Report on the third EDNAP collaborative STR exercise

This report describes an inter-laboratory exercise completed on behalf of the European DNA Profiling (EDNAP) group. The exercise is one in a series designed to identify STR loci which could be used for harmonisation between participating European forensic science laboratories. Participants were asked to identify the alleles present in five bloodstains at the STR loci HUMTHO1 and HUMVWFA31/A. Two of the stains were prepared from mixtures of two different blood samples. There were no special instructions and each laboratory was requested to use the methodology normally employed for crime case investigations. All participating laboratories achieved the same results for both loci. In addition, the laboratories were also requested to report the results obtained from any other loci which would normally be used in crime case investigations. A comparison of these results showed some inter-laboratory variation.     

The Kodak Syndrome: Risks and Opportunities Created by Decentralization of Forensic Capabilities

Forensic science laboratories are being challenged by the expanding decentralization of forensic capabilities, particularly for digital traces. This study recommends laboratories undertake digital transformations to capitalize on the decentralization movement, develop a more comprehensive understanding of crime and security‐relevant problems, and play a more central role in problem‐solving collaboratively with law enforcement organizations and other stakeholders. A framework for the bilateral transfer of information and knowledge is proposed to magnify the impact of forensic science laboratories on abating crime, strengthening security, and reinforcing the criminal justice system. To accomplish digital transformations, laboratories require personnel with different expertise, including investigative reasoning, knowledge codification, data analytics, and forensic intelligence. Ultimately, this study encourages managers, educators, researchers, and policymakers to look beyond the usefulness of forensic results for solving individual investigations, and to realize the value of combined forensic knowledge and intelligence for developing broader strategies to deal with crime in digitalized society.     

刑事责任能力评估工具在司法精神病鉴定中的应用

目前,我国刑事责任能力采用三分法,分为完全责任能力、限定责任能力和元责任能力.但在司法精神病鉴定工作中,由于缺乏客观标准,三者的区分尚带有较大主观性,常导致不同鉴定人对同一案例的责任能力判定存在分歧.因此,刑事责任能力的评定一直是司法精神病鉴定亟待解决的难题.本文综述了在司法精神病鉴定中使用的几种责任能力评定量表及其应用情况,认为虽然目前这类量表的信度和效度存在争议,但其对提高鉴定结果的科学性、客观性提供了一种良好思路.     

Isolation and Individualization of Conceptus and Maternal Tissues from Abortions and Placentas for Parentage Testing in Cases of Rape and Abandoned Newborns*

Abstract: Abortion specimens are often submitted to forensic laboratories as the only piece of physical evidence in rape and incest cases. The recovery of conceptus tissues from this evidence permits the use of paternity testing to evaluate suspects. In cases of abandoned newborns, the recovery of maternal tissue from the placenta allows for the direct comparison of genetic profiles between the suspected mother and the biological mother. We report on the identification and isolation of conceptus tissues from embryonic‐ and fetal‐period abortions, and maternal tissues from delivered placentas, by gross and low‐magnification examination with manual dissection. Hundreds of single‐source samples have been successfully recovered by this method and short tandem repeat typed using standard forensic procedures. We additionally describe extraembryonic tissues that can be recovered and typed in the absence of the embryo proper. We conclude that an expertise and protocols can be developed by forensic laboratories for the routine analysis of this evidence.     

THE EMERGING FORENSIC ROLE FOR WORK PRODUCT REVIEW AND CASE ANALYSIS IN CHILD ACCESS AND PARENTING PLAN DISPUTES

An emerging forensic service is that of conducting a work product review of a court‐appointed child custody evaluator's evaluation and report. If the reviewer determines there are serious deficiencies in the work product, then the reviewer will provide consultation to the retaining attorney and expert testimony. The reviewer usually is in a hybrid role of consulting/advising the retaining attorney, testifying, and educating the court. Ethical issues in providing forensic services and rebuttal testimony as a reviewer are discussed. Both reviewers and evaluators have a duty to be objective and balanced in their analyses of data and issues. Both types of experts should strive to be helpful to the court and try to serve the best interests of children. Ethical nuances involving review work are discussed. Evaluator and reviewer share the same dataset. Evaluators need to take care to keep a high quality case record with legible interview notes. Reviewers provide a monitoring function for the court or a function of forensic quality control so the court will not be misled by expert testimony of evaluators that is based on flawed data collection and/or analysis. A list of questions is presented for reviewers to use in scrutinizing the quality of the custody evaluation. A list of questions is presented for examining the quality of the reviewer's own work product. The importance of a case analysis and use of conceptual frameworks by evaluators and reviewers is discussed.     

