Creation of a universal experimental protocol for the investigation of transfer and persistence of trace evidence:Part 1 - From design to implementation for particulate evidence

Understanding the transfer and persistence of different types of trace evidence between different donor and receiving surfaces under specific conditions, circumstances and alleged competing defence and prosecution hypotheses is a significant need. Acquiring such a knowledge base enables hypothesis testing to be undertaken more readily and with greater confidence. A longstanding goal has been to develop a unified approach to transfer and persistence studies which are fit for purpose but also scalable.Here we propose a low cost, universal experimental protocol using a recognised and well researched proxy material for the development and aggregation of ground truth transfer and persistence data at scale. We also propose and provide the tools to enable the creation of an open source and open access data repository of experimental data to act as a resource for practitioners and researchers in addressing transfer and persistence questions

Creation of a universal experimental protocol for the investigation of transfer and persistence of trace evidence:Part 2 – Implementation and preliminary data

This is the second paper on the development and implementation of a universal experimental protocol for transfer and persistence of trace evidence. Here, we present the results of five individual researchers who implemented the universal experimental protocol for the first time. Over 2500 images were collected, computationally analysed and statistically compared. The results were shown to be reliable and consistent under all conditions tested and were used to model the rate of loss of transferred particles over a 7-day timescale. The protocol was additionally extended to include a test of camera settings. The protocol was found to be useable and robust in this preliminary trial paving the way for it to be deployed more widely

Research trends in forensic science:A scientometric approach to analyze the content of the INTERPOL reviews

The use of forensic evidence has become indispensable in many countries and jurisdictions around the world, however the dissemination of research advancements does not necessarily directly or easily reach the forensic science community. Reports from the INTERPOL International Forensic Science Managers Symposium outline major areas that are of interest to forensic practitioners across the INTERPOL member countries. The information contained in the INTERPOL reports is extensive but can be challenging to process. The purpose of this research is to provide a comprehensive overview of the evolution of trends within the INTERPOL reports over an 18 year period. References relating to 10 evidence types retrieved from the 14th to 19th INTERPOL IFSMS reports (2004-2019) were processed and compared with data exports from the citation database Scopus covering the same evidence types. The results from this work are summarised by investigating the relationships between the 10 evidence types. To explore the outputs a user-friendly R-Shiny application was developed and is freely available at: https://uod.ac.uk/lrcfsinterpolreportsexplorer