A review of predictive modelling and drone remote sensing technologies as a tool for detecting clandestine burials.

The search for missing people is a complex and intensive undertaking. Predictive models (such as RAG mapping and geographic profiling) in combination with drone-mounted technologies can improve these searches by driving down time and monetary costs, gathering new types of data and reducing the need for investigators to expose themselves to dangerous environments. Promising technologies to discover traces of clandestine burials in the landscape are LiDAR, RGB photography, multispectral and hyperspectral imaging, as well as infrared/thermal photography.

Driver or passenger? Use of a Bayesian network for the evaluation of DNA results in a fatal car accident.

This article presents a case where the issue was to determine who was the driver and who was the passenger at the time of a fatal car accident involving two persons, one of whom died in the accident. The presence of the two persons in the car was not contested, only the mechanisms that led to the deposition of the DNA (i.e.

Unravelling the threat of contamination in elite sports: Exploring diverse sources impacting adverse analytical findings and the risk of inadvertent exposure to prohibited substances.

In recent years, increasing concerns have emerged regarding athletes being exposed to various sources of contamination that could result in an adverse analytical finding (AAF), which is considered a positive doping test and may lead to the athlete's sanction. This review aims to examine the potential sources of contamination. Firstly, exogenous sources such as food, water, supplements, and medications will be described, along with endogenous sources, primarily arising from the athlete's physiological condition via the biotransformation of Medications.

Automated comparison and evaluation of striated cutting plier toolmarks on metal wires.

Toolmarks examination validity and subjectivity have come under scrutiny. This research focuses on the case of cutting plier marks. This paper presents an automatic comparison method and assesses its performance.

Use of automated quality assessment algorithms in fingermark detection research - Application to IND/Zn vs DFO.

When developing detection techniques for fingermarks, the detected fingermarks must be evaluated for their quality to assess the effectiveness of the new method. It is a common practice to compare the performance of the new (optimized) technique with the traditional or well-established ones. In current practice, this evaluation step is carried out by a group of human assessors.

Striated toolmarks comparison and reporting methods: Review and perspectives.

Forensic toolmark examiners have been comparing features observed in toolmarks to help determine their source for over a century. However, in the past decade, the holistic process of comparing toolmarks and presenting findings in court have faced intense scrutiny. This paper provides a summary of the voiced criticisms, primarily concerning the scientific reliability and validity of the comparison methods employed by examiners and the conclusions they testify to.

A practical treatment of sensitivity analyses in activity level evaluations.

Evaluations of forensic observations considering activity level propositions are becoming more common place in forensic institutions. A measure that can be taken to interrogate the evaluation for robustness is called sensitivity analysis. A sensitivity analysis explores the sensitivity of the evaluation to the data used when assigning probabilities, or to the level of uncertainty surrounding a probability assignment, or to the choice of various assumptions within the model.

Use of Bayesian Networks for the investigation of the nature of biological material in casework.

Chemical and staining methods, immunochromatography, spectroscopy, RNA expression or methylation patterns, do not allow to determine the nature of the biological material with certainty. However, to our knowledge, there are few forensic scientists that assess the value of such test results using a probabilistic approach. This is surprising as it would allow account for false positives and false negatives and avoid misleading conclusions.

Using the likelihood ratio in bloodstain pattern analysis.

There is an apparent paradox that the likelihood ratio (LR) approach is an appropriate measure of the weight of evidence when forensic findings have to be evaluated in court, while it is typically not used by bloodstain pattern analysis (BPA) experts. This commentary evaluates how the scope and methods of BPA relate to several types of evaluative propositions and methods to which LRs are applicable. As a result of this evaluation, we show how specificities in scope (BPA being about activities rather than source identification), gaps in the underlying science base, and the reliance on a wide range of methods render the use of LRs in BPA more complex than in some other forensic disciplines.

Proactive forensic science in biometrics: Novel materials for fingerprint spoofing.

Motivated by the need to prepare for the next generation of fingerprint spoofing, we applied the "proactive forensic science" strategy to the biometric field. The working concept, already successful in a few fields, aimed at adopting the sophisticated criminals' way of thinking, predicting their next move so that the crime-fighting authorities can be one step ahead of them and take preventive measures, against biometric spoofing in this instance. This strategy involved the design, production, and characterization of innovative polymeric materials that could possibly serve in advanced fingerprint spoofs.

The importance of considering common sources of unknown DNA when evaluating findings given activity level propositions.

