A strawman with machine learning for a brain: A response to Biedermann (2022) the strange persistence of (source) “identification” claims in forensic literature

Geoffrey Stewart Morrison*, Daniel Ramos, Rolf JF Ypma, Nabanita Basu, Kim de Bie, Ewald Enzinger, Zeno Geradts, Didier Meuwly, David van der Vloed, Peter Vergeer, Philip Weber

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalEditorialAcademicpeer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)
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Abstract

We agree wholeheartedly with Biedermann (2022) FSI Synergy article 100222 in its criticism of research publications that treat forensic inference in source attribution as an “identification” or “individualization” task. We disagree, however, with its criticism of the use of machine learning for forensic inference. The argument it makes is a strawman argument. There is a growing body of literature on the calculation of well-calibrated likelihood ratios using machine-learning methods and relevant data, and on the validation under casework conditions of such machine-learning-based systems.

Original languageEnglish
Article number100230
JournalForensic Science International: Synergy
Volume4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jan 2022

Keywords

  • Forensic inference
  • Machine learning

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