Both types of reasoning play different roles in investigations/forensics/science/etc. The difference between the two is sometimes hard to define. Here are two common defintions:

1. With deductive reasoning, the conclusions are contained, whether explicit or implicit, in the premises. With inductive reasoning, the conclusions go beyond what is contained in the premises.

2. The conclusions arrived at using (correct) deductive logic are necessarily true, meaning they must be true. The conclusions arrived at using inductive logic, are not necessarily true, although they may be.

At the Forensic Computing blog.

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