Citation

Scurich N. Law Probab. Risk 2022; 21(2): 123-127.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, Oxford University Press)

DOI

10.1093/lpr/mgac011

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

One question Professors Arkes and Koehler (2022) (hereinafter 'A&K') ask in their thoughtful paper is 'What role should "inconclusives" play in the computation of error rates?' (p. 5) The answer to this question is vital because the number of inconclusives in firearm error rate studies is staggering. For example, firearm examiners in the FBI/Ames Laboratory study made 8,640 comparisons, of which 3922 (45%) were deemed inconclusive (Bajic et al., 2020, Table V). The most recent firearm error rate study reported that 51% of all comparisons were deemed inconclusive (Best and Gardner, 2022). Determining how to count half of the responses is the critical--perhaps even decisive--factor in interpreting the error rates from the study.

Language: en