Bloodstains which result from an accident or criminal action may often allow an accurate reconstruction of the event that produced them. This chapter gives a brief introduction to bloodstain patterns and their interpretation. It is based upon physical laws and is illustrated with many examples that were produced in the laboratory as well as many case applications. A short history of this discipline is included as well as the physics of why blood behaves the way it does when being deposited on a surface or is acted upon by some external force.
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