Research Interests

Research Groups

• Statistics

Current and Recent PhD Students

Amy WIlson (EPSRC CASE studentship) in collaboration with Mass Spec Analytical Ltd (Bristol) :

'Establishment of frameworks for the evaluation of evidence relating to traces of drugs.'

2010 - 2013

Recent Conference and Workshop Involvement

Co-Chairman of organising committee of 'FORSTAT', a sub-group of the European Academy of Forensic Sciences, charged with organising annual workshops on statistics in forensic science

Biographical Statement

I am interested in the applications of statistics to forensic science and legal reasoning, with an emphasis on Bayesian approaches. Particular applications include determination of likelihood ratios, estimation of sample sizes, and evidence interpretation. Publications in statistical, legal and forensic scientific journals, and co-author of three books in the area. I have written several witness statements and been an expert witness in a trial related to drugs on banknotes. I am currently involved in a project sponsored by the Nuffield Foundation to produce a series of reports for the criminal legal profession on probabilistic and statistical reasoning in criminal proceedings and a project sponsored by the EPSRC and MSA Ltd. to evaluate the evidence on drugs on various substrates such as banknotes and mobile telephones.

Professional Activities

Chairman of the Royal Statistical Society working group on Statistics and the Law, 2005 - .

Editor, 'Law, Probability and Risk', Oxford University Press.

Expert Advisor to the Standing Committee on Research and Development of the European Academy of Forensic Sciences.

Member of a working group of the National Institute of Justice and the National Institute of Standards and Technology of the US to consider 'Human Factors in Latent Print Analysis'.

Education

FFSSoc
(2007)

C Stat
(1993)

PhD
University of Glasgow (1979)

Diploma in Mathematical Statistics
University of Cambridge (1975)

BSc
University of Edinburgh (1974)