Forensic Science Review

Reducing impaired driving requires a systematic, consistent, and multifaceted approach. There is strong evidence on the effectiveness of both direct and indirect measures. The strategy that has the most immediate and largest impact has been highly publicized, visible, and frequent impaired-driving enforcement, especially deploying sobriety checkpoints or random breath testing. Lowering legal blood alcohol concentration (BAC) limits for driving to 0.05 g/dL or lower has also had a world-wide impact. Raising the legal drinking age has been successful in the US and other countries in reducing young impaired-driver fatal crashes...

Experimental, epidemiological, and real-case studies have different advantages and limitations when used to study the effect of substance use on the risk for involvement in a road traffic crash. It is easier to perform well-controlled experimental studies than well-controlled epidemiological studies due to difficulties related to selection bias, information bias, and confounding. On the other hand, it is difficult or impossible to perform experimental studies using single and repeated substance doses similar to those used by drivers and problematic drugs users...

Important events in the history of driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI) and/or other drugs (DUID) are reviewed covering a period of approximately 100 years. This coincides with major developments in the pharmaceutical industry and the exponential growth in motor transportation worldwide. DUID constitutes an interaction between the driver, the motor-driven vehicle, and one or more psychoactive (mind-altering) substances. In this connection, it is important to differentiate between drugs intended and used for medical purposes (prescription or licit drugs) and recreational drugs of abuse (illicit drugs)...

Cyanide (CN) is one of the most toxic of all substances and can be found in various natural and anthropogenic sources. Sensitive and effective methods for the confirmation of CN exposure are crucial in medical, military, and forensic settings. Due to its high volatility and reactivity, direct detection of CN from postmortem samples could raise inconclusive interpretation issues that may hinder accurate determination of the cause of death. The detection of the alternative CN metabolites as markers to test CN exposure may offer a solution to reduce the potential for false-negative and false-positive results...

As a forensic science, fire investigation involves a wide variety of disciplines and thus attracts an equally wide variety of practitioners. These range from fire protection engineers who may only occasionally engage in forensic work to law enforcement officers, laboratory chemists, metallurgists, and materials engineers. This breadth of practice has resulted in a checkered history, which only relatively recently has given science a full-throated embrace. Because of the stakes involved, fires provide a rich source of material for litigation, both civil and criminal...

The aim of this paper is to highlight the symptomatology in three Conium maculatum intoxication incidents, one of which was fatal. A number of studies were reviewed in order to update and summarize the relevant literature on the incidence, sociodemographic variables, method of poisoning, pathophysiology, diagnosis, variables associated with survival and fatality, management, and treatment of C. maculatum intoxication as well as the biosynthesis and biological effects of poison hemlock alkaloids. Results show that hemlock poisoning is relatively rare, although incidence varies in different regions, despite its worldwide distribution...

There have been several significant advances in Raman spectroscopy instrumentation during the past few decades, and this method is now a fully mature analytical technique on par with its counterpart, infrared spectroscopy. The latter method experienced a quantum leap in use in the forensic science laboratory following the introduction of inexpensive FT-IR spectrometers in the 1980s, but forensic scientists have been slower to embrace Raman spectroscopy. However, this promising technique is finally making some inroads into the forensic science laboratory, and to facilitate this process, this article presents a comprehensive review of Raman spectroscopy; it emphasizes how and why this underutilized method can be a very valuable tool for the analysis of a wide variety of evidentiary materials...

There have been several significant advances in Raman spectroscopy instrument technology during the past few decades, including the introduction of several new laser sources, the development of holographic gratings, efficient Rayleigh line rejection filters, and CCD array detectors, and the advent of FT-Raman spectrometers. In view of these developments, Raman spectroscopy is now a fully mature analytical technique on par with its counterpart, infrared spectroscopy. The latter technique experienced a quantum leap in use in the forensic science laboratory following the introduction of inexpensive FT-IR spectrometers in the 1980s, but forensic scientists have been slower to embrace Raman spectroscopy...

The accuracy of textile damage analyses was evaluated by laboratory tests carried out by trained experts. The analyzed damages were prepared by various methods, including stabbing, cutting, shooting, heating/burning, etc. A number of damages were aged by household washing and tumble-drying procedures, addition of blood, or burying. The samples were analyzed by routine laboratory evaluation. The results indicate that the properties of a damage provide a good indication of the way a textile had been damaged. Nevertheless, scoring of the answers is not straightforward...

Cannabinoids including, but not limited to Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol, 11-hydroxytetrahydrocannabinol, and (-)-11-nor-Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol-9-carboxylic acid are known to toxicologists and synthetic chemists as difficult compounds because they are subject to numerous degradative pathways. It is the purpose of this short review article to discuss common pathways that result in the disappearance of cannabinoids - such as conjugate formation, adsorption to surfaces, chemical reactions, microbial action, thermal decomposition, chemical bonding, photosensitivity, sample handling, analytical methodology, and micelle trapping - and to point out possible ways to avoid such degradation...

