The interpretation of elemental composition measurements from forensic glass evidence III.

In this paper we introduce a permutation testing approach to the interpretation of evidence which consists of elemental composition measurements, with glass evidence as an example. This work extends previous work of Curran et al. [J.

Compositional data analysis for elemental data in forensic science.

Discrimination of material based on elemental composition was achieved within a compositional data (CoDa) analysis framework in a form appropriate for use in forensic science. The methods were carried out on example data from New Zealand nephrite. We have achieved good separation of the in situ outcrops of nephrite from within a well-defined area.

Analysis of condom lubricants for forensic casework.

The detection of DNA is inhibited in cases of sexual assault involving condom use. Trace evidence, including condom lubricant residues, provides crucial associative evidence in such cases. The existing Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) methods for lubricant analysis and detection are limited with regard to sensitivity and discrimination.