FORENSIC PHYSICS (CUTM 2313)

Course Name: Forensic Physics

Code(Credits): CUTM2313 (3+2+0)

Course Objective

• To understand the management of physical evidences
• Formulation of hypothesis and processing of physical evidence to FSL

Course Outcomes

• To understand the formulation of hypothesis and processing of evidence to FSL
• To understand the importance of physical evidences in Forensic Physics
• Analyse the different types of physical evidences like glass, paint, soil
  found in the crime scene
• To understand the tools and tool marks analysis in FSL

Syllabus

Unit 1: Introduction & Examination of Trace Evidences
Physical properties of materials: temperature, weight and mass, density, refractive index and their forensic importance.
Soil: Significance of soil evidence, Variations in soil, Collection and preservation of soil evidence, Forensic examination of soil.
Fibre: Types, Identification and comparison of manufactured fibres (Microscopic examination, Dye composition, Chemical composition, Other properties for examination), Significance of match, Collection and preservation of fibre evidence. Forensic examination of cloth and cloth fibres.
Paint: Composition of paint, Classification of common paints, Pigment Volume concentration number, Microscopic examination of paint, Analytical tools used in paint comparison, significance of paint evidence, collection and preservation of paint evidence. Forensic examination of paint.

Unit 2: Examination of Glass & Plastic Evidences
Composition of glass, Comparison of glass fragments, Measuring and comparing density and refractive index of glass, classification of glass samples, Glass fractures, Collection and preservation of glass evidence.
Plastic: Classification of plastics according to thermal and mechanical property, Plastics in common use.

Unit 3: Footwear Impressions
Casting 3-D Footwear Impressions: Introduction to casting, Importance of casting, Benefits of casts over photographs, casting materials, Methods of casting with dental stone, Casting footwear impressions in snow. Treatment of 2-D Footwear Impressions: Lifting 2-D footwear impressions, Lifting impressions electro statically and electrostatic lifting devices, Gelatine and adhesive lifting, Other lifting materials and choices, Powdering impressions, Deformable impressions, Impressions on carpets, cushions, grass and skin. Enhancement of Footwear Impressions: Specialized lighting and photographic methods, Chemical enhancement, Other enhancement techniques.

Unit 4: Causes and Investigation of Vehicular Accidents
Road Terminologies: Cut, Final Grade, Surface, Existing Grade, Fill, Sub grade, Base, Traffic lane, Travelled way, Shoulders, Roadbed, Roadway, Roadway ditch, Ditch slope, Back slope, Fill slope, Interceptor ditch, Slope ratio, Central line, Crown, Super elevation, Road dividers. Road signs, symbols and traffic control mechanisms. Vehicular accidents: Primary causes of road accident, Types of road accident, sources of information, eye witnesses, Tire and other marks, Pedestrian impacts and vehicle speed, vehicle condition, vehicle speed and damage, types of skid marks, curved scuffmarks, speed estimation from skid/scuffmarks. Time and distance, reaction time and peripheral vision of a driver, Photography and plans, Brake system and Steering failure, Motor vehicle examination.
Rail Accidents: Investigation of rail crash: Criminal and safety investigation, Investigation principles, Best Practices: rail company tests, inspection of driving cab, examination of electrical/electronic/technological system and their failure. Necessary equipments required for forensic examination.
Forensic investigation of Aeroplane accident.

Unit 5: Fundamentals of Speech Recognition
Forensic Speaker Identification: Introduction and scope of forensic speaker identification, speaker identification vs. Speaker verification. Human vocal tract, production and description of speech sound, acoustic characteristics of speech signal, introduction to phonetics and its importance in forensic speaker
identification, International Phonetics Alphabets (IPA) and its symbolic representation. Methods of speaker identification, open and close set, sound spectrograph and its analysis, analysis of vowel and consonant sound.
Voice evidence: collection of voice samples, examination and formation of opinion in terms of probability scale, presenting evidence in court of law in view of forensic speaker identification. Recent advancements: Automated speaker identification: text dependent and text independent approach. Tools used for speaker identification.

