Probative value

In critical thinking this is essentially the degree to which or whether a particular piece of evidence is likely to help decide the truth or falsity of the claim in which we are interested – whether or to what degree this evidence “tests the issue” or tips the balance in some direction.

In a court setting relevance and admissibility of evidence is a function of the evidence’s probative value. Does the evidence being considered advance the inquiry and get at the truth of what is at issue? Pieces of evidence will be deemed irrelevant if they do not bear upon the question of what happened or will tend to prejudice the minds of jurors for or against the defendant instead of contributing to their sober scrutiny and assessment of facts in order to justify any decision to convict or acquit. Generally evidence admitted concerns the character of the witnesses and allows proper questions to be raised relating the veracity of witnesses’ testimony, such things as:

nthe credibility of witnesses on the basis of prior statements made by them which are inconsistent with current testimony;

nany bias against or partiality towards other parties in the case on the part of witnesses;

ninformation about witnesses’ convictions for crimes involving dishonesty or false declarations;

ninformation about witnesses’ self-interest in the outcome of the case, for example, if the defendant were convicted a witness might then receive favourable treatment from an associate, employer, or patron, etc., who’d wished to see a conviction in the case;