The influence of forensic evidence in judicial decisions: a literature review

In this article, it was conducted a review of the world literature about the impact of forensic evidence on decisions in criminal prosecutions. A bibliographic survey was carried out, through the search of articles published in the databases of the CAPES periodical, from 2008 to 2018. It was used the terms "Influence", "impact", "forensic evidence", "verdict”, “Criminal justice", "scene crime" and "case outcome" combined, in order to return the largest number of articles on the subject. After the exclusion criteria, three (3) articles were selected that specifically address the object of this study. The results showed that the influence of forensic evidence in the courts varies according to the criminal infraction practiced and the amount of evidence collected on the case. The review also showed that further research is needed in the field of forensic evidence and its repercussions at the end of criminal prosecution. In addition, it is concluded that there is a need to deepen the studies on the causes of the small percentage of success in the collection of traces according to several types of crimes.