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Recent Advances in the Forensic Dating of Blood Traces: A Minireview

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Handbook of Bioanalytics

Abstract

The conviction that traces, revealed during the examination of the crime scene, are a testimony of the committed deeds is one of the pillars of modern forensic science. Among these traces is a group of evidence, which often acts as a main driving force behind the investigation process. Blood evidence – referred to above – cannot be wrong, as it does not forget or succumb to emotions, and the only factor that can diminish bloodstains’ evidential value are difficulties encountered while under investigation and interpretation. Unfortunately, the forensic arsenal of analytical methods enabling this examination is still incomplete. Modern forensic knowledge, which allows for such a comprehensive exploitation of bloodstain patterns, does not make full use of the information “recorded” in them. This is because, to date, no credible tool for estimating time elapsed since bloodstain deposition has been established. Since forensic scientists are well aware of the urgent need to develop a method capable of predicting the “age” of blood trace, a dramatic increase in interest for forensic dating studies has been observed. Over the past years (2010–2018), some noteworthy solutions have been delivered; thus, the objective of the following chapter is to provide a minireview of recently developed bloodstain dating methods, with a particular attention given to spectroscopy-based approaches.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Forensic Science Research Group, Institute of Chemistry, University of Silesia, Katowice, Poland

    Alicja Menżyk & Grzegorz Zadora

  2. Institute of Forensic Research, Kraków, Poland

    Alicja Menżyk & Grzegorz Zadora

Authors
  1. Alicja Menżyk
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  2. Grzegorz Zadora
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Correspondence to Grzegorz Zadora .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Environmental Chemistry and Bioanalytics, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Torun, Poland

    Bogusław Buszewski

  2. Department of Inorganic Chemistry, Analytical Chemistry and Electrochemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, Silesian University of Technology, Gliwice, Poland

    Irena Baranowska

Section Editor information

  1. Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Institute of Analytical Sciences and Physico-Chemistry for Environment (IPREM, UMR 5254 CNRS-UPPA), Pau, France

    Joanna Szpunar

  2. Faculty of Chemistry, Warsaw University of Technology, Warsaw, Poland

    Ryszard Łobiński

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Menżyk, A., Zadora, G. (2022). Recent Advances in the Forensic Dating of Blood Traces: A Minireview. In: Buszewski, B., Baranowska, I. (eds) Handbook of Bioanalytics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-95660-8_15

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