To reach reasoned decisions involving issues of public policy and law, statistical data and studies often need to be assessed for their accuracy and relevance. This two-volume set presents a unique and comprehensive treatment of statistical methods in legal practice. Designed to serve as a text or reference, the book presents basic concepts of probability and statistical inference applied to actual data arising from court cases concerning discrimination, trademark evidence, environmental and occupational exposure to toxic chemicals, and related health and safety topics. Substantial attention is devoted to assessing the strengths and weaknesses of statistical studies, with examples illustrating why some health studies may not have been properly designed at the outset and how actual decisions might have been reversed had more appropriate analysis of data been available to the court. This book will be of interest to lawyers and other practitioners of the law, as well as to students and researchers in the areas of statistics, statistical economics, political science, and law.

To reach reasoned decisions involving issues of public policy and law, statistical data and studies often need to be assessed for their accuracy and relevance. This two-volume set presents a unique and comprehensive treatment of statistical methods in legal practice. Designed to serve as a text or reference, the book presents basic concepts of probability and statistical inference applied to actual data arising from court cases concerning discrimination, trademark evidence, environmental and occupational exposure to toxic chemicals, and related health and safety topics. Substantial attention is devoted to assessing the strengths and weaknesses of statistical studies, with examples illustrating why some health studies may not have been properly designed at the outset and how actual decisions might have been reversed had more appropriate analysis of data been available to the court. This book will be of interest to lawyers and other practitioners of the law, as well as to students and researchers in the areas of statistics, statistical economics, political science, and law.

To reach reasoned decisions involving issues of public policy and law, statistical data and studies often need to be assessed for their accuracy and relevance. This two-volume set presents a unique and comprehensive treatment of statistical methods in legal practice. Designed to serve as a text or reference, the book presents basic concepts of probability and statistical inference applied to actual data arising from court cases concerning discrimination, trademark evidence, environmental and occupational exposure to toxic chemicals, and related health and safety topics. Substantial attention is devoted to assessing the strengths and weaknesses of statistical studies, with examples illustrating why some health studies may not have been properly designed at the outset and how actual decisions might have been reversed had more appropriate analysis of data been available to the court. This book will be of interest to lawyers and other practitioners of the law, as well as to students and researchers in the areas of statistics, statistical economics, political science, and law.

This classic text, first published in 1990, is designed to introduce law students, law teachers, practitioners, and judges to the basic ideas of mathematical probability and statistics as they have been applied in the law. The third edition includes over twenty new sections, including the addition of timely topics, like New York City police stops, exonerations in death-sentence cases, projecting airline costs, and new material on various statistical techniques such as the randomized response survey technique, rare-events meta-analysis, competing risks, and negative binomial regression. The book consists of sections of exposition followed by real-world cases and case studies in which statistical data have played a role. The reader is asked to apply the theory to the facts, to calculate results (a hand calculator is sufficient), and to explore legal issues raised by quantitative findings. The authors' calculations and comments are given in the back of the book. As with previous editions, the cases and case studies reflect a broad variety of legal subjects, including antidiscrimination, mass torts, taxation, school finance, identification evidence, preventive detention, handwriting disputes, voting, environmental protection, antitrust, sampling for insurance audits, and the death penalty. A chapter on epidemiology was added in the second edition. In 1991, the first edition was selected by the University of Michigan Law Review as one of the important law books of the year.

The leading resource in the statistical evaluation and interpretation of forensic evidence The third edition of Statistics and the Evaluation of Evidence for Forensic Scientists is fully updated to provide the latest research and developments in the use of statistical techniques to evaluate and interpret evidence. Courts are increasingly aware of the importance of proper evidence assessment when there is an element of uncertainty. Because of the increasing availability of data, the role of statistical and probabilistic reasoning is gaining a higher profile in criminal cases. That’s why lawyers, forensic scientists, graduate students, and researchers will find this book an essential resource, one which explores how forensic evidence can be evaluated and interpreted statistically. It’s written as an accessible source of information for all those with an interest in the evaluation and interpretation of forensic scientific evidence. Discusses the entire chain of reasoning–from evidence pre-assessment to court presentation; Includes material for the understanding of evidence interpretation for single and multiple trace evidence; Provides real examples and data for improved understanding. Since the first edition of this book was published in 1995, this respected series has remained a leading resource in the statistical evaluation of forensic evidence. It shares knowledge from authors in the fields of statistics and forensic science who are international experts in the area of evidence evaluation and interpretation. This book helps people to deal with uncertainty related to scientific evidence and propositions. It introduces a method of reasoning that shows how to update beliefs coherently and to act rationally. In this edition, readers can find new information on the topics of elicitation, subjective probabilities, decision analysis, and cognitive bias, all discussed in a Bayesian framework.

Expert testimony relying on scientific and other specialized evidence has come under increased scrutiny by the legal system. A trilogy of recent U.S. Supreme Court cases has assigned judges the task of assessing the relevance and reliability of proposed expert testimony. In conjunction with the Federal judiciary, the American Association for the Advancement of Science has initiated a project to provide judges indicating a need with their own expert. This concern with the proper interpretation of scientific evidence, especially that of a probabilistic nature, has also occurred in England, Australia and in several European countries. Statistical Science in the Courtroom is a collection of articles written by statisticians and legal scholars who have been concerned with problems arising in the use of statistical evidence. A number of articles describe DNA evidence and the difficulties of properly calculating the probability that a random individual's profile would "match" that of the evidence as well as the proper way to intrepret the result. In addition to the technical issues, several authors tell about their experiences in court. A few have become disenchanted with their involvement and describe the events that led them to devote less time to this application. Other articles describe the role of statistical evidence in cases concerning discrimination against minorities, product liability, environmental regulation, the appropriateness and fairness of sentences and how being involved in legal statistics has raised interesting statistical problems requiring further research.