TY - JOUR
T1 - Comparison of handmarks in manual strangulation
T2 - an experimental study
AU - Kristensen, Mie E
AU - Lynnerup, Niels
AU - Sejrsen, Birgitte
N1 - Keywords: Asphyxia; Forensic Medicine; Hand; Humans; Male; Neck
PY - 2006
Y1 - 2006
N2 - A police case with a strangulated woman with fingermarks on the neck and two suspects identifying each other as the perpetrator set off a laboratory experiment. Twenty-one males participated in the study. Blue paint was applied to their fingers, after which they grasped a neck dummy and pressed hard as if strangulating someone. The imprint was removed from the dummy, and their hands were photographed. Five imprints were randomly chosen and superimposed on the hand photographs in blind trials. In no cases did we match an imprint to the correct hand. However, in four cases we matched the imprint with several hands, one of which was the correct one. This means we were able to exclude nonmatches in 4/5 cases. Overall, matching of hands and fingermarks is difficult and inconclusive. Objective criteria for matching are difficult to establish, and matching is probably best suited for cases with specific anatomical features.
AB - A police case with a strangulated woman with fingermarks on the neck and two suspects identifying each other as the perpetrator set off a laboratory experiment. Twenty-one males participated in the study. Blue paint was applied to their fingers, after which they grasped a neck dummy and pressed hard as if strangulating someone. The imprint was removed from the dummy, and their hands were photographed. Five imprints were randomly chosen and superimposed on the hand photographs in blind trials. In no cases did we match an imprint to the correct hand. However, in four cases we matched the imprint with several hands, one of which was the correct one. This means we were able to exclude nonmatches in 4/5 cases. Overall, matching of hands and fingermarks is difficult and inconclusive. Objective criteria for matching are difficult to establish, and matching is probably best suited for cases with specific anatomical features.
U2 - 10.1111/j.1556-4029.2006.00076.x
DO - 10.1111/j.1556-4029.2006.00076.x
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 16566775
VL - 51
SP - 381
EP - 385
JO - Journal of Forensic Sciences
JF - Journal of Forensic Sciences
SN - 0022-1198
IS - 2
ER -