胸部损伤死因鉴定审查在诉讼中的应用

人身伤害案件被害人的死因鉴定,轻则涉及被告人的量刑,重则事关案件的定性。而司法实践中,经常遇到一些刑事被害人的死因鉴定意见是建立在推断的基础之上,且其推断不具有排他性,经不起推敲,往往直接影响到案件的定性与处理。针对这一问题,结合司法案例进行分析,以期提升死因鉴定的证明力和法医学鉴定意见的公信力。     

Postmortem changes mistaken for traumatic lesions: a highly prevalent reason for coroner's autopsy request

Postmortem changes are well known for their possible misinterpretation as traumatic lesions which can mislead to suspicion of violent death and therefore to a forensic autopsy request. As far as we know, a systematic review of the prevalence of such a reason for coroner's autopsy request has not been done yet. A retrospective study of 230 forensic autopsies requested by the Coroner's office from 2002 to 2004 in the province of Quebec, Canada, was conducted by the authors. Of the 230 reviewed cases, postmortem artifacts mistaken for traumatic lesions were found in 18 cases. These misinterpretation were based on 5 categories of portmortem changes: purge fluid drainage in 12 cases (66.7%), bluish discoloration by lividity in 5 cases (27.8%), parchment-like drying of the skin in 4 cases (22.2%), bloating from gas formation in 4 cases (22.2%), and skin slippage in 1 case (5.56%). Therefore, postmortem artifacts misinterpretation occurred in 7.83% (95% confidence interval 0.05-0.12) of all requested forensic autopsies and in 35.29% (95% confidence interval 0.23-0.50) of decomposed autopsy cases. This study clearly establishes the high prevalence of postmortem artifacts as main reason for forensic autopsy request. Hence, in a context of forensic pathologist shortage, the improvement of coroner continuous training may reduce the workload.     

FORENSIC ECONOMICS IN COMPETITION LAW ENFORCEMENT

This paper delineates the specialty field of forensic industrialorganization (IO) as the application of theoretical and empiricalindustrial organization economics in the legal process of competitionlaw enforcement. Four stages of that process that can benefitfrom forensic IO techniques are distinguished: detection andinvestigation; case development; decision-making and litigation;and remedies, sanctions, and damages. We survey the use of economicsin such aspects as identifying potential forms of anticompetitivebehavior, screening markets for competition law violations,determining causality, advising on appropriate remedies, andassessing antitrust damages. The paper discusses the role ofexpert economic witnesses in competition cases. It calls foran organization of forensic IO within the context of existingforensic institutes.     

医疗纠纷的法医学鉴定

目的研究医疗纠纷法医学鉴定的特点,并讨论医疗纠纷法医学鉴定的重点及难点。方法将医疗缺陷分为责任性缺陷、技术性缺陷、管理性缺陷、学科性缺陷和其他缺陷,对36件案例分别进行分类并进行统计。其中把18例由医疗事故鉴定委员会鉴定的结论与我室的鉴定结果进行比较分析,其他18例另行统计。结果36例案件中存在医疗缺陷的占86.11%,其中技术性缺陷66.67%,责任性缺陷和管理性缺陷均占25%。18例由医疗事故鉴定委员会鉴定的结论与我室的鉴定结果进行比较,医疗缺陷的认定两者有明显差异(P<0.05),对于医疗缺陷已对患者造成不良影响的认定,两者具有显著性差异(P<0.01)。结论法医进行医疗纠纷的鉴定,对医疗纠纷诉讼案件的处理起着积极的作用。目前,医疗纠纷的法医学鉴定仍存在许多问题需要进一步讨论。     

