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CSAFE Researchers Share Insights at National Academies Meeting on Deaths in Custody

At the National Academies' meeting on deaths in custody, Adele Quigly-McBride introduced a worksheet designed to help reduce cognitive bias in medicolegal death investigations.
At the National Academies' meeting on deaths in custody, Adele Quigly-McBride introduced a worksheet designed to help reduce cognitive bias in medicolegal death investigations.

Three researchers from the Center for Statistics and Applications in Forensic Evidence (CSAFE) were invited to speak at a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine meeting on lessons learned from death in custody investigations. The meeting was held Sept. 19 in Washington, D.C.

It was the third meeting for an ad hoc committee that intends to conduct a consensus study on the handling of deaths in custody by the medicolegal death investigation system in the United States, as well as study related concerns with medical death investigations more generally.

Simon Cole, a professor of criminology, law and society at the University of California, Irvine, presented “Medicolegal Death Investigation and Convicting the Innocent.” Cole’s talk focused on his research with the National Registry of Exonerations.

Adele Quigley-McBride, an assistant professor of psychology at Simon Fraser University, presented “Human Factors in Cause and Manner Determinations.” She discussed her work on cognitive bias and ways to address bias in medicolegal death investigations. One method she demonstrated was the LSU-E worksheet, which provides a framework for managing information. More information about the LSU-E worksheet can be found on the CSAFE Learning platform.

Maria Cuellar, an assistant professor of criminology at the University of Pennsylvania, spoke about statistical questions that are relevant to shaken baby syndrome or abusive head trauma.

The meeting was recorded and is available on demand through the National Academies website.

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