Timmy McGrath

Bronxville School

Current Event #16

February 11, 2018

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/09/nyregion/prospect-park-rape-solved-dna.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FForensic%20Science&action=click&contentCollection=timestopics&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=5&pgtype=collection

This article DNA Helps New York Police Solve Infamous 1994 Rape Case is about how recently developed technology was able to help the New York police solve a 24 year old rape case. In New York city 1994 a women was raped at 5:30pm in prospect park. Then A High profile News columnist started questioning the woman’s account calling it a hoax. However this January when the technology became available the police were able to test the seman that they found at the scene. It came back and matched James Edward Webb a 67 year old serial rapist serving a life prison sentence in Sing Sing. This recent discovery was made possible by a new piece of forensic technology which was able to detect the DNA and figure out who commited the crime.

This article talked about a rapist and how the women who made the claims wasn’t immediately believed and she was almost shrugged of by the public. This is something that is now becoming more and more of a problem now. With women speaking out about their experiences with sexual abuse in their lives it is changing a lot of people's mind on how these women should be treated. They are now getting the respect and belief in their stories that they should have had many years ago. And now this new technology will continue to help women prove that the person who did this to them is guilty.

I thought that the author did a great job writing this article. There were not very many mistakes in anything. The only critique that I would have against the article is that I felt there could have been some more background information on the case. The author just dived into the details almost like he was assuming that everyone knew what the case was.

Maggie Miller

February 12th, 2018

Forensics A/B Odd

Current Event 16

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/08/170814120933.htm

Automated fingerprint analysis is one step closer to reality: Scientists have developed an algorithm that automates a key step in forensic fingerprint analysis, which may make the process more reliable and efficient.

Since the first case where fingerprint evidence was used in court, in 1911, fingerprint analysis technology has been constantly developing and improving. While at the time of this first case, fingerprints evidence was thought to be indisputable, we now know that fingerprint examination can provide erroneous results. The article mentions evidence of errors made in fingerprint examination in a 2009 report that found the results “are not necessarily repeatable from examiner to examiner.” Because different experts have different opinions, innocent people have been wrongly accused. The purpose of this article is to spread the news that studies are being conducted to reduce the chance of human errors occuring. They provide evidence from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and Michigan State University, who have evaluated an algorithm that can conduct the key steps in fingerprint analysis. The idea is that if fingerprint references were high- quality, it would be much more efficient to match them, especially on a computer that can analyze rolled prints. The tricky part is when the fingerprints are brought in from a crime scene, they are never perfect rolled prints, so it’s hard for examiners to determine what parts of the print evidence is useful.

By automating the step where examiners choose what is valuable prints and what is not, it will allow evidence to be processed more efficiently, reducing backlogs, etc. Crimes will soon be solved much more efficiently when the evidence can be processed conclusively, following the completion of the algorithm. This algorithm has the potential to permanently change the current ways of fingerprint analysis that has been used for decades, the same process that has lead to numerous false convictions. The possibility of someone being falsely accused by fingerprints would no longer be an arguable factor in a court of law.

This article was extremely interesting and valuable to society and relevant to our Forensic Class studies. This algorithm has the potential to change scientific method of fingerprint analysis! And the way the article was formatted and written was very easy to read and understand, it was divided into 3 parts; first the introduction paragraphs, then “A Key Decision Point,” then “Training the Algorithm.” This last section was the only slightly difficult information to understand because it got into the technical things of it, but was still clear and important to the article.

Forensic Search Dogs Sniff Out Human Ashes In Wildfire Wreckage

Alexander Plaza

Mr.Ippolito

2/5/18

Forensics Review

Dembosky, April. “Forensic Search Dogs Sniff Out Human Ashes In Wildfire Wreckage.” NPR, NPR, 3 Feb. 2018, www.npr.org/2018/02/03/582462990/forensic-search-dogs-sniff-out-human-ashes-in-wildfire-wreckage.

I read “Forensic Search Dogs Sniff Out Human Ashes In Wildfire Wreckage” by April Dembosky. The article describes the home of Kathy Lampi. Her mother passed away last June and Lampi kept her ashes on her shelf. Unfortunately, the Northern California wildfires last October devastated her home reducing her entire house to a pile of ash and rubble.To find her mother’s ashes among the wreckage Lampi was put in touch with the Institute for Canine Forensics. The dogs trained by the Institute are used for a wide range of jobs including looking for lost Native American burial sites or even the remains of Amelia Earhart, however, this “is the first time these kinds of dogs have been used to recover human ashes from wildfire disaster sites. Kris Black, trainer for one of the dogs stated, "We start imprinting them at a very young age and introducing that target odor…I feed her when she finds what her target source is”. An English Labrador was brought in to the wreckage of the home and the dog sniff around before laying down next to her findings. The archeologists then set off to work looking for a homogenous pocket of ash and eventually identifying ash that would belong to Lampi’s mother.

