evidence - Evidence in science, Evidence in criminal investigation, Evidence in law

Oral statements, documents, materials, or other facts, including forensic information, which when produced in a court or tribunal are used to prove or disprove certain other facts under dispute and ultimately the case itself. Not all evidence is admissible in court, and sometimes quite complicated rules determine what evidence is permissible. Some forms of evidence, such as hearsay evidence, may be permitted in civil cases while being inadmissible in criminal cases. In general, criminal courts require sufficient evidence to prove the matter beyond reasonable doubt, while civil cases need only be proved to the standard of balance of probabilities. Jurisdictions differ over whether children, convicted persons, experts, relatives of the accused, and certain other types of person are permitted to give evidence, and over the rights of a witness to give or withhold evidence. Circumstantial evidence is evidence not based on a witness's direct observation of a point at issue. In England and Wales, the law generally does not distinguish between direct and circumstantial evidence. In some circumstances, tape recordings and video evidence may be admissable in court.

The most immediate form of evidence available to an individual is the observations of that person's own senses.

Evidence in science

In scientific research evidence is accumulated through observations of phenomena that occur in the natural world, or which are created as experiments in a laboratory.

Evidence in criminal investigation

In criminal investigation, rather than attempting to prove an abstract or hypothetical point, the evidence gatherers are attempting to determine who is responsible for a criminal act. The focus of criminal evidence is to connect physical evidence and reports of witnesses to a specific person.

Evidence in law

Legal evidence differs from the above in the tight rules governing the presentation of facts that tend to prove or disprove the point at issue. In law, certain policies require that evidence that tends to prove or disprove an assertion or fact must nevertheless be excluded from consideration based either on indicia relating to reliability, or on broader social concerns.