Commentary on: Downing NR, Scafide KN, Ali Z, Hayat MJ. Visibility of inflicted bruises by alternate light: Results of a randomized controlled trial. J Forensic Sci. 2024;69(3):880–7. https://doi.org/10.1111/1556‐4029.15481

Abstract

We read with interest the article by Downing NR, et al. regarding the use of alternate light to view bruises [1]. We agree with the authors that the identification of injuries in patients who have experienced physical violence is important. As colleagues who are forensic medicine experts, we recognize the importance of visualizing bruises in cases of interpersonal violence, especially in individuals with darkly pigmented skin, so we applaud your research on this issue.Practitioners need to be as accurate as possible in their evaluation.The use of tools to assist in the identification of injuries can be very helpful. We also recognize that forensic sciences and the associated analysis or evaluation must remain accurate and valid and not utilize "presumptive tests without confirmation" or tests lacking "reliability, reproducibility, repeatability, and replicability" [2,3].When reading this article, we were struck by the remarkable similarity in methods with previous publications by these authors on this topic [4,5]. All three studies have the same number of 157 participants. This study and the study published in 2020 describe the