Casework Flashcards by Siân Pendleton

Order of examination notes (7)

Description, condition, damage, hairs & fibres, debris recovery, body fluids, DNA recovery

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What colour is blood, saliva and semen in notes?

Blood - Red
Saliva - Blue
Semen - Purple

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What shape does blood always travel as?

Sphere

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3 body fluid detection methods

Visual, microscopic and chemical

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2 presumptive tests for blood

Kastle Meyer test (km)
Leucomalachite Green (lmg)

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What can be used to find hidden blood?

Luminol

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3 blood tests

Spot test
Screening test
Direct test

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What 3 documents cannot be taken to court?

Emails
Forensic report
SFR

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What MG is an SFR

MG22 (a)

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What is an SFR?

Revised case management procedure for producing forensic evidence in court

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What MG will a police officer fill out?

MG21

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What 2 categories can trace evidence be separated into?

Particulates and non particulates

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What is the quality management system?

Compromises the quality, administration and technical systems that govern the operations of a laboratory

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UKAS number for Laboratories

17025

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UKAS number for crime

17020

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Who made the codes of practice and conduct?

Forensic science regulator

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When to use aluminium fingerprint powder?

Smooth surfaces; glass or surfaces which are not silver or dark

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When to use black magnetic powder?

Smooth u-pvc or textured surfaces which are not black

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When to use black granular powder?

Smooth, silver metal

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When to use magneta flake?

Smooth or textured surfaces as long as it is dark or similar coloured

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When to use white magnetic powder?

Dark textured surfaces

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What brush do you apply granular powders with?

Animal hair brush

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Which fingerprint powder cannot be lifted?

Granular powders

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What to use Ninhydrin on?

Paper

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What to use superglue treatment on?

Non porous surfaces

Non porous fingerprint techniques

Sudan black (solvent black 3) Small particle reagent (spr) Gentian violet

Porous fingerprint techniques

Ninhydrin Diazafluoren (DFO) Physics developer (PD)

What surface to use vacuum metal deposition on?

Non porous surfaces

What did the AFR turn into?

NAFIS - National automated fingerprint identification system

What are the 3 main fingerprint patterns?

Loops, whorls and arches

What are the 3 types of loop patterns?

Plain, converging and nutant

What are the 2 types of arches?

Plain and tented

What are the 5 types of whorls?

Spiral, twinned loop, lateral pocket, composite and accidental

What is a ridge ending?

The ending of a ridge

What is bifurcation?

When a ridge splits in two

What is a lake?

A gap in the ridges

What is a spur?

A bifurcation with a short ridge branching into a long ridge

What are the 2 fixed points in a fingerprint?

Core and delta

What is a porous surface?

Something that water can penetrate

What is a non porous surface?

Something that water cannot penetrate

What is the cuticle of a hair?

The outside of the hair

What is the cortex of a hair?

The colour of the hair

What is the medulla of a hair?

The centre of the hair

What does the cuticle of a human hair look like?

Smooth

What does the cuticle of an animal hair look like?

Spikey/scaley

What has a coronal hair type?

Animals

What has a spinous hair type?

Animals

What has an imbricate hair type?

Humans

Describe how coronal, spinous and imbricate hairs look

Coronal - crown like Spinous - petal like Imbricate - flattened

What does banding mean in a hair?

It’s an animal hair

What does it mean if the pigment is concentrated in the centre of the hair?

It’s likely human hair

What does it mean if the pigment is all over the hair?

It’s likely an animal hair

What to are the 5 types of medullas you can see?

Continuous, interrupted, fragmented, solid and none

Life cycle of a hair

Anagen, Catagen and telogen

Describe the anagen stage of a hair

The beginning of a hair, 2-5 years

Describe the catagen stage of a hair

Starts to die, 6 weeks

Describe the telogen stage of a hair

Dead hairs, 100 days

What stage of hair is good for DNA?

Anagen and catagen

What shape do animal hairs have?

Spear like shape

Difference between the root of a cat hair and a dog hair

Cat hair roots are frayed at the bottom whereas dog hair roots are spear shaped

What shape is the end of a human hair likely to look like?

Tapered due to the nature of humans having their hair cut somewhat regularly

Which ISO allows for an element of “professional judgement”?

ISO 17020 (crime)

What medulla is a human likely to have?

Continuous

What medulla is an animal likely to have?

Patterned

What medulla can appear in both animals and humans

Fragmented (more likely in humans but present in animals nonetheless)

Key feature of pubic hair

Buckling

Key sign of fire damage on a hair

Air sacs

What does it mean if a medulla is 0.5 or more??

Likely animal

3 categories of natural fibres

Animal, vegetable and mineral

3 categories of man made fibres

Synthetic, natural polymers and other artificial fibres

2 types of natural polymer fibres

Regenerated fibres (made from natural polymers) and derived fibres (made from chemically modified natural polymers)

What kind of fibre (appearance) does a man made fibre have?

Filament fibre

What kind of fibre (appearance) does a natural fibre have?

Staple

Appearance of a cotton fibre

Twisted

Appearance of a linen fibre

Bamboo like / striations

Appearance of asbestos

Laser like

Appearance of nylon fibres

Trilobe cross section

4 key features of man made fibres

Uniform diameter, lustrous, smooth surface and potentially infinite length

What is the NFRC?

National footwear reference collection

How to begin an examination?

Case assessment, MG21, HD & HP, clean bench, note taking

What is HD?

Defence hypothesis (perpetrator not the suspect)

What is HP?

Prosecution hypothesis (perpetrator is the suspect)

Order of footprint examinations and preservations (inc. oil)

Photography, ESLA before gel lift, acetate ontop of gel lift. If oil print, magnetic powder then hairspray.

False positives of Luminol

Bleach, Gloss

What is ESLA?

Electrostatic lifting apparatus

What is ESDA?

Electrostatic detection apparatus

What is TLC?

Thin Line Chromatography

What is gravure?

Raised/imprinted writing

Level 1 security feature

Overt - authenticated using naked eye, no tools needed

Level 2 security feature

Covert - ultraviolet images, hidden text or images

Level 3 security feature

Forensic - only viewed using microscopes/specialised equipment in labs. Include nanotech and nano images, document DNA or substrate analysis