Interdisciplinary Research in Law and Forensic Science: From 'silos' to systems.

Current approaches to the interdisciplinary co-production of forensic-scientific knowledge claims tend to found on the belief that a shared understanding of the respective capabilities, and needs, of both forensic science and criminal justice, may enhance the co-production of knowledge and lead to improved communication. However, the results of empirical research into the Streamlined Forensic Reporting (SFR) scheme, in England and Wales, appear to confound this 'contest and communication' narrative. SFR signals an almost complete co-option of scientific processes by the criminal justice system, the concomitant loss of interpretative forensic expertise, and the avoidance of the allocation of epistemic responsibility. Such instrumental approaches to forensic reporting may be traced to the disruption, and restructuring, of the forensic profession. Nonetheless, it is argued that the application of legal norms and rationality to forensic science may be better understood through the lens of legal autopoiesis, and should be viewed as an instance of the structural coupling of competing sub-systems.