Theme 4: Education, Training and Assessment of Professionals in the Criminal Justice System

Chair: Peter Pfefferli
Co chair: Lydia Bestebreur

Forensic sciences play a crucial role in the justice system by providing scientific and foundational evidence or information for investigations and the courts. There are various stakeholders to use this evidence or information. They need to understand the meaning, the added value and how to use forensic science for their purpose. For they are nonspecialist, forensic science and criminalistics may not always be clear; there is an inherent knowledge gap. Training and education of users of forensic scientific evidence or information is therefore necessary.

Forensic practitioners like forensic scientists provide the scientific information and evidence. The results they deliver may be used in criminal investigations and in court, therefore good training and assessment of these practitioners is essential. It is crucial that the training, education and assessment of forensic scientists is based on agreed standards for competence assurance and provide a solid scientific background and a broad base in criminalistics.

New innovations and best practices in the science of education and training of professionals can also be of great importance for training in forensic science. These innovations and practices may help trainers and assessors to improve their training and assessment of forensic scientists and stakeholders and so to improve the quality of the criminal system.

Contributions are invited on these themes:

• Training and education of stakeholders
• Training, education and assessment of forensic practitioners
• Innovations and best practices in the education, training and assessment of (forensic) professionals