Open Forensic Science in R | Hacker News Reader

Open Forensic Science in R

sctyner.github.io

189 pointsjosefslerka11 comments

The principal chapter headers are:

    2 Validation of DNA Interpretation Systems

    3 Firearms: bullets

    4 Firearms: casings

    5 Latent Fingerprints

    6 Show Outsole Impression Evidence

    7 Trace glass evidence: chemical composition

    8 Decision-making in Forensic Identification

I have no interest in forensics at all but I think my evening is gone. This is truly nerd snipping material.

7 of the 8 authors listed are women, pretty cool.

Anecdotally, it has been my (limited) experience that the Forensic Sciences are dominated by women, in terms of the makeup of the average lab at the academic or state/federal level. Academic programs seem to show this trend as well:

https://news.psu.edu/story/276199/2013/05/07/research/probin...

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1940904080262974...

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589871X1...

Source: Worked in a forensic genetics laboratory during my undergrad, and some of my best friends are forensic scientists.

It's always nice to see an interesting and quality R package.

I have a feeling the seeds of several mystery novels will be laid tonight.

If the Times — years from now — hails anyone as the Agatha Christie of R analysis, I’ll think back to this article.

Related: Digital forensic: Evidence analysis via intelligent systems and practices. European project COST (cooperation in science and technology) https://www.cost.eu/actions/CA17124/#tabs|Name:overview

I had a look around, but I don't think there are any sources for Forensic Data that are publicly available.

I don't know of any resources where data that has been extracted from some crime scene(s) can be downloaded.

How could one build on their knowledge after going through this resource if they would like to?

One good source might be NIST. Here’s an open access ballistics dataset: https://www.nist.gov/programs-projects/nist-ballistics-toolm...

Edit: I should have looked at the linked book first, since this dataset is listed in Ch3. Oops.

Sometimes you don't know what you've been missing until you are shown. This is one of such things. Only thing that could possibly make it better is chapter on bloodstain pattern analysis.

Figure 2.1 is a nice graphic illustration of how to make a tidy/long form dataset from a wide format dataset. Nice!

Is R commonly used in forensics?

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