PT136.S1.P2.Q14 > Analytics

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Passage A.

Defendant's perspective · Challenges fingerprint evidence in trial

Fingerprint ID theory hasn't been adequately tested.

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Defendant's support · No established error rates, no objective standards

No standards for number of "points of identification" required for positive ID based on fingerprints.

Author's response · Fingerprint IDs are reliable

More testing and standards would help, but the method has stood the test of time.

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Concession / response · Different agencies have different requirements, but there's still a consistent approach

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Main point · The trial court was allowed to admit the fingerprint evidence

"The trial court below..." means that Passage A's author was an appellate court reviewing the trial court decision.

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Critique of fingerprint evidence · No consensus on what's enough for a positive ID

Some examiners use "point-counting" method, but there's no fixed requirement about how many points must match. Others use more holistic approach.

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Additional critique · Don't know answers to key questions about reliability

What's likelihood that two people will have the same number of identifying characteristics in their prints? What's likelihood that partial or smudged prints from two people match?

Additional critique · Inadequate study of error rate

How often do examiners mistakenly find a match? One test showed a 34 percent error rate.

Passage Style

14.

Passage B differs from passage █ ██ ████ ███████ █ ██ ████

optimistic in its ███████████

Neither passage has an optimistic tone; passage B certainly isn’t more optimistic than passage A because passage B is all about the problems of fingerprint identification.

general in focus

Passage A is very narrow in its focus. Passage A is limited to the question of the relevance of fingerprint identification in one specific case. On the other hand, passage B discusses the issues with fingerprint identification broadly, so passage B is more general in focus.

56%

tentative in its ██████

Neither passage is particularly tentative. Passage A concludes that the trial court was correct in its use of fingerprint identification; passage B confidently argues that fingerprint identification is questionable because it lacks objective standards. We cannot say that passage B is more tentative in its claims.

26%

respectful of opposing ██████

There doesn’t seem to be a difference in the respect for opposing claims in the two passages. The author of passage A disagrees with the defendant, but she isn’t disrespectful in her disagreement; passage B does not specifically address opposing claims.

dependent on unsubstantiated ███████████

The number or extent of dependence on unsubstantiated assumptions in each passage is not clear, so we cannot make this comparison.

11%

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