Forensic Pathology News
Dr. Young will post links to news articles that interest him about
forensic pathology, medical examiners, coroners and death
investigation in this section.
Pathology in the News
- Justice Department Disagrees with Forensic Statements in 2016 President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology Report
- Traditional forensic pattern examination methods—as currently practiced—do not belong to the scientific discipline of metrology. Forensic examiners visually compare the individual features observed in two examined samples, they do not measure The result of this comparison is a conclusion that is stated in words (nominal terms), not magnitudes (measurements).
- Ocala man accused of violently shaking infant, leaving baby girl in critical condition
- Detectives interviewed the child’s mother, who said Christopher Ronald Bairan was with the baby for several hours before waking her up to tell her the child was unresponsive, court documents show. The 36-year-old also spoke to detectives who described the infant as “whiny,” saying she was fussy all day but otherwise behaving like a typical baby. Bairan said he had fallen asleep with the infant and when he woke up, she was no longer conscious.
- OPINION: Why we need an independent, science-based medicolegal death investigation system
- The blunders in recent high-profile cases are pathognomonic, or specifically indicative, of a larger affliction in the Philippine medicolegal death investigation system; namely, blatant conflicts of interest, a lack of clear jurisdictional boundaries, misrepresentation of forensic examiner qualifications, and weak legislative backing.
Pathology Links
- ACCPE means Affirming the Consequent for Complex Past Events. It is The Sherlock Effect.
- Whenever an expert states the past events that occurred on the basis of looking only at the physical evidence without reference to eyewitness statements, he or she is Affirming the Consequent for Complex Past Events. This is not only logically invalid and unsound, it never works in practice, Sherlock Holmes, CSI and Bones notwithstanding. Whenever ACCPE is listed in my comments to a news article, recognize one more tragic example of how this fallacy can destroy lives. ACCPE can also be understood as "backward reasoning,""effect-to-cause reasoning," or "abductive inference."
- American Academy of Forensic Sciences
- ForensicScienceDegree.org
- For further information on forensic science.
- National Association of Medical Examiners