Turf wars: authority and responsibility for the investigation of mass graves

Mass graves are complex products of large-scale crimes. Such scenes pose four conceptual challenges to investigators and forensic experts: the individual victim, the crime, the setting, and the statistical. Exhumation and post-mortem examination of mortal remains with associated personal and forensic evidence require integrated management of core forensic personnel including investigators, archaeologists, anthropologists, odontologists and pathologists, among whom there is overlapping expertise. The key to avoiding competition and ill-will among experts is to recognize that all such experts should be enabled to make known how their expertise matches with the temporal and spatial boundaries of victim, crime and setting. In turn, they should be apprised of where they fit into the overall judicial process and their limits within the investigation. Consequently, each expert requires access to the factual background of the case, to the site and its contents throughout the investigation. Each forensic team member has a responsibility to influence the investigation--throughout its course when possible--to make findings within their areas of expertise, and to make these available to the rest of the team so as to contribute most meaningfully to the aims of the investigation, both forensic and humanitarian. The on-site crime scene manager has an overarching role to enable integrated access to the complete scene and its contents by each forensic expert team member. In other words, the forensic scientist is given access and the ability to influence the investigation while control of evidence from the site as to identity and criminal activity are maintained by the crime scene manager. This contribution is directed at both the crime scene manager and each forensic expert; it describes the essential spatial and temporal parameters of an expert's opinion so as to encourage cooperation, and discourage conflict, within the forensic team.     

Peculiarities of organization and performance of forensic medical expertise of the corpses of persons died of acute radiation injury

This paper is concerned with the topical problems of forensic medical diagnostics of acute radiation injury. The general and specific problems pertaining to the organization and performance of forensic medical expertise of the corpses of persons deceased by reason of acute radiation sickness are considered. The special emphasis is laid on the selection of autopsy materials and their referring to specialized laboratories for the additional investigation. The methods of anti-radiation protection of the medical personnel are considered.     

妇产科医疗纠纷司法鉴定82例分析

目的研究妇产科医疗纠纷鉴定案件的一般规律及其医疗过失的特点．为法医学鉴定提供理论支持。方法对2002--2008年在华西法医学鉴定中心鉴定的82例妇产科医疗纠纷医疗过失案例进行回顾性分析。结果妇产科医疗纠纷司法鉴定案例逐年增多;发生纠纷的医院以市（区）级与县级医院为多见,发生纠纷的案件中又以分娩和手术者为多见;医疗过失的主要原因为医疗技术缺陷与医疗管理缺陷。结论法医学鉴定时应参照临床医疗规范,考察医师义务履行情况,重点观察有无医疗技术缺陷或管理缺陷。     

An interlaboratory study to evaluate the utility of gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and gas chromatography-infrared spectroscopy spectral libraries in the forensic analysis of fentanyl-related substances

Synthetic opioids such as fentanyl account for over 71,000 of the approximately 107,000 overdose deaths reported in the United States in 2021. Fentanyl remains the fourth most identified drug by state and local forensic laboratories, and the second most identified drug by federal laboratories. The unambiguous identification of fentanyl-related substances (FRS) is challenging due to the absence or low abundance of a molecular ion in a typical gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis and due to a low number of fragment ions that are similar among the many potential isomers of FRS. This study describes the utility of a previously reported gas chromatography-infrared (GC-IR) library for the identification of FRS within a blind, interlaboratory study (ILS) involving seven forensic laboratories. Twenty FRS reference materials, including those with isomer pairs in the library, were selected based on either their presence in the NIST library and/or some similarity of the mass spectra information produced. The ILS participants were requested to use the Florida International University (FIU) GC-MS and GC-IR libraries supplied by FIU to search for matches to their unknown spectra generated from in-house GC-MS and GC-IR analysis. The laboratories reported improvement in the positive identification of unknown FRS from ~75% using GC-MS alone to 100% correct identification using GC-IR analysis. One laboratory participant used solid phase IR analysis, which produced spectra incompatible with the vapor phase GC-IR library to generate a good comparison spectrum. However, this improved when searched against a solid phase IR library.     