This paper surveys the literature on forensic face recognition (FFR), with a particular focus on the strength of evidence as used in a court of law. FFR is the use of biometric face recognition for several applications in forensic science. It includes scenarios of ID verification and open-set identification, investigation and intelligence, and evaluation of the strength of evidence. We present FFR from operational, tactical, and strategic perspectives. We discuss criticism of FFR and we provide an overview of research efforts from multiple perspectives that relate to the domain of FFR...

This review describes the social and ethical responses to the history of innovations in forensic genetics and their application to criminal investigations. Following an outline of the three recurrent social perspectives that have informed these responses (crime management, due process, and genetic surveillance), it goes on to introduce the repertoire of ethical considerations by describing a series of key reports that have shaped subsequent commentaries on forensic DNA profiling and databasing. Four major ethical concerns form the focus of the remainder of the paper (dignity, privacy, justice, and social solidarity), and key features of forensic genetic practice are examined in the light of these concerns...

Individual age estimation is a key factor in forensic science analysis that can provide very useful information applicable to criminal, legal, and anthropological investigations. Forensic age inference was initially based on morphological inspection or radiography and only later began to adopt molecular approaches. However, a lack of accuracy or technical problems hampered the introduction of these DNA-based methodologies in casework analysis. A turning point occurred when the epigenetic signature of DNA methylation was observed to gradually change during an individual´s lifespan...

A literature review of cases of acute poisoning by copper sulfate was conducted, emphasizing therapeutic interventions, and a new fatality case is reported. Specifically, the relevant literature was reviewed for incidence rates, sociodemographic variables, pathophysiology, diagnosis, prognosis, and therapeutic outcome of copper sulfate poisoning. Results conclude that copper sulfate poisoning incidence varies in different regions. It is rare in western countries, while it is very common in South Asian countries...

This review explores the key factors that influence the optimization, routine use, and profile interpretation of the SNaPshot single-base extension (SBE) system applied to forensic single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotyping. Despite being a mainly complimentary DNA genotyping technique to routine STR profiling, use of SNaPshot is an important part of the development of SNP sets for a wide range of forensic applications with these markers, from genotyping highly degraded DNA with very short amplicons to the introduction of SNPs to ascertain the ancestry and physical characteristics of an unidentified contact trace donor...

Currently, hair can be reliably tested for the presence of drugs. However, one major drawback to the use of parent drugs is the question of potential external or environmental contamination. The analysis of metabolites to confirm the use of the parent drugs was proposed in this short review. The development of hair as a test matrix and the incorporation of xenobiotics, in general, into the hair matrix were discussed. What constitutes an appropriate metabolite for drug testing to mirror the use of a parent drug was proposed and discussed...

Synthetic cannabinoids, which began proliferating in the United States in 2009, have gone through numerous iterations of modification to their chemical structures. More recent generations of compounds have been associated with significant adverse outcomes following use, including cognitive and psychomotor impairment, seizures, psychosis, tissue injury and death. These effects increase the urgency for forensic and public health laboratories to develop methods for the detection and identification of novel substances, and apply these to the determination of their metabolism and disposition in biological samples...

Experimental studies on the impairing effects of drugs of relevance to driving-related performance published between 1998 and 2015 were reviewed. Studies with on-the-road driving, driving simulators, and performance tests were included for benzodiazepines and related drugs, cannabis, opioids, stimulants, GHB, ketamine, antihistamines, and antidepressants. The findings in these experimental studies were briefly discussed in relation to a review of epidemiological studies published recently. The studies mainly concluded that there may be a significant psychomotor impairment after using benzodiazepines or related drugs, cannabis, opioids, GHB, or ketamine...

Trends in the use of alcohol and drugs among motor vehicle drivers in Australia, Brazil, Norway, Spain, and the United States have been reviewed. Laws, regulations, enforcement, and studies on alcohol and drugs in biological samples from motor vehicle drivers in general road traffic and fatal road traffic crashes (RTCs) are discussed. Roadside surveys showed a reduction of drunk driving over time in the studied countries; however, the pattern varied within and between different countries. The reduction of alcohol use may be related to changes in road traffic laws, public information campaigns, and enforcement, including implementation of random breath testing or sobriety checkpoints...

Utilizing chemical derivatization (CD) to improve gas chromatographic (GC) and GC-mass spectrometric (MS) analysis of drugs has been abundantly studied and widely practiced, while in liquid chromatography (LC) and LC-MS, application of CD approaches is still at an early stage. Silylation, acylation, and alkylation are common CD reactions, long adopted by GC and GC-MS (including GC-MS/MS) methodologies, to improve analytes' stability and/or to optimize their extraction/separation and detection efficiencies. Highly polar and nonvolatile analytes are not amenable to GC-MS analysis without the CD step; however, CD can improve LC-MS analysis of highly polar analytes, especially those with low molecular weights...