Forensic Science Progress – serie

This series edited by forensic scientists, provides an overview of current knowledge in forensic sciences, by reviewing the progress in this rapidly growing field. Each volume provides an insight into the various aspects of this science. It is the belief of the editors, that every forensic worker should be informed about all branches of his science, even if he may very well be specialised in one or few of them. This research text on forensic science, toxicology, criminalistics is intended for scientists and practitioners in the above-mentioned fields, consultants and expert witnesses.

One of the surprising things about the natural world is that animals are dying around us all the time and yet we rarely see any evidence of it. This is a testimony to the efficiency of the large variety of organisms which decompose animal corpses. Whilst bacteria and fungi are the main groups involved in decomposition processes, the larger insects additionally provide an important physical disruption of body tissues, which aids the penetration of micro­ organisms and speeds the collapse of the body structure. A human corpse is treated no differently and the same groups of organisms are involved. From a forensic science viewpoint the universality of the decay process provides two major advantages. Information based on the decomposition of animals is of considerable value when considering human cases and the successional pattern of decay is broadly equivalent wherever the process is being studied. Historically, the usefulness of insects in solving crime can be traced back in the literature to the 13th century. McKnight [1, 2] translated a Chinese text of this period which contains an account of how a law officer dealt with a case of murder in the rice fields. Death had been caused by a sickle and the official ordered all the field workers to line up and lay their sickles on the ground in front of them. Flies began to be attracted to one of the sickles whereupon its owner confessed to the crime.

Among the sampies collected from the crime scene, tissue sampies such as bone, tooth, hair, nail, skin, muscle and others are very important trace evidence which provide us with available information for personal identification. In order to obtain such information, these tissue sampies should be thoroughly examined using conventional methods including morphology and histo-pathology as weIl as blood grouping. Through the methods described above, blood grouping will give us reliable informa­ tion for personal identification to a high degree of certainty. In order to succeed in determining blood groups from tissue sampies, the techniques used should be carefully selected because the content and the distribution of blood group substances are different for various tissue sampies. Moreover, blood group antigen activities are susceptible-to postmortem changes leading to the lowering of their activities. From this point of view, it is essential to adopt a specific and highly sensitive technique for grouping oftissue sampies for routine use. Depending on tissue conditions, adequate pre treatment of the sampies will be required for concentrating blood group substances. For routine blood grouping of tissue sampies, the absorption-inhibition, the hemagglutination-inhibition and the absorption-elution technique prevail and are most favoured in forensic science. In cases of single epithelial cells and extremely small tissue fragments, the mixed agglutination technique can be recommended. Adding to these routine methods, immunohistochemical techniques such as those using fluorescein-Iabelled antibodies, enzyme-Iabelled antibodies and ferritin-Iabelled antibodies have been recently applied to the blood grouping of tissue sampies.

Thermal analysis methods have been introduced into forensic sciences only in recent times. Though thermoanalytical instruments have been available commercially for some decades it was not until the beginning of the seventies that forensic scientists became interested in them. At that time some state forensic science laboratories in the Federal Republic of Germany made use of differential thermal analysis for forensic soil investigations. The forensic science section of the city police of ZUrich, Switzerland, applied an instrument (differential thermal analysis and thermogravimetry) for various purposes. Investigations of fibers by means of differential scanning calorimetry were reported by the Centre of Forensic Sciences at Toronto, Canada, and on the characterization of candle-waxes by differential thermal analysis by the Metropolitan Police Forensic Science Laboratory, London, England. Later on some other insti­ tutions like the Bundeskriminalamt at Wiesbaden, Germany, or the Home Office Central Research Establishment at Aldermaston, England, purchased instruments for one or more of the following thermal analysis methods: differential thermal analysis or differential scanning calorimetry, thermogravimetry, and thermomechanical analysis. . But even now thermoanalytical instruments are not widespread in forensic science institutes and knowledge of their forensic potential seems to be limited. In the following chapters we will give a survey of the most important thermal analysis methods mentioned above, and on current forensic applications and/or fields of actual research efforts.

Competitive binding techniques such as radioimmunoassay (RIA) are widely used to measure an enormous variety of compounds in biological fluids. Current methods have 1 2 arisen from the pioneering work ofYalow and Berson in the U. S. A. and Ekins in the u. K. Much of the early development was concerned with the analysis of protein hormones, and nearly a decade passed before attention focussed also on small molecules such as steroids and drugs. The potential of immunoassay methods for drug monitoring in clinical and forensic laboratories and in addict treatment programmes resulted in the commercial production of immunoassays for various therapeutic and abused drugs, making the technique available to laboratories lacking the facilities to raise their own antisera and synthesise labelled compounds. However, commercial assays are not only expensive but are restricted in range, and so it is advantageous for a forensic laboratory to have the capability to devise "in-house" immunoassays suited to its particular requirements. This chapter describes the theory and practice of RIA in forensic drug analysis. Much of the theory and some of the practice are applicable to immunoassays in which non­ isotopic labels are used, but such assays are not described in detail since, to date, the versatility and sensitivity of RIA have made it the immunoassay technique of choice in forensic toxicology. The particular advantages of RIA are its sensitivity and the fact that samples such as haemolysed blood can be assayed with little or no prior preparation.

Methamphetamine is one of the most widely abused stimulants and together with amphetamine has led to serious social problems. Numerous papers in the fields of medicine, toxicology, pharmacology, sociology, etc. have appeared. In Japan for example about 20,000 to 22,000 persons have been arrested in recent years on suspicion of abuse, smuggling or illegal manufacture of drugs. In other countries, stimulant drugs also present social problems and efforts have been directed toward prevention. Although marked development of analytical techniques in the field of forensic sciences has been achieved, there is a need for a continuous review of recent advances. A review of studies on methamphetamine has therefore been made from the standpoint of forensic toxicology and legal medicine. Attention has been directed to biological samples because analyses and interpretation for the purpose of t.oxicological and As a detailed survey on abuse drugs involving clinical practice are important. 1 methamphetamine and amphetamine has been made by Fishbein and covered the time before 1980, we refer only to data and events appearing after 1980.