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Policing - new material (67)

01 January 2004

The detention and questioning of young persons by the police in Northern Ireland, Katie Quinn & JoHn Jackson. Research & Statistical Series Report no. 9 (Northern Ireland Office) 2003, pp.190 (ISBN 1 903686 7534). This report originates in a recommendation by the Criminal Justice Review 2000 "to provide the Northern Ireland Office with a comprehensive account of the issues surrounding the questioning, cautioning, charging and detention of young people" in Northern Ireland. Its findings include chapters on "Young persons' experiences of police custody", "The appropriate adult", "The right of silence" and "The police interview" with recommendations made for each area.

Forensic evidence stands accused, James Randerson & Andy Coghlan. New Scientist 31.1.04, pp.6-7. Following on from the revelation that forensic evidence given to the courts may have led to the wrongful convictions of hundreds of men and women accused of harming their children, this article explores doubts over the use of fingerprint evidence to convict suspects. The New Scientist investigation discovered that "potentially flawed, forensic assumptions are still routinely being accepted by the courts" and criticises "the supposed infallibility" of fingerprint evidence. Using data from the USA, where doubts over the reliability of fingerprint evidence were raised in 1999, the report cites critics of fingerprinting who say that because fingerprinting "is such a long-established technique...it has never been subjected to the rigorous scientific scrutiny necessary to work out how often a bogus match is likely to come up."