Maths on Trial: Maths on Trial covers ten criminal cases in each of which, at a crucial point, a mathematical mistake played a significant role. Probability and statistics are used for multiple purposes in the world of criminality: identification, DNA analysis, database trawling, proving discrimination, making handwriting comparisons, and even as a tool of last resort in the very detection of the act of murder. Each time this occurs, there is a risk of error, and each such error carries the risk of a serious miscarriage of justice.
The ten cases are ordered according to the difficulty of the maths they contain, from easiest to hardest; each one is preceded by a short introduction to the problems and errors involved. From the 19th century “witch of Wall Street” forgery affair to the recent murder in Italy of British student Meredith Kercher, the cases cover more than a century in half a dozen countries. Some are famous, others obscure, but all tell the stories of people of flesh and blood; real men and women who were accused and convicted of crimes ranging from stealing handbags to suffocating babies, from bilking investors to violent stabbings, from forging and spying to serial killing. Powerful and sometimes tragic tales of accusation, discrimination and wrongful imprisonment, they are perfect showcases for the danger of misusing mathematics.
The ten cases are ordered according to the difficulty of the maths they contain, from easiest to hardest; each one is preceded by a short introduction to the problems and errors involved. From the 19th century “witch of Wall Street” forgery affair to the recent murder in Italy of British student Meredith Kercher, the cases cover more than a century in half a dozen countries. Some are famous, others obscure, but all tell the stories of people of flesh and blood; real men and women who were accused and convicted of crimes ranging from stealing handbags to suffocating babies, from bilking investors to violent stabbings, from forging and spying to serial killing. Powerful and sometimes tragic tales of accusation, discrimination and wrongful imprisonment, they are perfect showcases for the danger of misusing mathematics.
