Fingerprinting: a roadmap for reform
Human identification is central to an effective criminal justice process. It is essential that the identity of any individual is established unambiguously before they are arrested charged or tried. The most common means of achieving this worldwide is by comparison of fingerprints taken from the individual with known fingerprint records. Such records can also be used to eliminate potential suspects and identify offenders from fingerprints left at crime scenes. Fingerprints are also one of the four accepted forms of identification for missing persons and disaster victim identification. In recent years a number of high profile cases from around the world, and more particularly from Scotland, have cast doubt on the validity and reliability of fingerprint evidence. Major figures in the criminal justice community have expressed public concerns about these developments and issues of public trust and accountability have been raised by the media. This programme seeks to examine these specific cases and by engaging a wide range of professional stakeholders and academics, to establish the causes of these failings and identify practical steps to address them. The effective resolution of this issue would place Scotland at the forefront of a global paradigm shift in understanding, policies and practices of major significance to criminal justice systems.
Programme team: Prof. Jim Fraser, University of Strathclyde; Prof. Sue Black, University of Dundee; Mr Tom Nelson, Director, Scottish Police Services Authority Forensic Services.
New directions for work in digital Scotland
The programme will focus on the future of adults’ working lives and how these are affected by rapid technological change and new work formats. Scotland’s future economic position will depend on its population’s knowledge and skills and on its ability to respond to challenges of the digital economy. “Scotland’s Digital Future” is a government policy to make broadband widespread by 2015. Digital broadband has the potential to bring new jobs to Scotland, and ensure sustainability in the regions. However, barriers to implementation result from the digital divide, deep-seated exclusions and a growing skills gap. The programme aims to address the challenges Scotland faces as a result of rapid technological change. It will show how new learning methods and theories can support work in a digital environment; understand the implications of Scotland’s digital strategy for sustaining jobs in rural areas; suggest ways of addressing digital exclusions among the working population. Knowledge exchange events will examine three thematic strands: professional learning, sustaining work and overcoming exclusions. The potential impact of the project is far-reaching: for example, a user and researcher network that will extend knowledge beyond the life of the project; a research proposal to an international funder; contributions to the implementation of the Government’s Digital Participation Charter. Impact will also be achieved through lay-oriented briefings in the form of print, video and voiceovers posted on the web.
Programme team: Dr Irene Malcolm, University of Dundee; Prof. Vicki Hanson, University of Dundee; Prof. Claire Wallace, University of Aberdeen; Mr Sanjin Kaharevic, Scottish Government; Mr Brian McKechie, University of Strathclyde; Mr John McCann, Scotland’s Colleges; Ms Marion Beattie, Skills Development Scotland; Mr Donald Jarvie, Scotland’s Futures Forum; Mr Ewan McIntosh, No Tosh Limited.
Re-thinking responses to rape
The steep attrition rate of rape cases within Scottish criminal justice remains a widespread concern. How such rates are calculated across jurisdictions is complex and controversial. Recently, the definition of rape has been widened and its prosecution reformed to improve responses to rape, but these changes will take some years to be felt and need supported. This programme will collect initial soundings of the impacts of reform, recognising that experiences of rape survivors and public attitudes of blameworthiness towards them have in the past been stubbornly resistant to changes in law, policy and practice. The incremental steps that typify traditional legal reform represent progress, but are incapable on their own of producing the cultural shifts necessary to transform the social and legal practices that shape reactions to rape. The programme will harness the expertise of those familiar with these practices to stimulate debates that may produce unsettling reactions. Participants will pose fundamental questions about current norms and assumptions and consider innovative responses, models and best practice from other communities and countries. Participants will include law, criminology and psychology academics, members of the police, prosecutors, judiciary, survivor and health services, policy and law-makers, representing a wide spectrum of experience and persuasion. The potential impact rests in a collective willingness to dismantle barriers and forge new understandings.
Programme team: Ms. Jane Scoular, University of Strathclyde; Prof. Fiona Raitt, University of Dundee; Dame Elish Angiolini, Faculty of Advocates; Ms Sandy Brindley, Rape Crisis Scotland; Prof. Pete Duff, University of Aberdeen; Prof. Pamela Ferguson, University of Dundee; Ms Kathryn Sharpe, Dundee City Council.