Topic: Class Characteristics

[Scott Doyle]

Class Characteristics started by Andrew Reitnauer
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Posted by: Andrew Reitnauer on Sep. 28 2003,21:32

I am a graduate student working on my thesis concerning the admissibility of firearm evidence using class charateristics (i.e. number of lands and grooves, width, caliber, shape of firing pin). Does anyone know of any professional treatises or resources that would be beneficial to me? Thank you for your help.
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Posted by: Andrew Stevens on Oct. 02 2003,21:02

The JOURNAL OF FORENSIC SCIENCE had an article regarding Firearms and Toolmark Identification within the last year which provided a comprehensive review of the current standards examiners use.  The review ended on a rather negative note stating, in essence that there had been much talk and little action on the part of firearms examiners to improve their evaluation--either quantitatively or qualititively.
Personally it's hard to argue with the authors of this article, because firearms and toolmark evaluations will always remain a "visual" comparison, even if using some highly sophisticated verification techniques later.
However, this article--which was an update of an even earlier article--is probably the best written on the subject to date.
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Posted by: Andrew Stevens on Oct. 17 2003,08:33

The exact citation for the reference--now that I have it:

Nichols, R.G., "Firearms and Toolmark Identification Criteria: A Review of the Literature, Part II," Journal of Forensic Sciences, Vol. 48, No. 2, March 2003, pp. 318-327.