The International Centre for Evidence-Based Criminal Law (EB-CRIME)

The purpose of the research at the International Centre for Evidence-based Criminal Law (EB-CRIME) is to introduce a novel approach to criminal law; evidence-based criminal law.

The research constitutes the scientific fundament necessary for best practice guidelines directed towards practitioners like police officers, forensic analysts, pathologists, prosecutors and judges, who often work without any guidelines at all.The research at EB-CRIME will be conducted over six years in a unique multidisciplinary constellation of researchers in law, psychology, sociology, forensic genetics, chemistry, forensic medicine, digital forensics, forensic anthropology and artificial intelligence.

Our research aims to identify and prevent sources of error attributable to both investigative methods and human decision making.

This entails a range of evidence types including statements from suspects and witnesses as well as forensic evidence like digital evidence, DNA, medical opinions, human identification and age estimation. The research methods comprise e.g. legal case analysis, scenario & lab-based experiments and AI-based approaches.

Working in evidence-based ways in criminal cases is as essential to criminal law as it is to prescribe medicine on the basis of the best evidence in the medical field.

EB-CRIME is the first research centre to provide an evidence base in criminal law, helping to prevent errors, promote strategic use of resources and promote the legitimacy of criminal law.