities.
