[20° Forum SIS] Call for abstracts ICFIS2014, International Conference on Forensic Inference and Statistics

[Julia Mortera]

KOG

The *9th International Conference on Forensic Inference and Statistics* 
<http://icfis2014.org> will take place from *19 to 22 August 2014* at 
Leiden University 
<http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/6795661/ICFIS2014/venue.html>, the 
Netherlands. Leiden is a beautiful city with a large number of monuments 
and canals, and has a 15 minutes train link to Amsterdam Schiphol 
International Airport, one of the main gates of Europe.

This international conference - in short *ICFIS2014* 
<http://icfis2014.org> - unites lawyers, statisticians and forensic 
scientists in their interest in optimal reasoning concerning forensic 
evidence. Technical developments in biological, physical, chemical and 
digital forensic disciplines are fast and have an increasing impact on 
law enforcement and the justice system. Examples are DNA profiling, 
fingerprint and illicit drug analysis, and analysis of large digital 
data-sets for intelligence purposes. Whatever the type of evidence, it 
can only be of value when it is properly gathered, analyzed, evaluated, 
and communicated by the scientist. Moreover, it should be understood by 
the legal decision maker. This requires sound statistical and logical 
methods, and good communication between lawyers and scientists.
The conference promotes the interaction between providers and users of 
forensic evidence. It focuses on probabilistic methods for the 
evaluation of forensic evidence, and their use in law and law enforcement.

The conference will provide a forum for oral presentations and posters. 
Furthermore, the first day of the conference will consist of workshops. 
Selection by the scientific committee of the contributions for the final 
program is based on abstracts.

Please submit your abstract by digitally filling out the form you can 
download from the website 
<http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/6795661/ICFIS2014/abstracts.html>, 
and sending it to abstracts at icfis2014.org <mailto:abstracts at icfis2014.org>.

*The strict deadline for abstract submission is February 20 2014. *

Themes 
<http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/6795661/ICFIS2014/index.html#themes> 
for which abstracts are solicited include, but are not limited to:

*1) Evaluating evidence of emerging analytical technologies*
New kinds of forensic analysis give results which require novel methods 
of interpretation.

*2) Epidemiological evidence and the law*
Consideration of the use of epidemiologic methods and evidence to 
resolve problematic questions of causation in law, most notably within 
the context of personal injury litigation. Epidemiological evidence 
helps courts deal with alleged causal connections between plaintiffs' 
diseases or other harm and exposure to specific noxious agents (such as 
asbestos, toxic waste, radiation, and pharmaceuticals).

*3) Education of methods for evidence interpretation*
Efforts to educate legal and forensic practitioners, aimed at improving 
understanding where it concerns forensic evidence and inference.

*4) Communication between lawyers and experts *
How can we improve the way legal and forensic practitioners communicate 
through reporting and in court? How can the legal practitioner deal with 
the knowledge paradox: judging the expertise of the forensic 
practitioner if by definition there is a big difference in knowledge 
about the field of expertise?

*5) Legal versus scientific reasoning*
Where do the ways of reasoning by legal and forensic practitioners 
differ and what does science have to say about it?

*6) Quantifying evidential value *
Quantitative ways of assigning evidential value, based on models and 
empirical data. This includes methods for model improvement and 
assessment such as calibration, and validation studies of their 
performance. It involves both general theory and practical applications 
to a specific field. Views on current debates - such as dealing with 
various sources of uncertainty when reporting likelihood ratios - are 
also welcome.

*7) DNA mixture interpretation*
How can we assign a quantitative evidential value to a profile of a DNA 
mixture? This theme includes software to assign evidential value, their 
performance for different types of mixture and profile quality, and 
experiences in casework.

*8) Interpretation at activity level*
Since legal practitioners will inevitably need to interpret evidence in 
relation to possible activities, forensic practitioners may increasingly 
be asked to do so. This theme is concerned with when and how to do that 
based on hypothesis formation, case circumstances, and available 
knowledge and data. Views on dealing with a lack of information that is 
required for properly addressing activity level hypotheses are also welcome.

*9) Combining evidence*
Combining evidence is an inferential challenge for legal and forensic 
practitioners. This theme discusses legal and scientific ways of doing 
that, e.g., using Bayesian networks.

*10) Deciding under uncertainty*
When inference is extended towards making decisions, this will involve 
the costs and benefits related to the decisions made. This theme is 
concerned with application and theory of such decision making in the 
scientific and legal domain.

*11) Statistics as evidence *
This theme is concerned with those cases where the evidence is 
statistical information. For instance, statistical evidence in human 
rights tribunals, or civil cases where discrimination is an issue. There 
are counting problems associated with human rights in conflicts such as 
estimation of the number of civilian casualties.


See you at ICFIS2014!

Charles Berger and Marjan Sjerps,
on behalf of the organizing and scientific committee 
<http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/6795661/ICFIS2014/organization.html>.

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