Evaluating forensic biological evidence considering activity level propositions is becoming more prominent around the world. In such evaluations it is common to combine results from multiple items associated with the alleged activities. The results from these items may not be conditionally independent, depending on the mechanism of cell/DNA transfer being considered and it is important that the evaluation takes these dependencies into account.

Predicting suitability of finger marks using machine learning techniques and examiner annotations.

Previous research has established the variability of examiners in reaching suitability determinations for friction ridge comparisons. Attempts to create predictive models to assist in this determination have been made, but have been largely confined to fully automated processes that focus on suitability for AFIS entry. This work develops, optimizes, and validates a hybrid predictive model that utilizes both examiner-observed variables and automated measures of quality and rarity to arrive at suitability classifications along four scales that have been proposed in our previous research: Value, Complexity, AFIS, and Difficulty.

Interpol review of fingermarks and other body impressions 2016-2019.

This review paper covers the forensic-relevant literature in fingerprint and bodily impression sciences from 2016 to 2019 as a part of the 19th Interpol International Forensic Science Managers Symposium. The review papers are also available at the Interpol website at: https://www.interpol.

Mind-set - How bias leads to errors in friction ridge comparisons.

Mind-set is a term used in the friction ridge discipline to describe a confirmation bias in which an examiner makes early decisions about their interpretation of a mark but fails to update or reconsider those decisions in light of additional information. This most often occurs during the analysis of a mark when an examiner makes decisions (such as orientation or anatomical source of a mark) to help expedite a manual search or set parameters for an automated search, but fails to re-evaluate these decisions if the initial screening of available exemplars does not yield a comparable area, potentially leading to a miss or an erroneous exclusion. Mind-set can also occur when an examiner believes a comparison may be an identification early in the comparison process and employs poor comparison habits to convince themselves it is true, often creating or adapting comparison notes after seeing the exemplar, straining logic to justify their decision, and potentially leading to an erroneous identification.

Testing the accuracy and reliability of palmar friction ridge comparisons - A black box study.

Critics and commentators have been calling for some time for black box studies in the forensic science disciplines to establish the foundational validity of those fields-that is, to establish a discipline-wide, base-rate estimate of the error rates that may be expected in each field. While the well-known FBI/Noblis black box study has answered that call for fingerprints, no research to establish similar error rates for palmar impressions has been previously undertaken. We report the results of the first large-scale black box study to establish a discipline-wide error rate estimate for palmar comparisons.

Examining and expanding the friction ridge value decision.

The first step of a friction ridge examination involves determining the suitability-or value-of an impression. Often, this is interpreted as whether the impression is suitable for comparison. However, examiners tend to be variable in their suitability determinations, and suitability itself can be a multi-faceted decision, comprising suitability for comparison, suitability for exclusion, suitability for identification, suitability for AFIS entry, complexity, and others.

Comparison and interpretation of impressed marks left by a firearm on cartridge cases - Towards an operational implementation of a likelihood ratio based technique.

Firearm examination is subject to increased scrutiny regarding its foundational validity and inherent subjective nature. The increased use of automatic comparison systems may help to reduce subjectivity. In this paper, we present the performance and limits of an automatic comparison system that assigns a weight to the forensic findings for the comparisons between firing pin marks, breechface marks, or a combination of the two.

The use of Bayesian Networks and simulation methods to identify the variables impacting the value of evidence assessed under activity level propositions in stabbing cases.

This paper presents a methodology allowing identification of the variables associated with transfer, persistence or recovery of DNA traces that have the most significant impact on the result of an evaluation measured through a likelihood ratio (LR). It builds on a case scenario involving trace DNA recovered from knife handles where the prosecution alleges that the person of interest (POI) stabbed a victim whereas the defence claims that the POI has nothing to do with the incident and the victim was stabbed by an alternative offender (AO). The defence proposition will also be refined to account for the possibility of secondary transfer.

Occurrence and associative value of non-identifiable fingermarks.

Fingermarks that have insufficient characteristics for identification often have discernible characteristics that could form the basis for lesser degrees of correspondence or probability of occurrence within a population. Currently, those latent prints that experts judge to be insufficient for identification are not used as associative evidence. How often do such prints occur and what is their potential value for association? The answers are important.

Automated face recognition in forensic science: Review and perspectives.

With recent technological innovations, the multiplication of captured images of criminal events has brought the comparison of faces to the forefront of the judicial scene. Forensic face recognition has become a ubiquitous tool to guide investigations, gather intelligence and provide evidence in court. However, its reliability in court still suffers from the lack of methodological standardization and empirical validation, notably when using automatic systems, which compare images and generate a matching score.