ntomology, as a vast scientific discipline of zoology, deals with the study of insects, which are an integral part of the ecosystem of our planet and are closely linked to the activity and life cycle of all organisms, including humans. As a result of this natural connection, insects often become a direct “living witness” of a crime and thus an invaluable part of the evidence in a comprehensive forensic investigation, which in such cases necessarily includes a specialized field of science - forensic entomology. The goals of forensic entomology include comprehensive analysis of entomological evidence material and the use of knowledge about insects and other invertebrates for the purpose of investigating and verifying evidence in civil and criminal law. In practice, forensic entomology falls into several categories, including the issue of food pests in industry or agriculture, human and animal parasitology (especially myiasis) and very often the field of criminology and forensic medicine, where the results are mainly applied to determine the length of post mortem interval (PMI), evidence of manipulation of the corpse, or other forensic facts that results from entomological analysis. The conclusions of the entomology study are in many cases an invaluable part of the amount of information that leads to the answer of key questions in complex forensic evidence, especially in the group of serious crimes.
- Keywords
- Insects, criminalistics, forensic entomology, forensic medicine, post mortem interval,
- MeSH
- Ecosystem MeSH
- Forensic Entomology * MeSH
- Humans MeSH
- Postmortem Changes MeSH
- Forensic Medicine MeSH
- Forensic Sciences MeSH
- Animals MeSH
- Check Tag
- Humans MeSH
- Animals MeSH
- Publication type
- Journal Article MeSH
- MeSH
- History, 16th Century MeSH
- History, 17th Century MeSH
- Physicians history MeSH
- Forensic Medicine history MeSH
- Check Tag
- History, 16th Century MeSH
- History, 17th Century MeSH
- Publication type
- Journal Article MeSH
- Historical Article MeSH
- Portrait MeSH
- Geographicals
- Europe MeSH
Throughout the years, DNA barcoding has gained in importance in forensic entomology as it leads to fast and reliable species determination. High-quality results, however, can only be achieved with a comprehensive DNA barcode reference database at hand. In collaboration with the Bavarian State Criminal Police Office, we have initiated at the Bavarian State Collection of Zoology the establishment of a reference library containing arthropods of potential forensic relevance to be used for DNA barcoding applications. CO1-5P' DNA barcode sequences of hundreds of arthropods were obtained via DNA extraction, PCR and Sanger Sequencing, leading to the establishment of a database containing 502 high-quality sequences which provide coverage for 88 arthropod species. Furthermore, we demonstrate an application example of this library using it as a backbone to a high throughput sequencing analysis of arthropod bulk samples collected from human corpses, which enabled the identification of 31 different arthropod Barcode Index Numbers.
- Keywords
- Cytochrome C Oxidase 1, DNA barcoding, DNA reference library, bulk sample analysis, forensic entomology, forensic science, high throughput sequencing, next generation sequencing,
- MeSH
- Arthropods genetics MeSH
- Databases, Nucleic Acid * MeSH
- Entomology MeSH
- Polymerase Chain Reaction MeSH
- Electron Transport Complex IV genetics MeSH
- Sequence Analysis, DNA MeSH
- Forensic Sciences * MeSH
- DNA Barcoding, Taxonomic * MeSH
- High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing MeSH
- Animals MeSH
- Check Tag
- Animals MeSH
- Publication type
- Journal Article MeSH
- Names of Substances
- Electron Transport Complex IV MeSH
The phenomenon of eponymous terms in forensic pathology is described in this paper. The authors analyzed representative textbooks (monographs) dealing with forensic pathology in both English and German and identified several eponymous terms. The paper aims to present to the reader the most important eponymous terms in forensic pathology. Included in the paper are the following terms: Beckwith's Sign, Casper's Rule, Krönlein's Shot, Lichtenberg's Figures, Nysten's Law, Paltauf's Spots, Puppe's Rule, Sehrt's Sign, Simon's Sign, Sveshnikov's Sign, Tardieu's Spots, Wischnewski Spots, Wydler's Sign. The spread of eponymous terms throughout various languages is mentioned. The linguistic basis of such terms as well as their advantages and disadvantages in specialist fields, and indeed in even wider circles, is discussed. The authors state that the main function of these terms is to facilitate the open flow of unambiguous information among scholars. Eponymous terms in forensic pathology are characteristic for the German speaking countries and for all countries influenced by the German school of forensic pathology. Their usage in the Anglo-Saxon world is much less widespread, meaning they do not occur very often in English monographs and textbooks.
