Interpretation of Glass Evidence

Forensic glass examinations—A review focused on elemental spectrochemical analysis

“…The prevalence of glass on members of the general population is a fundamental piece of evidence interpretation. The informative value of glass relies on experimental background surveys that have demonstrated that it is uncommon to find glass in the regular population compared to those who have come to the attention of law enforcement or have hobbies or professions where glass is often broken (Buzzini & Curran, 2020;Curran et al, 2020;Daéid et al, 2009;Jackson et al, 2013;Kim et al, 2016;O'Sullivan et al, 2011). These studies have also set the basis for which areas of clothing (surface vs. embedded areas, upper vs. lower garments) are more prone to retain randomly acquired glass fragments.…”

“…For instance, a large body of knowledge exists on the occurrence of glass in the general population compared to persons involved in crimes or those who have broken glass recently (Buzzini & Curran, 2020; Curran et al, 2020; Trejos et al, 2020). Likewise, extensive studies have evaluated the factors affecting glass transfer and persistence (Curran et al, 2020). Finally, substantial studies have demonstrated the discrimination capability, error rates, and sources of variation of the physical, optical, and chemical properties of glass (Trejos et al, 2020).…”

Using the likelihood ratio in bloodstain pattern analysis

“…Evaluations of activity do not only aim at associating evidence to a source, but also, and often mainly, consider the spatial motion or temporal modification of the evidentiary material. Examples are the assessment of DNA findings considering either a direct or a secondary transfer [38] or the assessment of fibers [39] or glass [40] if a given set of actions occurred. Consideration of activity relies both on databases of experimental cases and on models of the transport, transfer, or persistence phenomena involved, be they physical, chemical, or biological in nature.…”

Chemical characterization of automobile windshield glass samples for major, minor, and trace elemental concentration determination by INAA and its comparison with ED-XRF and DC Arc AES in terms of analytical capabilities and possible applications for glass forensics

“…40 Comprehensive reviews and other literature are also available in recent years. 35,41–44 This revealed that the elemental characterization of glass matrix is of high importance and high relevance even in today's scenario. Moreover, none of the reports were seen in the literature since early 90s, where NAA was used for elemental characterization of glass with potential importance to forensics.…”