Estimating the time since discharge of spent cartridges: A logical approach for interpreting the evidence

Gallidabino, Matteo D.; Weyermann, Céline; Romolo, Francesco Saverio; Taroni, Franco

doi:10.1016/j.scijus.2011.12.004

Cited by 23 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…The development of another kind of approach is therefore necessary to improve the reliability and the scope of ink dating methods. A probabilistic model such as the likelihood ratio already proposed earlier for ink dating and more recently for the interpretation of dating evidence in other forensic fields would probably represent a good solution. However, more data will be needed to investigate and implement such a probabilistic model.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ink Dating Using Thermal Desorption and Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry: Comparison of Results Obtained in Two Laboratories

Koenig

Bügler²,

Kirsch

et al. 2014

Journal of Forensic Sciences

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An ink dating method based on solvent analysis was recently developed using thermal desorption followed by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) and is currently implemented in several forensic laboratories. The main aims of this work were to implement this method in a new laboratory to evaluate whether results were comparable at three levels: (i) validation criteria, (ii) aging curves, and (iii) results interpretation. While the results were indeed comparable in terms of validation, the method proved to be very sensitive to maintenances. Moreover, the aging curves were influenced by ink composition, as well as storage conditions (particularly when the samples were not stored in "normal" room conditions). Finally, as current interpretation models showed limitations, an alternative model based on slope calculation was proposed. However, in the future, a probabilistic approach may represent a better solution to deal with ink sample inhomogeneity.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ink Dating Using Thermal Desorption and Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry: Comparison of Results Obtained in Two Laboratories

Koenig

Bügler²,

Kirsch

et al. 2014

Journal of Forensic Sciences

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“…The last approac h evaluated in this work is based on the calculation of likelihood ratios and has been largely developed and discussed in forensic science, including for age estimation [2,19,[23][24][25][26]. The strength of an observation (i.e., obtained results) is evaluated in regard of two different hypotheses and the case context [27][28][29].…”

Section: Accepted Manuscript 5 Likelihood Rat Io Apprmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Until now, such a model has never been tested for ink dating using real reference dat a, only subjective probabilities were used to show the potential of this interpret ation approach [2,19,30]. Different models were proposed in the literature, including B aysenets, for different ageing problematics such as evaluating the time since discharge [23], the moment of deposition of fingermarks [24], or the age of living people [25,26]. Each model has to take into account specificities such as the type of hypothes es (e.g.…”

Section: Accepted Manuscript 5 Likelihood Rat Io Apprmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ink dating part II: Interpretation of results in a legal perspective

Koenig

Weyermann

2018

Science & Justice

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The development of an ink dating method requires an important investment of resources in order to step from the monitoring of ink ageing on paper to the determination of the actual age of a questioned ink entry. This article aimed at developing and evaluating the potential of three interpretation models to date ink entries in a legal perspective: (1) the threshold model comparing analytical results to tabulated values in order to determine the maximal possible age of an ink entry, (2) the trend tests that focusing on the "ageing status" of an ink entry, and (3) the likelihood ratio calculation comparing the probabilities to observe the results under at least two alternative hypotheses. This is the first report showing ink dating interpretation results on a ballpoint be ink reference population. In the first part of this paper three ageing parameters were selected as promising from the population of 25 ink entries aged during 4 to 304days: the quantity of phenoxyethanol (PE), the difference between the PE quantities contained in a naturally aged sample and an artificially aged sample (R) and the solvent loss ratio (R%). In the current part, each model was tested using the three selected ageing parameters. Results showed that threshold definition remains a simple model easily applicable in practice, but that the risk of false positive cannot be completely avoided without reducing significantly the feasibility of the ink dating approaches. The trend tests from the literature showed unreliable results and an alternative had to be developed yielding encouraging results. The likelihood ratio calculation introduced a degree of certainty to the ink dating conclusion in comparison to the threshold approach. The proposed model remains quite simple to apply in practice, but should be further developed in order to yield reliable results in practice.

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“…Dating research has already been conducted for different types of forensic marks (e.g. ink, gunshot residue and blood) and different interpretation models were proposed in the literature based on decision thresholds [126][127][128][129], trend tests [130,131], regression calculations [60,115,132] or likelihood ratios [130,133,134]. Concerning fingermarks, aging models based on regression calculations [71,107], likelihood ratios [107,120] and PCA [107,111,112] were reported in the literature.…”

Section: Interpretation Models and Validationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fingermark age determinations: Legal considerations, review of the literature and practical propositions

Girod

Ramotowski²,

Lambrechts

et al. 2016

Forensic Science International

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The question of the age of fingermarks is often raised in investigations and trials when suspects admit that they have left their fingermarks at a crime scene but allege that the contact occurred at a different time than the crime and for legal reasons. In the first part of this review article, examples from American appellate court cases will be used to demonstrate that there is a lack of consensus among American courts regarding the admissibility and weight of testimony from expert witnesses who provide opinions about the age of fingermarks. Of course, these issues are not only encountered in America but have also been reported elsewhere, for example in Europe. The disparity in the way fingermark dating cases were managed in these examples is probably due to the fact that no methodology has been validated and accepted by the forensic science community so far. The second part of this review article summarizes the studies reported on fingermark dating in the literature and highlights the fact that most proposed methodologies still suffer from limitations preventing their use in practice. Nevertheless, several approaches based on the evolution of aging parameters detected in fingermark residue over time appear to show promise for the fingermark dating field. Based on these approaches, the definition of a formal methodological framework for fingermark dating cases is proposed in order to produce relevant temporal information. This framework identifies which type of information could and should be obtained about fingermark aging and what developments are still required to scientifically address dating issues.

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Estimating the time since discharge of spent cartridges: A logical approach for interpreting the evidence

Cited by 23 publications

References 40 publications

Ink Dating Using Thermal Desorption and Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry: Comparison of Results Obtained in Two Laboratories

Ink Dating Using Thermal Desorption and Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry: Comparison of Results Obtained in Two Laboratories

Ink dating part II: Interpretation of results in a legal perspective

Fingermark age determinations: Legal considerations, review of the literature and practical propositions

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