Business Statistics

Prosecutor’s Fallacy

Prosecutor’s Fallacy

Prosecutor’s Fallacy is any of several fallacies of statistical reasoning often used in legal arguments. It can arise from multiple testing, such as when evidence is compared against a large database. The size of the database elevates the likelihood of finding a match by pure chance alone; i.e., DNA evidence is soundest when a match is found after a single directed comparison because the existence of matches against a large database where the test sample is of poor quality may be less unlikely by mere chance.