foster+freeman, Vale Park, Evesham, Worcestershire, WR11 1TD, United Kingdom.
foster+freeman, Vale Park, Evesham, Worcestershire, WR11 1TD, United Kingdom.
Sci Justice. 2022 May;62(3):365-376. doi: 10.1016/j.scijus.2022.03.010. Epub 2022 Mar 30.
Forensic recovery from fired ammunition casings remains one of the most challenging tasks during high-profile investigations. Often, the decision must be made between screening for DNA or fingerprints, and, in doing so, the impact these processes will have on the examination of ballistic markings imparted on the ammunition from the firearm itself. Traditionally, fingermark enhancement processes have yielded low success rates in their efforts to identify suspects by enhancing friction ridge detail left on the cartridge casings. Moreover, the enhancement methods utilised may often induce detrimental physical changes to the casing(s), rendering them unsuitable for subsequent ballistics (marking) examination. Recently, new technology has been shown to increase the success rate of fingermark recovery from fired ammunition, and the growing adoption of such innovation means that new challenges are encountered to maximise evidence recovery and streamline forensic workflows. One such example arises from the potential obscuration of the ammunition headstamp area during such treatments. Accordingly, this study outlines the preliminary investigations and developments of a polymer mask substrate that serves to protect the headstamp of fired ammunition casings during relevant fingermark enhancement processes. The technique also has the capacity to be used as a surface protection device to eliminate unwanted chemical deposition across other areas of interest and evidence types.
从射击后的弹药筒中进行法医取证仍然是备受瞩目的调查中最具挑战性的任务之一。通常，必须在筛选 DNA 或指纹之间做出决定，并且在这样做的过程中，这些过程会对从枪支本身施加在弹药上的弹道标记的检查产生影响。传统上，指纹增强过程在通过增强遗留的弹药筒上的摩擦脊细节来识别嫌疑人方面的成功率较低。此外，所使用的增强方法可能经常会对弹药筒造成有害的物理变化，从而使它们不适合随后的弹道（标记）检查。最近，新技术已被证明可以提高从射击后的弹药中恢复指纹的成功率，并且这种创新的日益普及意味着会遇到新的挑战，以最大限度地提高证据的回收并简化法医工作流程。其中一个例子是在进行此类处理时，弹药头部区域可能会被遮挡。因此，本研究概述了一种聚合物掩模基底的初步调查和开发情况，该基底在相关的指纹增强过程中用于保护射击后的弹药筒的头部。该技术还可以用作表面保护装置，以消除其他感兴趣区域和证据类型上不需要的化学沉积。
