The Right To Confront Your Accusers: Opening the Black Box of Forensic DNA Software

The results of forensic DNA software systems are regularly introduced as compelling evidence in criminal trials, but requests by defendants to evaluate how these results are generated are often denied. Furthermore, there is mounting evidence of problems such as failures to disclose substantial changes in methodology to oversight bodies and substantial differences in the results generated by different software systems. In a society that purports to guarantee defendants the right to face their accusers and confront the evidence against them, what then is the role of black-box forensic software systems in moral decision making in criminal justice? In this paper, we examine the case of the Forensic Statistical Tool (FST), a forensic DNA system developed in 2010 by New York City\u27s Office of Chief Medical Examiner (OCME). For over 5 years, expert witness review requested by defense teams was denied, even under protective order, while the system was used in over 1300 criminal cases. When the first expert review was finally permitted in 2016, many problems were identified including an undisclosed function capable of dropping evidence that could be beneficial to the defense. Overall, the findings were so substantial that a motion to release the full source code of FST publicly was granted. In this paper, we quantify the impact of this undisclosed function on samples from OCME\u27s own validation study and discuss the potential impact on individual defendants. Specifically, we find that 104 of the 439 samples (23.7%) triggered the undisclosed data-dropping behavior and that the change skewed results toward false inclusion for individuals whose DNA was not present in an evidence sample. Beyond this, we consider what changes in the criminal justice system could prevent problems like this from going unresolved in the future

The Right To Confront Your Accusers: Opening the Black Box of Forensic DNA Software

The results of forensic DNA software systems are regularly introduced as compelling evidence in criminal trials, but requests by defendants to evaluate how these results are generated are often denied. Furthermore, there is mounting evidence of problems such as failures to disclose substantial changes in methodology to oversight bodies and substantial differences in the results generated by different software systems. In a society that purports to guarantee defendants the right to face their accusers and confront the evidence against them, what then is the role of black-box forensic software systems in moral decision making in criminal justice? In this paper, we examine the case of the Forensic Statistical Tool (FST), a forensic DNA system developed in 2010 by New York City\u27s Office of Chief Medical Examiner (OCME). For over 5 years, expert witness review requested by defense teams was denied, even under protective order, while the system was used in over 1300 criminal cases. When the first expert review was finally permitted in 2016, many problems were identified including an undisclosed function capable of dropping evidence that could be beneficial to the defense. Overall, the findings were so substantial that a motion to release the full source code of FST publicly was granted. In this paper, we quantify the impact of this undisclosed function on samples from OCME\u27s own validation study and discuss the potential impact on individual defendants. Specifically, we find that 104 of the 439 samples (23.7%) triggered the undisclosed data-dropping behavior and that the change skewed results toward false inclusion for individuals whose DNA was not present in an evidence sample. Beyond this, we consider what changes in the criminal justice system could prevent problems like this from going unresolved in the future

It takes a village: Caregiver diversity and language contingency in the UK and rural Gambia.

INTRODUCTION: There is substantial diversity within and between contexts globally in caregiving practices and family composition, which may have implications for the early interaction's infants engage in. We draw on data from the Brain Imaging for Global Health (BRIGHT, www.globalfnirs.org/the-bright-project) project, which longitudinally examined infants in the UK and in rural Gambia, West Africa. In The Gambia, households are commonly characterized by multigenerational, frequently polygamous family structures, which, in part, is reflected in the diversity of caregivers a child spends time with. In this paper, we aim to 1) evaluate and validate the Language Environment Analysis (LENA) for use in the Mandinka speaking families in The Gambia, 2) examine the nature (i.e., prevalence of turn taking) and amount (i.e., adult and child vocalizations) of conversation that infants are exposed to from 12 to 24 months of age and 3) investigate the link between caregiver diversity and child language outcomes, examining the mediating role of contingent turn taking. METHOD: We obtained naturalistic seven-hour-long LENA recordings at 12, 18 and 24 months of age from a cohort of N = 204 infants from Mandinka speaking households in The Gambia and N = 61 infants in the UK. We examined developmental changes and site differences in LENA counts of adult word counts (AWC), contingent turn taking (CTT) and child vocalizations (CVC). In the larger and more heterogenous Gambian sample, we also investigated caregiver predictors of turn taking frequency. We hereby examined the number of caregivers present over the recording day and the consistency of caregivers across two subsequent days per age point. We controlled for children's cognitive development via the Mullen Scales of Early Learning (MSEL). RESULTS: Our LENA validation showed high internal consistency between the human coders and automated LENA outputs (Cronbach's alpha's all >.8). All LENA counts were higher in the UK compared to the Gambian cohort. In The Gambia, controlling for overall neurodevelopment via the MSEL, CTT at 12 and 18 months predicted CVC at 18 and 24 months. Caregiver consistency was associated with CTT counts at 18 and 24 months. The number of caregivers and CTT counts showed an inverted u-shape relationship at 18 and 24 months, with an intermediate number of caregivers being associated with the highest CTT frequencies. Mediation analyses showed a partial mediation by number of caregivers and CTT and 24-month CVC. DISCUSSION: The LENA provided reliable estimates for the Mandinka language in the home recording context. We showed that turn taking is associated with subsequent child vocalizations and explored contextual caregiving factors contributing to turn taking in the Gambian cohort