Plant seeds exhibit many species-specific traits, thus potentially being especially helpful for forensic investigations. Seeds of a broad range of plant species occur in soil seed banks of various habitats and may become attached in large quantities to moving objects. Although plant seeds are now routinely used as trace evidence in forensic practice, only scant information has been published on this topic in the scientific literature. Thus, the standard methods remain unknown to specialists in such botanical subjects as plant ecology and plant geography. These specialists, if made aware of the forensic uses of seeds, could help in development of new, more sophisticated approaches. We aim to bridge the gap between forensic analysts and botanists. Therefore, we explore the available literature and compare it with our own experiences to reveal both the potential and limits of soil seed bank and seed dispersal analysis in forensic investigations. We demonstrate that habitat-specific and thus relatively rare species are of the greatest forensic value. Overall species composition, in terms of species presence/absence and relative abundance can also provide important information. In particular, the ecological profiles of seeds found on any moving object can help us identify the types of environments through which the object had travelled. We discuss the applicability of this approach to various European environments, with the ability to compare seed samples with georeferenced vegetation databases being particularly promising for forensic investigations. We also explore the forensic limitations of soil seed bank and seed dispersal vector analyses.
- Keywords
- Ecological species group (eco-group), Footwear, Forensic marker, Plant species, Vegetation database, Vehicle,
- MeSH
- Botany MeSH
- Databases as Topic MeSH
- Ecosystem MeSH
- Soil * MeSH
- Seeds * MeSH
- Seed Bank * MeSH
- Seed Dispersal * MeSH
- Forensic Sciences MeSH
- Geography MeSH
- Publication type
- Journal Article MeSH
- Review MeSH
- Geographicals
- Europe MeSH
- Names of Substances
- Soil * MeSH
Verifying the speaker of a speech fragment can be crucial in attributing a crime to a suspect. The question can be addressed given disputed and reference speech material, adopting the recommended and scientifically accepted likelihood ratio framework for reporting evidential strength in court. In forensic practice, usually, auditory and acoustic analyses are performed to carry out such a verification task considering a diversity of features, such as language competence, pronunciation, or other linguistic features. Automated speaker comparison systems can also be used alongside those manual analyses. State-of-the-art automatic speaker comparison systems are based on deep neural networks that take acoustic features as input. Additional information, though, may be obtained from linguistic analysis. In this paper, we aim to answer if, when and how modern acoustic-based systems can be complemented by an authorship technique based on frequent words, within the likelihood ratio framework. We consider three different approaches to derive a combined likelihood ratio: using a support vector machine algorithm, fitting bivariate normal distributions, and passing the score of the acoustic system as additional input to the frequent-word analysis. We apply our method to the forensically relevant dataset FRIDA and the FISHER corpus, and we explore under which conditions fusion is valuable. We evaluate our results in terms of log likelihood ratio cost (Cllr) and equal error rate (EER). We show that fusion can be beneficial, especially in the case of intercepted phone calls with noise in the background.
- Keywords
- Forensic speaker comparison, Frequent-word analysis, Information fusion, Likelihood ratio framework, Multi-modal analysis,
- MeSH
- Speech Acoustics MeSH
- Algorithms MeSH
- Humans MeSH
- Linguistics MeSH
- Likelihood Functions MeSH
- Speech MeSH
- Forensic Sciences * methods MeSH
- Support Vector Machine MeSH
- Check Tag
- Humans MeSH
- Publication type
- Journal Article MeSH
Based on the daily practice with digital photography and documentation, the authors point out the achievements of the computer technologies implementation to the practice of forensic medicine. The modern methods of imaging, especially the digital photography, offer a wide spectrum of use in forensic medicine--the digital documentation and archivation of autopsy findings, the possibility of immediate consultation of findings with another experts via Internet, and many others. Another possibility is a creation of digital photographic atlas of forensic medicine as a useful aid in pre- and postgradual study. Thus the application of the state-of-the-art computer technologies to the forensic medicine discloses the unknown before possibilities for further development of such a discipline of human medical sciences.
- MeSH
- Photography * MeSH
- Medical Informatics * MeSH
- Humans MeSH
- Autopsy MeSH
- Forensic Medicine * MeSH
- Check Tag
- Humans MeSH
- Publication type
- English Abstract MeSH
- Journal Article MeSH
Research on ancient and forensic DNA is related in many ways, and the two fields must deal with similar obstacles. Therefore, communication between these two communities has the potential to improve results in both research fields. Here, we present the insights gained in the ancient DNA community with regard to analyzing DNA from aged skeletal material and the potential use of the developed protocols in forensic work. We discuss the various steps, from choosing samples for DNA extraction to deciding between classical PCR amplification and massively parallel sequencing approaches. Based on the progress made in ancient DNA analyses combined with the requirements of forensic work, we suggest that there is substantial potential for incorporating ancient DNA approaches into forensic protocols, a process that has already begun to a considerable extent. However, taking full advantage of the experiences gained from ancient DNA work will require comparative studies by the forensic DNA community to tailor the methods developed for ancient samples to the specific needs of forensic studies and case work. If successful, in our view, the benefits for both communities would be considerable.
