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Math on trial : how numbers get used and abused in the courtroom / Leila Schneps and Coralie Colmez.

by Schneps, Leila.

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Basic Books, 2013.

Forensic statistics.

Evidence, Expert.

9780465032921 (hc)

Alternate title:

How numbers get used and abused in the courtroom

xi, 256 p. : ill., portraits ; 25 cm.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 227-236) and index.

Math error number 1 : multiplying non-independent probabilities : the case of Sally Clark : motherhood under attack -- Math error number 2 : unjustified estimates : the case of Janet Collins : hairstyle probability -- Math error number 3 : trying to get something from nothing : the case of Joe Sneed : absent from the phone book -- Math error number 4 : double experiment : the case of Meredith Kercher : the test that wasn't done -- Math error number 5 : the birthday problem : the cold case of Diana Sylvester : cold hit analysis -- Math error number 6 : Simpson's paradox : the Berkeley sex bias case : discrimination detection -- Math error number 7 : the incredible coincidence : the case of Lucia de Berk : carer or killer? -- Math error number 8 : underestimation : the case of Charles Ponzi : American dream, American scheme -- Math error number 9 : choosing a wrong model : the case of Hetty Green : a battle of wills -- Math error number 10: mathematical madness : the Dreyfus affair : spy or scapegoat?.

"In the wrong hands, math can be deadly. Even the simplest numbers can become powerful forces when manipulated by politicians or the media, but in the case of the law, your liberty -- and your life -- can depend on the right calculation. In Math on Trial, mathematicians Leila Schneps and Coralie Colmez describe ten trials spanning from the nineteenth century to today, in which mathematical arguments were used -- and disastrously misused -- as evidence. They tell the stories of Sally Clark, who was accused of murdering her children by a doctor with a faulty sense of calculation; of nineteenth-century tycoon Hetty Green, whose dispute over her aunt's will became a signal case in the forensic use of mathematics; and of the case of Amanda Knox, in which a judge's misunderstanding of probability led him to discount critical evidence -- which might have kept her in jail. Offering a fresh angle on cases from the nineteenth-century Dreyfus affair to the murder trial of Dutch nurse Lucia de Berk, Schneps and Colmez show how the improper application of mathematical concepts can mean the difference between walking free and life in prison. A colorful narrative of mathematical abuse, Math on Trial blends courtroom drama, history, and math to show that legal expertise isn't't always enough to prove a person innocent."--Publisher.

Colmez, Coralie, 1988-

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