It takes a village: caregiver diversity and language contingency in the UK and rural Gambia

Introduction. There is substantial diversity within and between contexts globally in caregiving practices and family composition, which may have implications for the early interaction’s infants engage in. We draw on data from the [blinded] project, which longitudinally examined infants in the UK and in rural Gambia, West Africa. In The Gambia, households are commonly characterized by multigenerational, frequently polygamous family structures, which, in part, is reflected in the diversity of caregivers a child spends time with. In this paper, we aim to 1) evaluate and validate the Language Environment Analysis (LENA) for use in the Mandinka speaking families in The Gambia, 2) examine the nature (i.e., prevalence of turn taking) and amount (i.e., adult and child vocalizations) of conversation that infants are exposed to from 12-24 months of age and 3) investigate the link between caregiver diversity and child language outcomes, examining the mediating role of contingent turn taking. Method. We obtained naturalistic seven-hour-long LENA recordings at 12, 18 and 24 months of age from a cohort of N=204 infants from Mandinka speaking households in The Gambia and N=61 infants in the UK. We examined developmental changes and site differences in LENA counts of adult word counts (AWC), contingent turn taking (CTT) and child vocalizations (CVC). In the larger and more heterogenous Gambian sample, we also investigated caregiver predictors of turn taking frequency. We hereby examined the number of caregivers present over the recording day and the consistency of caregivers across two subsequent days per age point. We controlled for children’s cognitive development via the Mullen Scales of Early Learning (MSEL). Results. Our LENA validation showed high internal consistency between the human coders and automated LENA outputs (Cronbach’s alpha’s all >.8). All LENA counts were higher in the UK compared to the Gambian cohort. In The Gambia, controlling for overall neurodevelopment via the MSEL, CTT at 12 and 18 months predicted CVC at 18 and 24 months. Caregiver consistency was associated with CTT counts at 18 and 24 months. The number of caregivers and CTT counts showed an inverted u-shape relationship at 18 and 24 months, with an intermediate number of caregivers being associated with the highest CTT frequencies. Mediation analyses showed a partial mediation by number of caregivers and CTT and 24-month CVC. Discussion. The LENA provided reliable estimates for the Mandinka language in the home recording context. We showed that turn taking is associated with subsequent child vocalizations and explored contextual caregiving factors contributing to turn taking in the Gambian cohort

The Brain Imaging for Global Health (BRIGHT) Project: Longitudinal cohort study protocol

There is a scarcity of prospective longitudinal research targeted at early postnatal life which maps developmental pathways of early-stage processing and brain specialisation in the context of early adversity. Follow up from infancy into the one-five year age range is key, as it constitutes a critical gap between infant and early childhood studies. Availability of portable neuroimaging (functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and electroencephalography (EEG)) has enabled access to rural settings increasing the diversity of our sampling and broadening developmental research to include previously underrepresented ethnic-racial and geographical groups in low- and middle- income countries (LMICs). The primary objective of the Brain Imaging for Global Health (BRIGHT) project was to establish brain function - using longitudinal data from mother - for-age reference curves infant dyads living in the UK and rural Gambia and investigate the association between context-associated moderators and developmental trajectories across the first two years of life in The Gambia. In total, 265 participating families were seen during pregnancy, at 7–14 days, 1-, 5-, 8-, 12-, 18- and 24-months post-partum. An additional visit is now underway at 3–5 years to assess pre-school outcomes. The majority of our Gambian cohort live in poverty, but while resource-poor in many factors they commonly experience a rich and beneficial family and caregiving context with multigenerational care and a close-knit supportive community. Understanding the impact of different factors at play in such an environment (i.e., detrimental undernutrition versus beneficial multigenerational family support) will (i) improve the representativeness of models of general cognitive developmental pathways from birth, (ii) identify causal pathways of altered trajectories associated with early adversity at both individual and group level, and (iii) identify the context-associated moderators (i.e. social context) that protect development despite the presence of poverty-associated challenges. This will in turn contribute to the development of targeted interventions.</ns3:p