Following are articles published by the National Institute of Justice
How Evaluation Toolkits Can Help Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner Programs Assess Their Impact
In this study, NIJ-funded researchers examined how Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners can use a practitioner-oriented evaluation toolkit to assess the impact of their programs.
Researchers Develop Insight Into Blood Droplet Behavior for Bloodstain Pattern Analysis
After analyzing individual blood droplets on inclined surfaces, researchers in this NIJ-funded project said measurements show the current standard method is accurate for drops that hit at right angles but has significant errors at shallow impact angles.
Researchers Improve Accuracy by Combining Testing Methods for Emerging Recreational Drugs
Researchers conducted a systematic study of microcrystalline tests for emerging illicit drugs and then examined the infrared spectra of the microcrystals to create a database to mitigate subjectivity of the tests.
Defining the Difficulty of Fingerprint Comparisons
Researchers create a metric to determine the difficulty of matching latent and known fingerprints, then link that difficulty to error rates.
Postconviction DNA Testing
Distinguishing Between Structurally Similar Designer Drugs Using an Advanced Method of Chromatography
Identifying a new drug that is very similar in structure to other drugs is important for investigators. Researchers in this project determined that these drugs may be better separated using ultra high-performance supercritical fluid chromatography.
Synthetic Cathinones Stored in Biological Evidence Can Be Unstable
Synthetic cathinones, a class of mood-altering stimulants popular among recreational drug users, can be unstable when stored in blood or urine samples, and may be problematic when used as evidence in court.