This article sheds light on an interesting field of forensics that utilizes canines to aid in investigation. The field described in the article is very important as the search for human remains in a disaster such as a fire may be extremely difficult for forensic archaeologists as they may have no idea where to look. Trained dogs prove extremely useful to the archeologists and make identifying humans within a wreckage possible, allowing for closure for the family.

I think the article did a very good job. It described a certain case and went into detail how the trained dogs and forensic archaeologists worked together to find Lampi’s mother’s ashes. The title is a bit misleading as it is not solely the work of the dogs but rather the collaboration between them and the forensic archaeologists so I would recommend that the author edit the title accordingly. Other than that, the article was very well made.

“Philly Domestic Violence Analysis Shows More Violence in Unmarried Couples”

“Philly Domestic Violence Analysis Shows More Violence in Unmarried Couples.” Forensic Magazine, 1 Feb. 2018, www.forensicmag.com/news/2018/02/philly-domestic-violence-analysis-shows-more-violence-unmarried-couples.https://www.forensicmag.com/news/2018/02/philly-domestic-violence-analysis-shows-more-violence-unmarried-couples

In the article “Philly Domestic Violence Analysis Shows More Violence in Unmarried Couples” by Seth Augenstein, it explained new found data when using forensic technology to compare incidences of domestic violence between certain types of couples, in Philadelphia. The article said 82 percent of intimate partner violence incidents were between dating partners, with the remainder involving those who were married or previously married, the scientists from the University of Pennsylvania have found. Though there are limitations to the conclusions, the data appears to indicate that more domestic violence happens between people who are dating, compared to married couples. “Current boyfriends or girlfriends were more likely that current spouses to injure their victims and to be arrested,” the scientists concluded. Susan B. Sorensen has recorded 31,206 incidents that were reported to the Philadelphia Police Department. Of the 31, 206 incidents, 82 percent were dating partners, it was split between currently dating (44 percent) and formerly dating (38 percent) partners, according to the data. The remaining incidents involved spouses. Current spouses made up a total of 15 percent of the calls, and 3.5 percent involved ex-spouses.

But there are some interesting factors that may be the reason for the data that was found. For instance, Philadelphia has the highest percentage of never-married adults (51.5 percent) among the 10 biggest U.S. cities. Underlying that statistic is a changing nature of relationships over the period of 1970 to 2009: over that time frame the average age of first marriage for men rose from 22 to 28, and from 20 to 25 for females. (Divorce rates also doubled over that period.) Even though this data informs us that dating couples are more likely to have a domestic violence incident, it is focused on one city were more than half of the population count are never married adults.

Although this data doesn’t give any solutions toward the end of domestic violence it gives us a sample of the data that's being tracked by forensic scientists, related to the ongoing problem of domestic violence. Also how organizations are trying to end domestic violence can target specific communities, towns, and cities.

I think the article did a good job providing specific data regarding the study by the forensic scientists. But they didn’t provide much else. All the article really contained was a couple lines with a bunch of numbers and why they are so significant. This article was very different then articles I have read in the past because there was no story, but the main purpose of this article was to inform people across the country with forensic data.

DNA Helps New York Police Solve Infamous 1994 Rape Case

Lily Monahan

Current #15

Forensics

February 6th, 2018

Baker, Al, and Alan Feuer. “DNA Helps New York Police Solve Infamous 1994 Rape Case.”The New York Times, The New York Times, 9 Jan. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/01/09/nyregion/prospect-park-rape-solved-dna.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FForensic%2BScience&action=click&contentCollection=timestopics®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=4&pgtype=collection.

In Al Bakers article  “DNA Helps New York Police Solve Infamous 1994 Rape Case” discuss how new DNA matching technology was able to help officials finally identify a suspect in an unsolved rape case from 24 years ago.A woman was raped in the early evening in Prospect park while returning home from grocery shopping. There was little evidence aside from some semen on her shorts ,and police had no leads on ny suspecs. One reporter went as far as to speculate in an article as to whether the entire story was a hoax. The case went cold shortly after. This month, a newly developed system of DNA testing which was not elaborated on in the article was used. The Rapist was identified as 67 year old James Edward Webb, who is already serving life in prison for serial rape charges, He cannot be charged with the rape that occurred in 1994, due to the statute of limitations.

This breakthrough is relevant for several reasons, the first being that a victim was given closure ad is now able to be at peace knowing that her rapist is behind bars and will be for the rest of his life. The victim was called a liar, so it’s important for the public to know that that accusation was false and inappropriate.  This is also relevant because it shows the value of new forensic advances and the benefits it can have to society, like closure for the victim. It makes it clear that rapists and other criminals will no longer be able to get away with their heinous crimes because forensic technology is catching up to them and improving every day.

This article was well written and gave a great overview on the case and how it was resolved. There were alot of quotes from police, lawyers, and people closely connected to the crime. I think this article would have been better if there was a little more detail on the exact forensic process was used and how it was developed.