- Keywords
- Ancient DNA, Degraded DNA, Forensic, Inhibitors,
- MeSH
- DNA Fingerprinting MeSH
- DNA * genetics MeSH
- Humans MeSH
- DNA Degradation, Necrotic MeSH
- Aged MeSH
- Forensic Genetics MeSH
- DNA, Ancient * MeSH
- Check Tag
- Humans MeSH
- Aged MeSH
- Publication type
- Journal Article MeSH
- Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't MeSH
- Review MeSH
- Names of Substances
- DNA * MeSH
- DNA, Ancient * MeSH
It is commonly accepted that crime scene recovery and recording are key moments of any judicial inspection in which investigators must decide on the correct strategies to put into place. Complex outdoor scenarios, presenting partially or entirely skeletonised remains, can benefit more than others by the intervention of environmental specialists (forensic anthropologists, archaeologists, entomologists and botanists). These experts are capable of singling out, correctly recording and recovering environmental evidence that can lead to a more comprehensive reconstruction of a given criminal episode. If human remains are discovered in an outdoor scenario, the on-site presence of a botanist will guarantee a correct approach to the identification, recording and recovery of any botanical evidence. If an on-site botanist is not available, the operators must be capable of both the botanical evaluation of a scene and the implementation of correct botanical sampling protocols.The following collection of unusual case histories that aim at underlining the efficacy of forensic botany will examine the determination of post mortem or the post depositional interval, evidence for a victim's post mortem transfer, evidence for the identification of a primary crime scene and evidence for the identification of a victim's dismemberment site. In another two cases, one, we will illustrate the important role that forensic botany played in the discrimination between botanical material used to voluntarily conceal a victim and vegetation that had grown naturally above a disposal site, whereas the other will highlight the protocols implemented for the identification of a murder weapon.
- Keywords
- Concealment locations, Dendrochronology, Forensic botany, Murder weapon, PMI, Skeletonised human remains,
- MeSH
- Botany * MeSH
- Humans MeSH
- Crime Victims MeSH
- Death MeSH
- Forensic Sciences methods MeSH
- Body Remains pathology MeSH
- Check Tag
- Humans MeSH
- Male MeSH
- Female MeSH
- Publication type
- Journal Article MeSH
- Case Reports MeSH
The forensic scenario, on which the round robin study was based, simulated a suspected intentional manipulation of a real estate rental agreement consisting of a total of three pages. The aims of this study were to (i) establish the amount and reliability of information extractable from a single type of evidence and to (ii) provide suggestions on the most suitable combination of compatible techniques for a multi-modal imaging approach to forgery detection. To address these aims, seventeen laboratories from sixteen countries were invited to answer the following tasks questions: (i) which printing technique was used? (ii) were the three pages printed with the same printer? (iii) were the three pages made from the same paper? (iv) were the three pages originally stapled? (v) were the headings and signatures written with the same ink? and (vi) were headings and signatures of the same age on all pages? The methods used were classified into the following categories: Optical spectroscopy, including multispectral imaging, smartphone mapping, UV-luminescence and LIBS; Infrared spectroscopy, including Raman and FTIR (micro-)spectroscopy; X-ray spectroscopy, including SEM-EDX, PIXE and XPS; Mass spectrometry, including ICPMS, SIMS, MALDI and LDIMS; Electrostatic imaging, as well as non-imaging methods, such as non-multimodal visual inspection, (micro-)spectroscopy, physical testing and thin layer chromatography. The performance of the techniques was evaluated as the proportion of discriminated sample pairs to all possible sample pairs. For the undiscriminated sample pairs, a distinction was made between undecidability and false positive claims. It was found that none of the methods used were able to solve all tasks completely and/or correctly and that certain methods were a priori judged unsuitable by the laboratories for some tasks. Correct results were generally achieved for the discrimination of printer toners, whereas incorrect results in the discrimination of inks. For the discrimination of paper, solid state analytical methods proved to be superior to mass spectrometric methods. None of the participating laboratories deemed addressing ink age feasible. It was concluded that correct forensic statements can only be achieved by the complementary application of different methods and that the classical approach of round robin studies to send standardised subsamples to the participants is not feasible for a true multimodal approach if the techniques are not available at one location.
- Keywords
- Document forgery, Multimodal imaging, Round robin study,
- MeSH
- Mass Spectrometry MeSH
- Ink * MeSH
- Laboratories MeSH
- Humans MeSH
- Reproducibility of Results MeSH
- Forensic Medicine * methods MeSH
- Check Tag
- Humans MeSH
- Publication type
- Journal Article MeSH
