A Preliminary Evaluation Study to Determine the Effectiveness of Infra-Red Photography for the Rapid Visualization of Gun Shot Residue on Fabric

Rhodes C, Beavan E and Smith P

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Abstract

Infrared (IR) photography has been shown to be a proficient technique for the examination of documents, blood traces and ageing of skin injuries. However, its application in relation to the visualisation of latent Gunshot Residue (GSR) deposits has, until now, been significantly under researched. This paper evaluates the effectiveness of IR photography as a rapid technique for GSR visualisation on different fabric types.

The Attestor Forensics Scene View BV800 viewing system was used to visualise GSR deposits, produced by a Glock 17 9x19mm and 9mm Luger ammunition, on four different fabric types and at three firing distances of 50mm, 200mm and 1000mm. The results demonstrate that IR photography can produce comparable results to other GSR visualisation techniques, without the limitations of disturbing the sample’s structure or being obstructed by certain material types.

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This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License which permits unrestricted noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction, provided the original work is properly cited and not changed in any way.

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