This course introduces students to descriptive and inferential statistical techniques in a forensics context. The focus is the description and analysis of data with an emphasis on statistical methods used in forensic applications. Students are introduced to the statistical capabilities of Excel and the statistical package R. LEARNING OUTCOMES 1. Understand the nature and consequences of natural variability in forensic data; express a problem in statistical terms. 2. Summarise data graphically and numerically, either manually or using Excel and the statistical language R. 3. Explain basic concepts in probability as they apply to random events and uncertain evidence in a forensic framework. 4. Test hypotheses in the frequentist and Bayesian approaches. 5. Understand how test hypothesis theory is applied in the forensic context. Making judgements - To learn the logical and statistical concepts that are indispensable for working independently in the research, selection and processing of data relevant in the forensic context. Communication skills - Learn the terminology and statistical techniques to communicate or correctly discuss the results of the analysis of company data relevant in the forensic context.
Course Prerequisites
Basic knowledge of calculus.
Teaching Methods
Frontal lectures as well as practical exercises with the use of Excel and the software R. Attendance to teaching activities, even if not compulsory, is strongly recommended
Assessment Methods
The exam is divided into a 90-minute written test (open questions, to verify the knowledge of the theoretical part of the topics covered in class; question example can be downloaded form the FAD website) and in a 90-minute test on the use of Excel to analyse a given dataset and to solve statistical execercises. In the examination, the two tests have the same importance and both must be overcome for the finalization of the examination. The final grade will be given by the average of the partial scores (in thirtieths) received by the student in the two tests
Texts
Coursebook: Simone Di Zio, Antonio Pacinelli, STATISTICA SOCIALE, Mondadori Università , 2015 Further materials (e.g. slides) can be downloaded from https://fad.unich.it/. Suggested Textbooks David Lucy, Introduction to Statistics for Forensic Scientist, Wiley, 2005 James Michael Curran, Introduction to Data Analysis with R for Forensic Scientists, CRC Press 2010
Contents
The following topics are considered as important parts of the teaching program for the fulfilment of the objectives: descriptive statistics, probability and probability distributions; statistical inference; association between variables; forensic evidence evaluation
Course Language
The course will be given in Italian. Slides and Coursetbook are in Italian. The suggested Textbooks are in English.
More information
E-mail: lara.fontanella@unich.it Students will be received after the lectures Appointments can be fixed by e-mail
