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The Sydney declaration – Revisiting the essence of forensic science through its fundamental principles
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Unlike other more established disciplines, a shared understanding and broad acceptance of the essence of forensic science, its purpose, and fundamental principles are still missing or mis-represented. This foundation has been overlooked, although recognised by many forensic science forefathers and seen as critical to this discipline's advancement. The Sydney Declaration attempts to revisit the essence of forensic science through its foundational basis, beyond organisations, technicalities or protocols. It comprises a definition of forensic science and seven fundamental principles that emphasise the pivotal role of the trace as a vestige, or remnant, of an investigated activity. The Sydney Declaration also discusses critical features framing the forensic scientist's work, such as context, time asymmetry, the continuum of uncertainties, broad scientific knowledge, ethics, critical thinking, and logical reasoning. It is argued that the proposed principles should underpin the practice of forensic science and guide education and research directions. Ultimately, they will benefit forensic science as a whole to be more relevant, effective and reliable.
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“The ongoing commitment from the global forensic community to improving standards of quality, validity, and professionalism is evident throughout the literature and initiatives emerging from within the industry, along with academia and professional bodies [24, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40].”
From Quality issue management and disclosure in forensic science: A survey of practice and perceptions (2025) · cites this paper as [24]
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“Forensic science involves the examination of unknown, historical traces, introducing an inherent uncertainty into any form of subsequent analysis or interpretation [23, 24].”
From Quality issue management and disclosure in forensic science: A survey of practice and perceptions (2025) · cites this paper as [24]
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Cited by
Sorted by citations
Quality Management in forensic science: A closer inspection
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Quality issue management and disclosure in forensic science: A survey of practice and perceptions
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“Forensic science involves the examination of unknown, historical traces, introducing an inherent uncertainty into any form of subsequent analysis or interpretation [23, 24].”
Metadata
- Authors
- Roux, C., Bucht, R., Crispino, F., De Forest, P., Lennard, C., Margot, P., Miranda, M. D., NicDaeid, N., Ribaux, O., Ross, A., & Willis, S.
- Affiliations
- University of Technology Sydney (AU)
- National Bureau of Investigation (FI)
- Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (CA)
- Western Sydney University (AU)
- University of Lausanne (CH)
- Farmingdale State College (US)
- Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine (AU)
- University of Dundee (GB)
- ORCID
- Venue
- Forensic Science International
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2022-03
- Volume
- 332
- Pages
- 111182
- ISSN
- 0379-0738 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W4206362109
- Cited by
- 195
- References
- 38
- Citations by year
- 2026: 36 · 2025: 39 · 2024: 60 · 2023: 37 · 2022: 23
- FWCI
- 245.55
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Forensic Science International (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- SERVAL (Université de Lausanne) (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Discovery Research Portal (University of Dundee) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- IRIS (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Le dépôt institutionnel (Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- University of Pennsylvania
- Pennsylvania State University
- Australian Federal Police
- California State University, East Bay
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Law › Legal processes and jurisprudence
- Social Sciences › Law › Ukrainian Legal and Forensic Studies
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Instrumentation › Scientific Measurement and Uncertainty Evaluation
- Keywords
- trace evidence, vestiges, time asymmetry, forensic ethics, critical thinking, logical reasoning, forensic science education, forensic evidence reliability
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