The Hierarchy of Case Priority (HiCaP):- A proposed method for case prioritisation in digital forensic laboratories

The need for digital forensic science (DFS) services has grown due to widespread and consistent engagement with technology by members of society. Whilst digital evidence often plays an important role in many inquiries, available investigative resources have failed to keep pace with such demand for them. As a result, the use case prioritisation models for backlog/workload management are of increasing importance to ensure the effective deployment of laboratory resources. This work focuses on the concept of ​​case prioritisation in a digital forensic laboratory setting, following the submission of exhibits for examination, where this workflow is described. The challenges of case management and prioritisation in laboratories are discussed, with both ‘case acceptance’ and ‘case prioritisation’ procedures explained. Finally, the ‘Hierarchy of Case Priority’ (HiCaP) - a transparent, risk-based approach for the prioritisation of cases for examination, is proposed and described using examples.     

A case of suicide disguised as natural death.

A case report describing the suicide of a physician classified initially as a natural death. Faced with the vehement protest of the family of the deceased the magistrate decided to request a 'preventive' forensic autopsy. Forensic investigations revealed the cause of death as being a pentobarbital intoxication and the circumstances favoured the hypothesis of a genuine suicide. This case illustrates that the tendency of magistrates to request or not an autopsy is related to their experience or intuition.     

Forensic Neuropsychology and Mild Traumatic Brain Injury

Over the last 20 years, the Courts and the legal community have increasingly relied on neuropsychologists to provide opinions, guidance, and expertise in the area of brain–behavior relationships. The purpose of this article is to review issues neuropsychologists commonly face when asked to evaluate cases with suspected mild traumatic brain injuries (TBI) in the civil or criminal legal context. In particular, we will discuss: (a) the neuropsychologist’s role in TBI forensic cases, (b) the attorney’s role in forensic TBI cases, (c) a neuropsychological framework to approach forensic mild TBI cases, (d) establishing working relationships with attorneys, (e) the Daubert and Frye standards, (f) symptom validity, (g) ethical issues, and (h) recommendations to improve the ecological validity of our tests and encourage test developers to provide alternate forms of tests.     

Report of the blind trial of the Cetus Amplitype HLA DQ alpha forensic deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) amplification and typing kit

The AmpliType HLA DQ alpha forensic DNA amplification and typing kit is designed for the qualitative analysis of the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) DQ alpha alleles present in deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) extracted from forensic samples. The AmpliType kit is the first forensic DNA typing product based on the GeneAmp polymerase chain reaction (PCR) process. The kit was evaluated by five forensic science laboratories (test sites) to assess their ability to perform DNA typing using PCR on sample types typically encountered by forensic laboratories. None of the DNA-containing samples was mistyped. Of the 180 DNA-containing samples analyzed, results were reported for 178 (98.9%). Of the 178 samples with results, all were correctly typed. Two sites did not report a result for one sample each. Four of the five laboratories experienced no significant levels of contamination in the DNA-containing samples. At the one site with the highest number of DNA-containing samples with contamination, the typing results were not compromised. This site was able to correct the contamination problem through simple procedural changes and stricter attention to sterile technique. Blank controls were important to monitor contamination. In conclusion, the trial demonstrated that forensic science laboratories are capable of setting up a PCR-based DNA typing laboratory and successfully using the AmpliType HLA DQ alpha forensic DNA amplification and typing kit to analyze forensic samples.     

The forensic expert witness--an issue of competency

Scientists submitting expert opinions within the legal system are expected to be knowledgeable in the forensic aspects of their particular science, as well as to be ethical and unbiased. Scientists are seldom able to decline a request to provide an expert opinion in their field, even when their forensic expertise is minimal. The competence of scientists providing expert opinions in forensic cases is reviewed here. Three examples of the perils of uninformed "expertise" in forensic biology, medicine and anthropology are presented.     

我国司法鉴定制度的改革与完善

司法鉴定制度改革与完善是深化司法体制改革的重点。科学合理的司法鉴定制度有利于认定案件事实,保障法律正确适用,实现社会公平正义。《全国人民代表大会常务委员会关于司法鉴定问题的决定》（以下称《决定》）实施以来,司法鉴定制度改革在取得阶段性成果的同时,在司法鉴定与诉讼制度、证据制度的衔接、相关制度的健全、传统观念的转变等方面仍需完善。本文就完善司法鉴定启动程序、司法鉴定权威性、鉴定人执业制度、执业监管制度的完善作了重点论述。