USE OF THE HYPERGEOMETRIC DISTRIBUTION FOR SAMPLING IN FORENSIC GLASS COMPARISON

The statistical significance of sampling is one consideration amongst others for a forensic scientist when deciding how many recovered items of the same generic type to compare with a control sample. These statistical considerations can be pursued using the hypergeometric distribution. The probabilities of selecting samples of particular numbers of matching and non-matching items from populations of items comprising different numbers of matching and non-matching items have been computed using the hypergeometric distribution for situations commonly arising in the casework examination of glass. The implications of the results have been considered.