Biological Evidence Analysis in Cases of Sexual Assault

Sexual assault (SA) is a crime of violence against a person’s body resulting in a physical trauma, mental anguish, and suffering for victims generating expenses for government intended criminal investigation, medical care, and psychological attention. During the crime scene investigation, the identification and recovery of biological evidence (BE) are utmost important, since sometimes these are the only way to prove sexual contact and the perpetrator’s identity. The examiner, with the help of specific technologies and techniques, must be able to find evidence that otherwise could go unnoticed. Forensic laboratories identify biological evidence with systemized protocols and use molecular methods to generate DNA profiles based on the amplification and DNA sequencing. Before the arrival of the new-generation sequencers, the application of other markers (single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), insertion-deletion of nucleotides (INDEL), or microhaplotypes (MHs)) was laborious, expensive, and not very informative for forensic purposes; however, now they are useful in this field. Next-generation sequencing (NGS) brought a new series of applications like epigenetics, microbiota, messenger RNA, and microRNA analysis and the inferences in the ancestry and phenotyping of individuals. In the end, the results obtained from such analyses and stored in databases are very useful for the identification of sexual aggressors

Forensic Analysis

It is my pleasure to place before you the book ''Forensic Analysis - From Death to Justice'' which presents one of the major portions of the broad specialty of Forensic Science comprising mainly of Thanatology and Criminalistics. This book has been designed to incorporate a wide range of new ideas and unique works from all authors from topics like Forensic Engineering, Forensic Entomology and Crime Scene Investigation. I hope that it will be useful to practitioners of forensic medicine, experts, pathologists, law makers, investigating authorities, undergraduate and postgraduate medical school graduates of medicine

An Empirical Investigation of the Evidence Recovery Process in Digital Forensics

The widespread use of the digital media in committing crimes, and the steady increase of their storage capacity has created backlogs at digital forensic labs. The problem is exacerbated especially in high profile crimes. In many such cases the judicial proceedings mandate full analysis of the digital media, when doing so is rarely accomplished or practical. Prior studies have proposed different phases for forensic analysis, to lessen the backlog issues. However, these phases are not distinctly differentiated, and some proposed solutions may not be practical. This study utilized several past police forensic analyses. Each case was chosen for having five distinct forensic phases, complete with documented amount of time spent in each phase, along with the number and type of recovered evidence. Data from these cases were empirically analyzed using common descriptive statistical analyses along with linear regression. By using linear regression, we tested the factors that determine the number of recovered evidentiary artifacts. This study provides models by which future forensic analyses could be assessed. It presents distinctive boundaries for each forensics phase, thus eliminating ambiguity in the examination results, while assisting forensic examiners in determining the necessary depth of analysis

Organisational preparedness for hosted virtual desktops in the context of digital forensics

Virtualization in computing has progressed to an extent where desktops can be virtualized and accessed from anywhere. The server hosted model has already surpassed 1% market share of the worldwide professional PC market, with estimates indicating that this is a rapidly growing area. This paper investigates the adequacy of current digital forensic procedures on hosted virtual desktops (HVDs) as there does not appear to be specific methods of locating and extracting evidences from this infrastructure. A hosted virtual desktop deployed in private clouds was simulated to reflect two different computer crime scenarios. It was found that current digital forensic procedures may not be adequate for locating and extracting evidence, since the infrastructure introduces complications such as persistent/non-persisted disk modes and segregating data in a multi-tenant environment

Progress in Forensic Genetics: New Markers Validation Studies and Population Data

Los objetivos de esta tesis son: - validar una pentaplex de nueva generación que incluya los cinco nuevos marcadores recomendados por el Consejo de la Unión Europea para la extensión del lo European Standard Set (ESS) mediante evaluación del nivel de información de los datos y del éxito del análisis sobre una amplia gama de muestras forenses y también comparar su funcionamiento con el que de otros equipos disponibles comercialmente. - crear una base de datos demográfica útil en forense que incluye una estimación de la frecuencia de cada allelo posible y genotipo (o haplotipo), estudiando la variabilidad en el Área mediterránea de 15 STRs autosómicosl bien establecidos juntos con los 5 nuevos marcadores EES, el sumamente discriminante SE33 y algún STRs de los chromosomes sexuales comúnemente usados en la investigación forense. Finalmente pretendemos evaluar la variabilidad de la 52 SNPplex recientemente introducida para usos forense

