Criminalistics and Forensic DNA

Doelstellingen van dit vak

Students should be able to:

• have a basic understanding of several areas of criminalistics and their application in legal practice;
• have a basic understanding of the weaknesses and fallacies of criminalistics methods and how forensic expertise can be refuted in criminal court; 
• recognize prosecutors and defence fallacies in interpreting forensic results;
• have basic understanding of police investigations and crime scene analysis including red flags of crime scene staging and various risks of biases
• understand the opportunities and risks of criminalistics being depicted in contemporary popular culture (e.g. CSI-effect);
• understand basic scientific methods and their connection to admissibility of evidence in court;
• understand logically correct reasoning (Bayesian reasoning) and how this applies to forensic science;
• know the essentials of forensic DNA research and evaluation of DNA fingerprint comparison;
• achieve a basic understanding of wrongful convictions and related legal and societal consequences;