Blood on Black

Abstract

Accurately visualizing and documenting bloodstains and patterns is an integral part of crime scene investigation and can provide crucial information for both the analysis of evidence in the laboratory and crime scene reconstruction efforts. Visualization of bloodstains is trivial on white or lightly colored surfaces. However, on darkly colored or black surfaces, this visualization can be extremely difficult. The failure to visualize and thereby recognize blood and bloodstain patterns on darkly colored surfaces has had seriously adverse consequences for important criminal investigations. There are two aspects to the problem. First, the presence of blood may not be recognized at critical stages in the investigation. Second, where the presence of blood is recognized, the pattern of blood-staining may not be appreciated. Sampling of bloodstains for DNA typing and other analyses must take place with knowledge of the bloodstain patterns. Otherwise important information may be destroyed. In a significant number of cases knowing how the bloodstains were formed

INTRODUCTION

Stalking, as defined in the National Violence Against Women (NVAW) Survey, includes repeated (two or more) occasions of visual or physical proximity, nonconsensual communication, or verbal, written or implied threats that would cause fear in a reasonable person (Tjaden & Thoennes, 1998, 2000). Using this definition, the results of the NVAW telephone survey of 8000 U.S. women and 8000 U.S. men found 1% of the women and 0.4% of the men reported being stalked during the preceding 12 months. Eight per cent of these same women and 2% of the men reported life-long prevalence of stalking (Tjaden & Thoennes, 1998, 2000). The NVAW survey confirmed that most female victims know the stalker; strangers stalked only 23% of female victims. Overall, 62% of female victims were stalked by a current or former intimate partner, with 38% of the women reporting stalking by current or former husbands, 10% by current or former cohabiting partners, and 14% by current or