Scientific Method: Applications in Failure Investigation and Forensic Science

by Noon; Randall K.

• ISBN13: 9781420092806
• ISBN10: 1420092804
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-04-27
• Publisher: CRC Press

Summary

Failure investigations can pose problems when events are not easily reproducible, and therefore open to misinterpretation. Addressing this issue, bestselling author Randall Noon demonstrates how scientific method can be applied to engineering failure and criminal malfeasance in ways that avoid flawed reasoning while delivering convincing reconstruction scenarios. Noon's cases studies focus on forensic engineering, while contributions by forensic expert Jon Nordby addresses experiments used to reconstruct criminal cases. The text covers inductive and deductive reasoning and root cause analysis. It also provides practical direction for organizing data, good report writing, and investigation strategy.

Table of Contents

The Fog Went Thud	p. v
Series Preface	p. xi
Foreword	p. xiii
Preface	p. xvii
About the Author	p. xix
Introduction	p. 1
General	p. 1
What a Failure Investigator Does	p. 4
The Conclusion Pyramid	p. 6
Some Common Terms of the Art	p. 9
Crime versus Failure	p. 14
How Accidents and Failures Occur	p. 15
Eyewitness Information	p. 16
	p. 17
	p. 17
Some Investigative Methods	p. 17
Role in the Legal System	p. 18
The Fundamental Method	p. 21
The Fundamental Basis for Investigation	p. 21
The Scientific Method	p. 22
The Value of Falsification	p. 27
Iteration: The Evolution of a Hypothesis	p. 36
Lessons Learned	p. 42
More about the Fundamental Method	p. 43
More Historical Background	p. 43
A Comparison of Deductive and Inductive Reasoning	p. 51
Apriorism and Aposteriorism	p. 59
Sophistry	p. 63
The Method of Exhaustion	p. 69
Coincidence, Correlation, and Causation	p. 72
Applying the Scientific Method to Determine a Root Cause	p. 74
The Scientific Method and the Legal System	p. 75
Convergence of Independent Methods	p. 76
Occam's Razor	p. 77
Organizing Evidence	p. 81
Data Collection and Efficient Sorting Schemes	p. 81
Verification of Facts	p. 83
Organization of Data and Evidence: Timelines	p. 86
Cause-and-Effect Diagrams	p. 89
A Place to Start	p. 96
Event and Causal Factors Diagrams	p. 97
Investigation Strategies	p. 101
Scientific Method	p. 101
Fault Tree Analysis (FTA)	p. 101
Why Staircase	p. 102
Human Performance Evaluation Process (HPEP)	p. 103
Change Analysis	p. 104
Barrier Analysis	p. 105
Motive, Means, and Opportunity (MMO)	p. 107
Management Organizational Risk Tree (MORT)	p. 109
Proprietary Investigation Methods	p. 110
Four Common Reasons Why Some Investigations Fail	p. 113
Introduction	p. 113
The Tail Wagging the Dog	p. 113
Lipstick on a Corpse	p. 115
Elementary, My Dear Watson, Elementary	p. 116
Dilution of the Solution	p. 118
Report Writing: Three Case Studies	p. 121
Reporting the Findings of an Investigation	p. 121
Three Sample Reports	p. 127
Misplaced Method in the Science of Murder	p. 155
Introduction	p. 155
The Scene	p. 155
Further Search of the Premises	p. 157
The State's Expert Reconstructs the Murder from the Clues	p. 158
Revisiting the Scene Science: The Problem of Data	p. 160
Testing to Develop Scientific Inferences from Data	p. 162
Scientific Inferences from the Decedent's Sweater	p. 162
Scientific Inferences from the Suspect's Glasses	p. 166
Scientific Conclusions about the Shooting Events	p. 172
Reading List	p. 173
Books and Monographs	p. 173
Papers and Articles	p. 108
Index	p. 183
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