ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the knowledge of and research into forensic decision making and highlights the interesting cognitive issues to be researched, with an emphasis on latent fingerprint identification. Many forensic identifications are based on matching a visual pattern left at a crime scene and one from a suspect. Fingerprint identification is among the most widely used forensic techniques. An analysis of publicly exposed cases of fingerprint misidentification showed that cognitive bias probably contributed to errors. If expert latent fingerprint examiners can be biased, then so, presumably, can firearm and toolmark examiners, shoe print examiners, bite mark examiners, document examiners, ear print examiners, and all the other forensic experts who heavily rely on human perception and judgment. Fingerprint identification relies on the ability of human examiners to make correct visual judgments. Research shows that various factors affect the perception and comparison of fingerprint patterns and that judgments and decisions are subjective and susceptible to influences.