Forensic analysis of fingernail debris after a scratch experiment and its applications in violence against women investigation

Violent acts against women, mainly perpetrated by males, comprise close and forceful physical contact between the victim and the assailant, which may lead to the accumulation of genetic material under the protected fingernail hyponychium area of the victim. Thus, the collection of fingernail debris may provide biological evidence for the evaluation of the criminal circumstances. The aim of the study was to explore the mechanisms of male DNA transfer, persistence, and recovery under fingernails of women following a mock physical assault, as well as the prevalence of male cellular material under normal, non-criminal circumstances. Forty-eight female volunteers were enrolled and asked to scratch male volunteers’ forearms, mimicking a defensive action during a physical assault. Scratching took place after the cleaning of the hyponychial area. Targeted sampling of fingernail debris was performed at regular time intervals after the scratching to explore the persistence of male cellular material over time. The prevalence of male DNA under volunteers’ fingernails in normal daily life was investigated by collecting volunteers’ fingernail samples two weeks before the scratch. For the recovery study, two different sampling strategies were employed, involving either cumulative or finger by finger sample collection. The transfer, persistence, prevalence and recovery of male DNA under volunteers’ fingernails were investigated through a Y-STR typing approach and complemented by autosomal STR profiling of relevant samples. The results confirm that the amount of male DNA under fingernails after scratching rapidly decreases over time. Although an increased time lag between scratching and sampling increases the chances to observe genetic profiles acquired from casual, non-crime related transfers, relevant profiles were obtained from samples collected even 24 h after scratching. These findings suggest that such data need be interpreted with caution and an alternative, non-crime related scenario should be considered

FORENSIC LINGUISTICS: AN APPLIED THEORY

This article demonstrates how forensic linguistics is a necessary means to most of the pathological fields of life. The theme of this article revolves around forensic linguistics and its applicability in academic research. Forensic linguistics is the systematic study of language latitudes in particular contexts for forensic purposes. As a new academic discipline, it holds the role of developing methodical linguistic standards in order to enhance not only English language, but also universal language. It provides language with aspects that help in solving linguistic problems. It also introduces language as a collective medium for better communication. Being a subfield of linguistics, it applies systematic theories on clusters of language preparing the acquired results to be utilized and accepted in the official, legal and judicial fields. This article formulates the pertinent difference between linguistics and systematic forensic linguistics, which extends the theoretical, experimental, informative and procedural scopes of academic research. The comprehensive purpose of this article is to appreciate forensic linguistics as an applied theory through examining its role and effect, and through identifying it as a young, but strong, cross-disciplinary generic style which widens the scope of linguistics in academic research methodology. Forensic linguistics involves more than one field of linguistics while investigating a certain word-based piece of evidence. Forensic linguistics banks on academic criticism, as the best research methodology in research engagements, which leads to achieve explanations of the foremost linguistic questions in the most controversial forensic cases. Applied forensic linguistics can be counted as dimensional since it extends the employment of investigative linguistic procedures, e.g. meta-linguistics and paralinguistic. Forensic linguistics contributes to the well-being of the modern societies as technology has invaded every aspect of life. Incessant technological advances are responding favorably to the linguistic needs and harmonizing with the academic fields. Technology, as such, is offering larger patterns of inquiry and comprehensive meadows of choice in the varied fields of forensic linguistics. Day after day, technology is enhancing the endeavors of linguistic application and helping in resolving unresolved cases and even, gradually, miscarragies of justice. There are many fissures which are not enclosed yet and still have to be scholastically investigated and systematically approached by means of experimentation and application through academic research

