Most failure or accident investigations begin at the end of the story: after the explosion, after the fire has been extinguished, or after the collapse. In many instances, information about the last event and the starting event is known reasonably well. Information about what occurred between these endpoints, however, is often unclear, confusing, and perhaps contradictory. Scientific Method: Applications in Failure Investigation and Forensic Science explains how scientific investigative methods can best be used to determine why and how a particular event occurred. While employing examples from forensic engineering, the book uses principles and ideas applicable to most of the forensic sciences. The author examines the role of the failure investigator, describes the fundamental method for investigation, discusses the optimal way to organize evidence, and explores the four most common reasons why some investigations fail. The book provides three case studies that exemplify proper report writing, contains a special chapter profiling a criminal case by noted forensic specialist Jon J. Nordby, and offers a reading list of resources for further study. Concise and illustrative, this volume demonstrates how the scientific method can be applied to failure investigation in ways that avoid flawed reasoning while delivering convincing reconstruction scenarios. Investigators can pinpoint where things went wrong, providing valuable information that can prevent another catastrophe.
Author(s): Randall K. Noon
Edition: 1
Publisher: CRC Press
Year: 2009
Language: English
Pages: 216
Table of Contents......Page 0
SCIENTIFIC METHOD: Applications in Failure Investigation and Forensic Science......Page 4
The Fog Went Thud......Page 6
Table of Contents......Page 7
International Forensic Science Series......Page 10
Foreword......Page 11
Preface......Page 14
About the Author......Page 16
General......Page 17
What a Failure Investigator Does......Page 20
The Conclusion Pyramid......Page 22
Some Common Terms of the Art......Page 25
Crime versus Failure......Page 30
How Accidents and Failures Occur......Page 31
Eyewitness Information......Page 32
Some Investigative Methods......Page 33
Role in the Legal System......Page 34
The Fundamental Basis for Investigation......Page 36
The Scientific Method......Page 37
The Value of Falsification......Page 42
Iteration: The Evolution of a Hypothesis......Page 51
Lessons Learned......Page 57
More Historical Background......Page 58
A Comparison of Deductive and Inductive Reasoning......Page 66
Apriorism and Aposteriorism......Page 74
Sophistry......Page 78
The Method of Exhaustion......Page 84
Coincidence, Correlation, and Causation......Page 87
Applying the Scientific Method to Determine a Root Cause......Page 89
The Scientific Method and the Legal System......Page 90
Convergence of Independent Methods......Page 91
Occam’s Razor......Page 92
Data Collection and Efficient Sorting Schemes......Page 95
Verification of Facts......Page 97
Organization of Data and Evidence: Timelines......Page 100
Cause- and- Effect Diagrams......Page 103
A Place to Start......Page 110
Event and Causal Factors Diagrams......Page 111
Fault Tree Analysis (FTA)......Page 115
Why Staircase......Page 116
Human Performance Evaluation Process (HPEP)......Page 117
Change Analysis......Page 118
Barrier Analysis......Page 119
Motive, Means, and Opportunity (MMO)......Page 121
Management Organizational Risk Tree (MORT)......Page 123
Proprietary Investigation Methods......Page 124
Reason 1: The Tail Wagging the Dog......Page 127
Reason 2: Lipstick on a Corpse......Page 129
Reason 3: Elementary, My Dear Watson, Elementary......Page 130
Reason 4: Dilution of the Solution......Page 132
Reporting the Findings of an Investigation......Page 135
Three Sample Reports......Page 141
The Scene......Page 169
Further Search of the Premises......Page 171
The State’s Expert Reconstructs the Murder from the Clues......Page 172
Revisiting the Scene Science: The Problem of Data......Page 174
Scientific Inferences from the Decedent’s Sweater......Page 176
Scientific Inferences from the Suspect’s Glasses......Page 180
Scientific Conclusions about the Shooting Events......Page 186
Books and Monographs......Page 187
Papers and Articles......Page 194
