foster+freeman BLOG
Victim First Forensics: Focusing on the Victims of Crime
We often focus on the perpetrators of crime and how we can use modern technology to detect and examine the traces of evidence that will connect a criminal to their offence. But it is important to look at it with a different approach. We will be looking at crime with a victim-first approach; we will be putting the victim first and examining the effect that forensic investigations can have on the casualties of crime. More specifically, we will look at the ways CSIs, lab examiners, forensic nurses and other forensic professionals can utilise modern technology to put the well-being of the victim right at the centre of their investigation. The intention is to minimise any additional trauma or distress that may be caused to someone who’s already suffering as a victim of crime.Introduction
Identification of Bruises and Injuries
The utilization of a Crime-lite ALS significantly enhances the capacity of forensic examiners and nurses to identify and document injuries that may otherwise go unnoticed under standard lighting conditions. The application of UV or Violet illumination reveals subtle bruising and patterns of injuries that remain invisible to the naked eye, even after healing has occurred. This remarkable capability to penetrate through the layers of skin uncovers trauma long after its visible traces have seemingly vanished, providing a crucial advantage in piecing together the timeline of events in a crime.Pattern Recognition
In cases involving physical abuse or assault, the Crime-lite proves invaluable in pattern recognition, shedding light on specific details that might be overlooked under normal circumstances. Forensic professionals can highlight patterns such as fingerprints, fabric impressions, or tool marks by employing different light wavelengths. This not only aids in identifying potential assailants but also offers insights into the type of weapons involved in the commission of the crime. The enhanced visibility provided by Crime-lites significantly contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of the dynamics surrounding the incident, potentially leading to more accurate investigative outcomes.Detection of Body Fluids
Forensic nurses and dermatologists frequently encounter cases related to sexual assault or incidents involving bodily fluids. The Crime-lite ALS emerges as a critical tool in this context, enabling the detection of semen, saliva, urine, and other bodily fluids that may not be easily visible under normal lighting conditions. This capability facilitates the collection of pertinent evidence for further analysis, ensuring a thorough and comprehensive examination process. The use of ALS technology not only expedites the identification of relevant bodily fluids but also minimizes the risk of oversight, contributing to a more robust forensic investigation and bolstering the chances of justice prevailing in these sensitive cases.What is a SARC centre and what do they do?
“So when they come into the examination suite, they would change in the bathroom into a gown so that I can examine them top to toe for any injuries, record those on a body map and then usually at that point they will have given me a urine specimen as well when they’re changing. So that would generally be my first sample and then I would usually take swabs in the order that the FFLM guidelines for forensic examinations suggest. So once we’ve completed all the samples and finished that physical part of the examination, the client would then get dressed, go into another room and I would seal and bag and seal the sample. So, finish, labelling, bagging and sealing the samples and the crisis work will look after the client while I’m doing that. It is very common to have bruises that the clients say are bite marks, especially on the neck and breast. On female victims. Other very common bruises are if the assault has been violent in nature, there are quite often bruises over bony prominences, so knees, shins, hips, and elbows. Quite often, we might find fingerprint-type bruising on upper arms and round wrists if it’s been an outdoor assault. Quite often, people have abrasions from falling on the ground outside, or they’ve had to put their hands out if they’ve been pushed or something like that. Non intimate injuries, I would measure and draw badly, probably on a body map, really, just that a copy does get submitted to the police and that may be presented in the body maps. So I would measure the injury, record it on the relevant body diagram and describe it on the body diagram. But we don’t actually take photographs of non-intimate injuries. GIf it’s something that’s non intimate and obvious and the client is aware of, they say, Look, I’ve got this terrible mark on my neck, he bit me. They would hopefully have taken a photo. But if I find anything else, any bruises anywhere else, or abrasions or lacerations or anything that are non-intimate that the police haven’t photographed as part of my handover back to the police, I would say, right, there are some injuries that need photographing.
Can you arrange that? We can only record what we see at that moment on that day in that room, and we don’t have light sources to look for evidence on people that we could then swab. But we don’t use stains or lights, unusual lights. I think it’s kind of making sure that you really know what the story of what happened is. And that really helps the police and the scientists who are examining the samples to focus on those swabs that are most likely to give some evidence. As I say, we could just swab people from head to foot and submit hundreds of samples, but that’s not cost-effective, and it doesn’t help you to focus in on the most likely samples to test.”
Hearing those insights from a SARC professional, we were immediately struck by two things. One is the reliance upon swabbing for evidence and obviously, the fact that some evidence or some swabs may not even be processed due to cost implications. But I was also surprised to learn that many forensic nurses just don’t have the training or the expertise or the equipment to photograph injuries on victims and instead refer them back to the SOCO or police scene of crime. Officer, there’s a huge knowledge gap here, as well as a lack of training and equipment that could be solved quite easily through the introduction of a forensic light source. In any case, where the human body itself is the crime scene, a high-power fluorescent light source can be used to better visualise bite marks, bruising and puncture wounds as well as other traces of body fluids that might relate to a physical or sexual crime.Dr Scafide report
How can we find evidence of assault on the skin?
At foster+freeman, for many years, we have been advocating the use of forensic light sources for the use of identification of bruises on the skin. In 2022, Dr. Kathrine Scafide began developing a way to detect bruising on dark skin tones. When Dr Scafide was a forensic nurse examining a victim of an assault, Dr Scafide couldn’t find the bite mark her patient described; this was due to the patient having a darker skin tone, meaning that it was harder for a forensic examiner to spot any discolouration, bruising or bite marks. “Because pigment is closer to the surface of the skin than a bruise, in patients with darker skin tones, bruise detection with the naked eye can be difficult or impossible.”
This sparked inspiration with Dr Scafide, this made her pursue a PhD from John Hopkins University, while pursuing her PhD she conducted a year of research study and she came to a crucial discovery; Alternate light sources such as blue and purple light, which have shorter wavelengths, make bruises more visible on darker skin tones, allowing for victims of assault to document their injuries and seek justice more easily. We have used ALS for many years at the crime scene to detect all manner of forensic evidence, such as blood splatter, body fluids, gunshot residue and latent fingermarks. But what Dr Scafide couldn’t believe is that not many people thought to research how you can use and alternate light source to look at injuries on a person.Reducing the stress
Conclusion
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Crime-lite® X
Handheld, Multi-Spectral LED Light Source with Advanced Functionality: The biggest leap forward in Forensic Light Source technology for over 20 years.
A complete ALS kit in a single light source, the Crime-lite X enables the examiner to seamlessly switch between White, UV, Violet, Blue, Blue/Green, Green, Orange, Red, and Infrared LEDs, to perform a comprehensive multi-spectral examination of a crime scene. Operated via a simple 3-button interface, the Crime-lite X provides new functionality never seen before in a forensic light source that will ensure that crime scene and laboratory examiners reveal the maximum amount of evidence in every examination.