The examination of material transferred between objects on contact, usually not visible to the naked eye and requiring specific tools and techniques to locate and recover, including fire debris, gunshot residue, glass fragments, fibers and hair, plus impression evidence such as tire tracks and footprints. The founding concept is Edmond Locard's early twentieth century exchange principle, that every contact leaves a trace.
Facts
What It ExaminesSourced to the subject's own accountMaterials transferred between objects on contact, including fire debris, gunshot residue, glass fragments and fibers, and impression evidence such as tire tracks and footprints. 1 Formalized YearSourced to the subject's own accountDates to Edmond Locard's founding of the world's first police forensic laboratory in Lyon in 1910, built on the exchange principle that already anchors this atlas's trace-evidence-analysis entry. Known LimitationA joint 2015 Department of Justice, FBI, Innocence Project and National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers review found that testimony in at least ninety percent of the trial transcripts examined under the FBI's microscopic hair comparison program contained erroneous statements, including in most of the cases that had resulted in a death sentence. 3 Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
Soil and sediment evidence is itself a form of trace evidence.
Informed By
Trace evidence analysis is the forensic discipline built directly on this principle.
Pioneered By
Trace evidence analysis rests on Locard's exchange principle, that every contact between objects leaves a trace.
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Trace Evidence
Opening sectionQuote, Opening section
Trace evidence occurs when objects make contact, and material is transferred. This type of evidence is usually not visible to the naked eye and requires specific tools and techniques to be located and obtained.
2. Wikipedia: Locard's exchange principle
2. Wikipedia: Locard's exchange principle
Informed By: Locard's Exchange Principle, opening paragraph, core maximQuote, Informed By: Locard's Exchange Principle, opening paragraph, core maxim
Every contact leaves a trace
3. Innocence Project: FBI Testimony on Microscopic Hair Analysis Review
April 20, 2015 statementQuote, April 20, 2015 statement
the FBI has concluded that the examiners' testimony in at least 90 percent of trial transcripts the Bureau analyzed as part of its Microscopic Hair Comparison Analysis Review contained erroneous statements.
Wikipedia: Forensic Geology
Open Questions (1 open question)
Does microscopic hair comparison meet a scientific reliability standard?
A joint FBI, Department of Justice and Innocence Project review found that FBI examiners had overstated the significance of microscopic hair comparison matches in the overwhelming majority of trial testimony and reports reviewed, in cases going back decades, including several that led to convictions later overturned by DNA evidence.
What would resolve this A published statistical error-rate study for microscopic hair comparison under blind proficiency testing, and a documented professional consensus on what conclusion language, if any, the method can support without DNA confirmation.
Forensic science standards and trace evidence analysisInnocence Project: FBI Testimony on Microscopic Hair Analysis Review
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