Criminalistic laboratory techniques

Blood and bloodstain analysis. The Aerospace Corporation has completed a survey and technical assessment of the state-of-the-art of forensic serological practices in the United States. Problems have been defined which currently limit the utilization of blood characterization techniques, and approaches have been identified which have the potential of solving these problems. This assessment was accomplished primarily through contacts with criminalistics laboratories, blood banks, industrial organizations which manufacture instrumentation and reagents for blood identification, and through an extensive search of the literature. 

The final paper in this volume (Jones) is concerned with the application of a less familiar technique, photoluminescence, to a wide range of investigations, including sensitive firearm residue detection, the discrimination between different glass, polymer, and hair samples, and the identification of seminal stains. The promise here is of relatively inexpensive equipment with wide applicability in the criminalistics laboratory. 

Measures of effectiveness. Concurrent with the research to develop measures of performance, the Calspan Corporation has been developing techniques for measuring the effectiveness or impact of crime laboratories on the criminal justice system. Prior to this study the various uses of criminalistics in criminal justice operations have not been evaluated quantitatively and on a crime-specific basis. Even though crime laboratories have expanded and increased in number in recent years, there is little information which shows that the quality and scope of laboratory output is satisfying the practical needs and expectations of investigators, attorneys and the courts. 

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