IFSA engages in research, education, outreach, and policy espousal.

Research

IFSA research studies how the organization of forensic science influences error rates.  Experiments with human subjects form a part of this research.  The NSF is funding experiments entitled “Democratic Epistemics in Lab-Based Processes.”  Some of our results are published in Koppl, Roger, Robert Kurzban and Lawrence Kobilinsky. "Epistemics for Forensics," Episteme: Journal of Social Epistemology, 2008, 5(2): 141-159.  The Earhart Foundation is funding a related series of experiments being conducted at FDU's Florham Laboratory for Experimental Social Science (FLESS). 

Please click the research button on the menu bar at the left for links to IFSA research.

Education 

IFSA's director has taught classes at FDU based on IFSA research.  He has also taught in national programs giving participants Continuing Legal Education (CLE) credits. Through its website, IFSA keeps the forensic science community, the larger criminal justice community, and the general public informed of developments in the emerging field of forensic science administration.  IFSA is currently seeking funding to expand its educational activities.

Outreach

IFSA has an active outreach program that has produced many popular an semi-popular writings such as op-eds and articles in news magazines.  Links to these writings can be found on this website's front page.

Policy Espousal

IFSA’s senior personnel engage in policy advocacy through outreach publications such a "CSI For Real" published by the Reason Foundation, through scholarly analyses of policy options, and by presenting IFSA's ideas in different contexts such as meeting 4 of the National Academy of Sciences committee on Identifying the Needs of the Forensic Science Community.