Dry bloodstain detection on various black fabric using forensic light sources

Blood is one of the most frequent and crucial biological methods used to identify and characterise criminals and regularly used to establishing a link between the offender, the victim, and the crime. Blood and bloodstain evidence in the form of fluids or stains found at the scene of a crime in large quantities or in tiny amounts. This study investigates dried blood stain on the dark fabric of cotton, polyester, and mixed (cotton/polyester). This study looked into using Crime lite to photograph bloodstains to provide an alternative noninvasive tool. This study examined whether blood always absorbed light in the 300nm to 900nm range and the best wavelength for observing blood on black fabrics. It also investigated whether fabric type affected the ability to view blood on fabrics, if washing and drying the fabric affected the use of forensic light source (FLS) and if so, to what extent. Blood drops were deposited on three fabrics were photographed in the Crime-lite 2s FLS kit (Foster and Freeman) with and without a filter under 400-700nm (white light), 350nm- 380nm (UV), 400nm-430nm (Violet), 420nm-470nm (Blue), and 445nm-510nm (Blue green). The observation was optimized using positive control samples and violet light was selected. In total, 1132 photographs were in this entire study. Results indicated that photography with FLS was a viable non-destructive, chemical free and effective method for blood detection on dark fabrics. Furthermore, violet light with no filter was the most effective light source for viewing blood stains on dark fabrics without using chemicals. Using the violet light, washed fabric without detergent retain bloodstain for up to six cycles while fabric washed with detergent was only able to retain bloodstain in only two cycle

The use of serface fuintionalised silica nano-particlate powders for the identification of gunshot residues from fingerprints

Gunshot residue (GSR) mixture consists of partially burned particles of propellant and characteristic particles of elements originating from the primer, bullet, propellant and some additives in the propellant. Since Harrison and Gillory [1] drew forensic scientists’ attention to the fact that GSR contained trace amounts of inorganic compounds such as lead, barium and antimony, a number of analytical techniques have been tested trying to find and establish sensitive, selective and reliable methods to identify and analyse gunshot residues. The standard procedure for the analysis of gunshot residues involves imaging these small metallic particles using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and subsequent compositional analysis using Energy Dispersive X-ray Analysis (EDX). This study focuses on the analysis organic compounds in GSR. It is motivated by the increasing need to overcome the problems with the analysis of lead-free ammunitions. A comprehensive literature review was performed in order to determine the most commonly encountered organic compounds in GSR. These compounds include diphenylamine, methylcentralite, ethylcentralite, nitroglycerine, 2-nitrodiphenylamine and 4-nitrodiphenylamine. It has been clearly demonstrated using standard materials and appropriate calibration curves that gas chromatograph and mass spectrometry (GC/MS) is capable of providing limits of detection that are consistent with the concentrations of the key organic constituents found in gunshot residues. Furthermore, we have demonstrated that the relative concentrations of seven key components can be used to provide branding information on the shotgun cartridges. A strong relationship was found between the chemical composition of fired and unfired powder. Therefore, it is possible to differentiate between two ammunition brands through the analysis of the organic constituents. Traditional fingerprint powders such as titanium dioxide, aluminium, carbon black, iron oxide, lycopodium spores and rosin are used to enhance fingerprint left at the scene of crime. More recently nanoparticles have been demonstrated to be highly effective for the enhancement of the fingerprints [2]. Silica nano-particulates of defined size and shape were synthesised and functionalised with two different functional groups (phenyl and long chain hydrocarbon) using a Tri- phasic Reverse Emulsion (TPRE) method. These nano-particulates were characterised using scan electron microscope (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), elemental analysis, particles size analyser, BET surface area and solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. These powders were used as an effective agent to visualise latent fingerprints on different surfaces. Furthermore, they have been utilised to absorb any organic materials within the fingerprint from the discharged of weapon. Analyses of the adsorbed organic residues were performed using GC/MS and Raman spectroscopy. The results showed that the synthesised silica nano-particulate fingerprint powder gave better result in term of their ability to absorb organic materials in GSR and enhance the visualisation of the latent fingerprint compared to a single commercial powder