تسجيل الدخول

تسجيل

?The Nature of Evidence: WHAT IS EVIDENCE

المؤلف:  Max M. Houck، Jay A. Siegel

المصدر:  Fundamentals of Forensic Science

الجزء والصفحة:  p44-45

2026-06-15

19

The Nature of Evidence: WHAT IS EVIDENCE?

In a trial, the jury or judge hears the facts or statements of the case to decide the issues; whoever determines guilt or innocence is called the trier-of-fact. During the trial, the trier-of-fact must decide whether or not the statements made by witnesses are true. This is done mainly through the presentation of information or evidence. Evidence can be defined as information—whether in the form of personal testimony, the language of documents, or the production of material objects—that is given in a legal investigation to make a fact or proposition more or less likely. For example, someone is seen leaving the scene of a homicide with a gun, and it is later shown by scientific examination that bullets removed from the body of the victim were fired from that gun. This could be considered evidence that the accused person committed the homicide. Having the association of the bullets to the gun makes the proposition that the accused is the perpetrator more probable than it would be if the evidence didn’t exist. In this chapter, we will explore the nature of evidence, how it is classified and how we decide what value the evidence has in proving or disproving a proposition.