Crime and Justice Atlas

How Justice Is Served

Crime and Justice Atlas

Disputed Statements

Claims this atlas currently marks as unsettled or as tested and found false. A debated fact is one scholars hold competing positions on; a debunked one has been checked against the record and found not to hold. Both are kept in view rather than quietly smoothed over, with the reasoning that put each one where it stands.

8 statements.

Bloodstain Pattern Analysis, Known LimitationFollowing Daubert-standard admissibility challenges, courts have divided on whether bloodstain pattern analysis testimony meets reliability requirements: some courts have limited or excluded expert testimony on specific claims, while others continue to admit it when performed by analysts trained to established protocols.

Bloodstain Pattern Analysis, Forensic Disciplines and Methods

Standing

Concerns Known Limitation

Currently States Following Daubert-standard admissibility challenges, courts have divided on whether bloodstain pattern analysis testimony meets reliability requirements: some courts have limited or excluded expert testimony on specific claims, while others continue to admit it when performed by analysts trained to established protocols.

Following Daubert-standard admissibility challenges, courts have divided on whether bloodstain pattern analysis testimony meets reliability requirements: some courts have limited or excluded expert testimony on specific claims, while others continue to admit it when performed by analysts trained to established protocols.

Source Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States: A Path Forward

Bow Street Runners, Common NameRobin Redbreasts

Bow Street Runners, Criminal Justice Institutions

Standing

Concerns Common Name

Currently States Robin Redbreasts

Attested for the Runners by Spartacus Educational, but some later secondary sources reserve this nickname for the separate Bow Street Horse Patrol; recorded as debated rather than settled.

Source Wikipedia: Bow Street Runners

Critical Criminology, Origin Year1974

Critical Criminology, Criminology Theories and Schools

Standing

Concerns Origin Year

Currently States 1974

The movement crystallized gradually across the late 1960s and 1970s rather than on one founding date; 1974 marks Richard Quinney's Critique of Legal Order, a landmark work of the tradition rather than its sole origin.

Source Wikipedia: Critical Criminology

Feminist Criminology, Origin Year1976

Feminist Criminology, Criminology Theories and Schools

Standing

Concerns Origin Year

Currently States 1976

The school developed gradually across the late 1960s and 1970s rather than on one founding date; 1976 marks Carol Smart's Women, Crime and Criminology, a landmark work of the movement rather than its sole origin.

Source Wikipedia: Feminist School of Criminology

Forensic Accounting, Formalized Year1931

Forensic Accounting, Forensic Disciplines and Methods

Standing

Concerns Formalized Year

Currently States 1931

1931 marks Frank Wilson's investigation of Al Capone's tax evasion, commonly cited as an early landmark; the discipline itself was not formally defined until the 1940s, so no single founding year is settled.

Source Wikipedia: Forensic Accounting

Forensic Engineering, Formalized Year1847

Forensic Engineering, Forensic Disciplines and Methods

Standing

Concerns Formalized Year

Currently States 1847

1847 marks the Dee Bridge disaster, among the earliest cases commonly cited as forensic engineering avant la lettre; the discipline was not formally organized until much later, so no single founding year is settled.

Source Wikipedia: Forensic Engineering

Forensic Odontology, Known LimitationThe American Board of Forensic Odontology progressively narrowed its own standards between 2007 and 2018, no longer sanctioning terms asserting individual identification "without doubt" and limiting permitted conclusions to exclude, not exclude, or inconclusive; the Board and practicing odontologists maintain that exclusion determinations, distinct from the individual-identification claims the 2009 NAS report addressed, retain forensic value.

Forensic Odontology, Forensic Disciplines and Methods

Standing

Concerns Known Limitation

Currently States The American Board of Forensic Odontology progressively narrowed its own standards between 2007 and 2018, no longer sanctioning terms asserting individual identification "without doubt" and limiting permitted conclusions to exclude, not exclude, or inconclusive; the Board and practicing odontologists maintain that exclusion determinations, distinct from the individual-identification claims the 2009 NAS report addressed, retain forensic value.

The American Board of Forensic Odontology progressively narrowed its own standards between 2007 and 2018, no longer sanctioning terms asserting individual identification "without doubt" and limiting permitted conclusions to exclude, not exclude, or inconclusive; the Board and practicing odontologists maintain that exclusion determinations, distinct from the individual-identification claims the 2009 NAS report addressed, retain forensic value.

Source Wikipedia: Forensic Dentistry

Polygraph Examination, Known LimitationThe American Polygraph Association, the field's main professional body, holds that specific-issue formats such as the comparison question technique, administered and scored under its own standards, achieve accuracy rates it reports as high; independent reviewers including a 2003 National Research Council panel found the research base supporting these claims weaker than the field's own estimates, particularly for screening uses rather than a single specific issue.

Polygraph Examination, Forensic Disciplines and Methods

Standing

Concerns Known Limitation

Currently States The American Polygraph Association, the field's main professional body, holds that specific-issue formats such as the comparison question technique, administered and scored under its own standards, achieve accuracy rates it reports as high; independent reviewers including a 2003 National Research Council panel found the research base supporting these claims weaker than the field's own estimates, particularly for screening uses rather than a single specific issue.

The American Polygraph Association, the field's main professional body, holds that specific-issue formats such as the comparison question technique, administered and scored under its own standards, achieve accuracy rates it reports as high; independent reviewers including a 2003 National Research Council panel found the research base supporting these claims weaker than the field's own estimates, particularly for screening uses rather than a single specific issue.

Source Wikipedia: Polygraph