Forensic geoscience and crime detection （法医检测地球科学和犯罪）.pdf

MINERVA MED LEG 2007;127:73-89 Forensic geoscience and crime detection Identification, interpretation and presentation in forensic geoscience R. M. MORGAN, P. A. BULL Forensic geoscience is based upon well establi- Oxford University Centre for the Environment shed ideas and analytical techniques developed University of Oxford, Oxford, UK throughout the 20th century. Recent advances in geological and chemical analytical techni- ques have enabled, for the first time, detailed soil and sediment assay which has been taken up particularly by British scientists. A conceptual cope with the ever increasing complexities of framework for forensic geoscience is reiterated data analysis and interpretation in order for which supports the positive development in the the results to be presented in an unbiased and future of forensic geoscience, soil and sediment analyses. However, this paper also seeks to hi- clear way to both judge and jury in a court of ghlight the pitfalls encountered in recent years: law. These problems are compounded in the use of analytical techniques that are depen- forensic geoscience by additional complica- dent upon one another; the dependence on the tions in data acquisition, analysis, interpreta- exotic components of a sample, whether they tion and presentation which are individual to are representative or not; the confusion between descriptive; exclusionary and diagnostic tech- this particular, rapidly expanding, field of niques, and the failure to comprehend the re- forensic enquiry. Inspection of the post-2000 quirement to exclude rather than to match com- scientific published literature confirms the ex- parison samples. Furthermor