Forensic sciences

This webinar highlighted the results of a full developmental validation of a method that estimates the A Posteriori Probability (APP) of the number of contributors in a DNA sample(NOC), and demonstrated that estimating the APP based on peak heights outperforms methods that rely on binary determinations alone. This presentation focused on including the true NOC in Likelihood Ratio interpretations and on repeatability.

This webinar was presented by the NIJ Forensic Technology Center of Excellence on July 14, 2020.

This webinar covered management challenges unique to a digital forensics unit in a laboratory and offer practical solutions to overcome these challenges.

This webinar was presented by the NIJ Forensic Technology Center of Excellence on July 1, 2020.
 

Residential structure fires are predominantly fueled by synthetic contents and commonly become ventilation-limited.  Therefore accounting for the impact of ventilation on fire is important. Examining flow paths within the structure can aide in fire pattern analysis.

This webinar was presented by the NIJ Forensic Technology Center of Excellence on June 10, 2020. 

Using a typical OEM paint system, the PDQ Maintenance Team will walk through the best practices to efficiently use the database and spectral libraries to identify the most likely source of an unknown paint system. Details gathered from this process include manufacturing plant, year range, and models.

This webinar discussed the role of emergent technologies for both separation and detection techniques employed in chromatographic systems to increase selectivity for the identification of emerging drugs. Techniques include supercritical fluid chromatography, multi-dimensional liquid chromatography, multi-modal liquid chromatography, nano liquid chromatography, vacuum ultraviolet detection, and cold electron ionization mass spectrometry.

This webinar was presented by the NIJ Forensic Technology Center of Excellence on March 19, 2020.

This presentation described, presented the results of, and discussed a recent black box study to establish an error rate estimate for palm comparisons. These results provided the first step in establishing the foundational validity of palmar comparisons, as defined by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) report.

This webinar was presented by the NIJ Forensic Technology Center of Excellence on March 12, 2020. 

Improving the overall response to sexual assault includes understanding how touch DNA evidence impacts groping sexual assault cases. This webinar will illustrate the importance of these cases and highlight proposed guidelines for evidence collection.

This webinar was presented by the NIJ Forensic Technology Center of Excellence on February 27, 2019.

This webinar built on the concepts presented in the webinar “The Time to Collect is Now: DNA Evidence in Groping Sexual Assault Cases” presented by Dr. Julie Valentine.

Awareness of how to provide culturally appropriate and trauma informed services to the American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) community is important for forensic examiners. This webinar discussed includes jurisdictional factors affecting examinations, pertinent laws to consider, and health care services that may be available to AI/AN populations.

This webinar was presented by the NIJ Forensic Technology Center of Excellence on February 27, 2020.
 

Given the vital role of medical examiners and coroners (ME/C) in recognizing emerging trends in drug overdose deaths, partnering epidemiologists with ME/C offices can greatly enhance the utility of the significant volume of data generated by medicolegal death investigation. Epidemiologists from three unique ME jurisdictions—North Carolina, New Mexico and Virginia—share their experiences with monitoring drug overdose deaths, trends observed, and how best to utilize ME/C data to inform public health policy.

This webinar, presented in four parts, provides a definition for the phrase “death in custody” and will describe all phases of custody. Additionally, the presenter will highlight case studies of deaths, including the five manners of deaths and a special focus on drug-related deaths. Lastly, he will provide a brief overview of the position paper issued in 2017 by the National Association of Medical Examiners (Academic Forensic Pathology, 2017). This paper outlined the best practices for examination, death determination, and manner of death classification.

This webinar, presented in four parts, provides a definition for the phrase “death in custody” and will describe all phases of custody. Additionally, the presenter will highlight case studies of deaths, including the five manners of deaths and a special focus on drug-related deaths. Lastly, he will provide a brief overview of the position paper issued in 2017 by the National Association of Medical Examiners (Academic Forensic Pathology, 2017). This paper outlined the best practices for examination, death determination, and manner of death classification.

This webinar, presented in four parts, provides a definition for the phrase “death in custody” and will describe all phases of custody. Additionally, the presenter will highlight case studies of deaths, including the five manners of deaths and a special focus on drug-related deaths. Lastly, he will provide a brief overview of the position paper issued in 2017 by the National Association of Medical Examiners (Academic Forensic Pathology, 2017). This paper outlined the best practices for examination, death determination, and manner of death classification.

This webinar, presented in four parts, provides a definition for the phrase “death in custody” and will describe all phases of custody. Additionally, the presenter will highlight case studies of deaths, including the five manners of deaths and a special focus on drug-related deaths. Lastly, he will provide a brief overview of the position paper issued in 2017 by the National Association of Medical Examiners (Academic Forensic Pathology, 2017). This paper outlined the best practices for examination, death determination, and manner of death classification.

Attendees will hear from experts in agricultural policy, hemp industry analytical testing, and the DEA Special Testing and Research laboratory to obtain a better understanding of the issues that have developed for forensic drug testing since the signing of the 2018 Farm Bill.  This webinar will provide a history of the Farm Bill as it relates to the legalities of hemp and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).  Information on farming and quality testing used by the hemp industry will be presented.

Crime laboratories are exposed to risks each and every day, and it is the job of organizational leaders to balance the severity of a consequence versus the frequency of occurrence, know the laboratory's risk exposure, and proactively mitigate that risk. This webinar will discuss accessing risk exposure, strategic planning, and managing change. Additionally, how to address the stress and anxiety associated with change will be discussed.

This webinar was presented by the NIJ Forensic Technology Center of Excellence on July 26, 2022. 

After the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (Farm Bill) was enacted in December 2018, many states rushed to make changes to their own laws to allow the hemp industry to grow and thrive in their jurisdictions. By removing hemp from the Controlled Substances Act, Cannabis sativa L. plant material with a concentration of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol less than 0.3% on a dry weight basis was no longer considered marijuana.

Legacy workflows in toxicology generally involve a drug class screen followed by a gas chromatography/mass spectroscopy (GC/MS) and liquid chromatography mass spectroscopy (LC/MS-MS) confirmation analysis. Additional techniques could also be used in workflows, but their applications were focused on specific drugs. In general, analyses were serial, limited, and often required multiple methods depending on the number of drug classes in the samples. Results required lengthy and costly workflows, especially when toxicologists were working with complicated samples.

In this webinar we discussed the theory and development of Investigative Genetic Genealogy, including some ethical and legal considerations raised by this technique.  Additionally, we explored the current status of case investigations, the impact on crime laboratories, implementation strategies, and recommendations for jurisdictions considering applying Investigative Genetic Genealogy to their unsolved cases.

This webinar was presented by the NIJ Forensic Technology Center of Excellence on January 23, 2020. 

In this webinar, we will discuss quality and accreditation, how they fit together, and the ASCLD Accreditation Roadmap and Toolkit.  We will also discuss the concepts of organizational transformation, organizational culture, and the cultivation of a quality culture in your laboratory. Lastly, we will review the various quality initiatives in forensics, including ISO TC 272, the Organization of Scientific Area Committees (OSAC) for Forensic Science, and the scientific and technical working groups (SWG/TWG).

This webinar presented the findings of the ASCLD/NIJ collaborative Gap Assessment of Stress, Vicarious Trauma and Resiliency for Forensic Science Professionals. The assessment gathered survey responses from forensic and medical examiner laboratories to evaluate vicarious trauma, burnout, job satisfaction, and participants perceptions of their organization’s resiliency efforts.  Our findings inform future directions in research, policy, and practice to better manage stress and increase resiliency among forensic professionals.