3 ms·

Nearly everything in forensic science has proven to be bullshit. Drug dogs are worse than a coin flip - but the supreme court shrugged and said they're still v

Nearly everything in forensic science has proven to be bullshit. Drug dogs are worse than a coin flip - but the supreme court shrugged and said they're still valid. Arson / "fire science" - nearly all of it had zero scientific backing and was bullshit. Fingerprints aren't anywhere near as unique as we'd been told for decades, but they're still pushed, heavily. "Lie detectors" are so useless they're illegal to use for employment or criminal matters. Fiber/hair/handwriting analysis turns out to have also been bullshit. All of it were just tools for police and prosecutors to secure a conviction for the person they decided was guilty, or to find someone a jury would think was guilty. Ie: poor and/or black.

jimt1234 3y ago
Do you have any sources? (Not calling BS, just curious.) I'm especially interested in drug-sniffing dogs, as I've heard that the dogs are often trained with specific commands to bark; then, when conducting a search, the officer will trigger the dog to bark with one of these commands, then use that bark as justification to search. In other words, the whole thing is just a prop. Not sure if there's truth to that, though; only what I've heard.
- marcus0x62 3y ago
  There are a bunch out there, this[0] is fairly representative of what I've read. What is worse, in my opinion, is the deference courts give to agencies using these dogs[1]. But, beyond that, surely you've met a few dogs in your life, no? One of the most obvious things about them is how badly they want to please their masters. What do you think the police want their dogs to do? 0 - https://www.aclu-il.org/en/news/drug-sniffing-dogs-are-wrong-more-right https://www.aclu-il.org/en/news/drug-sniffing-dogs-are-wrong... 1 - https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2015/08/04/federal-appeals-court-drug-dog-thats-barely-more-accurate-than-a-coin-flip-is-good-enough/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2015/08/04/...
rossant 3y ago
You can add to your list the medical detection of child abuse from brain scans, aka abusive head trauma/shaken baby syndrome [1, 2]. Heavily unreliable without further evidence of physical trauma. [1] my blog post: https://www.cambridgeblog.org/2023/05/a-journey-into-the-shaken-baby-syndrome-abusive-head-trauma-controversy/ https://www.cambridgeblog.org/2023/05/a-journey-into-the-sha... [2] and the HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37650402 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37650402
Suppafly 3y ago
bite mark analysis stuff is essentially made up too.

jimt1234 3y ago

Do you have any sources? (Not calling BS, just curious.) I'm especially interested in drug-sniffing dogs, as I've heard that the dogs are often trained with specific commands to bark; then, when conducting a search, the officer will trigger the dog to bark with one of these commands, then use that bark as justification to search. In other words, the whole thing is just a prop. Not sure if there's truth to that, though; only what I've heard.

marcus0x62 3y ago
There are a bunch out there, this[0] is fairly representative of what I've read. What is worse, in my opinion, is the deference courts give to agencies using these dogs[1]. But, beyond that, surely you've met a few dogs in your life, no? One of the most obvious things about them is how badly they want to please their masters. What do you think the police want their dogs to do? 0 - https://www.aclu-il.org/en/news/drug-sniffing-dogs-are-wrong-more-right https://www.aclu-il.org/en/news/drug-sniffing-dogs-are-wrong... 1 - https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2015/08/04/federal-appeals-court-drug-dog-thats-barely-more-accurate-than-a-coin-flip-is-good-enough/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2015/08/04/...

rossant 3y ago

You can add to your list the medical detection of child abuse from brain scans, aka abusive head trauma/shaken baby syndrome [1, 2]. Heavily unreliable without further evidence of physical trauma. [1] my blog post: https://www.cambridgeblog.org/2023/05/a-journey-into-the-shaken-baby-syndrome-abusive-head-trauma-controversy/ https://www.cambridgeblog.org/2023/05/a-journey-into-the-sha... [2] and the HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37650402 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37650402

Suppafly 3y ago

bite mark analysis stuff is essentially made up too.