Unit 6: Tools and Tool Mark analysis
Common Hand Tools-Levers (screw drivers, crow bars, pry bars, nail pullers, pinch bars, moulding bar, wrecking bar), Hand saw (Rip saw, cross cutting saw, bow saw, teeth saw, compass saw, dip cut, coping saw, wall board saw, bow saw, hacksaw, chisel teeth saw, coarse cut carpenter saw), Striking Tools
(Hammers, Hatches and Axes), Grasping Tools (Wrenches, Vise - grips, Pliers), Cutting Tools (Metal snips, wire cutters, bolt and cable cutters), Crimping Tools, Knives, Scissors and shears, Chisels and punches, Drill bits.
Tool Marks: Marks made by hand tools (Impression / compression marks, dent, saw marks, drill marks and holes, punctures, point to point blade cut marks, scratch and scour marks. Collection and documentation of tool marks. Restoration of erased marks

Unit 7: Automobiles, Appliances and their Failure
Automobiles- Vehicles manufactured in India, Components of automobile, Chassis, body, chassis frame, general assemblies of chassis and their functions, Various identification numbers, Head lights, Tail lights and Indicators, Types of automobiles, Technical terms- wheel base, thread width, turning radius, ground clearance, variants. Safety standards for cars, Suspension system, Steering system, Brake system and testing of brakes, Tyre and rims, Two stroke and four stroke engines and their comparison. Appliances and Equipment Failure- Kitchen and House hold appliances like- stoves, Refrigerators, Washers / Driers, Coffee makers, Fans and Heaters, Television and VCRs. HVAC Systems like Furnace humidifiers and Furnaces, Air conditioner, Fire places and water heaters, Pumps, generators and motors, Boilers, welding failure, swimming pool failure.

Session Plan

Session 1

Physical properties of materials: temperature, weight and mass, density, refractive index and their forensic importance

https://www.slideshare.net/mdonohue/physical-evidence

Soil: Significance of soil evidence, Variations in soil, Collection and preservation of soil evidence.

https://www.slideshare.net/annperry09/soil-evidence

Session 2

Forensic Examination of Soil

https://www.slideshare.net/TejasviBhatia/soil-as-forensic-evidence

Session 3

Fibre: Types, Identification and comparison of manufactured fibres (Microscopic examination, Dye
composition, Chemical composition, Other properties for examination), Significance of match,
Collection and preservation of fibre evidence. Forensic examination of cloth and cloth fibres.

https://www.slideshare.net/ShreyasPatel62/forensic-fiber-analysis

Session 4

Paint : Composition of paint, Classification of common paints, Pigment Volume concentration number,
Microscopic examination of paint, Analytical tools used in paint comparison

https://www.slideserve.com/harvey/chapter-11-forensic-examination-of-paint

significance of paint
evidence, collection and preservation of paint evidence. Forensic examination of paint.

https://www.slideshare.net/VaishnaviBorse8/paints-as-evidence

Session 5

Composition of glass, Comparison of glass fragments, Measuring and comparing density and refractive
index of glass, classification of glass samples, Glass fractures, Collection and preservation of glass
evidence.

https://www.slideshare.net/annperry09/glass-evidence

Session 6

Plastic: Classification of plastics according to thermal and mechanical property, Plastics in common use

https://www.slideshare.net/SIDDIQSALIM1/plastic-68231716

Session 7

Casting 3-D Footwear Impressions: Introduction to casting, Importance of casting, Benefits of casts
over photographs, casting materials, Methods of casting with dental stone, Casting footwear impressions in snow.

Enhancement of Footwear Impressions: Specialized lighting and photographic methods, Chemical
enhancement, Other enhancement techniques.

https://www.slideshare.net/SURYAKANTMISHRA3/forensic-analysis-of-foot-wear-impression

Session 8

Treatment of 2-D Footwear Impressions: Lifting 2-D footwear impressions, Lifting impressions electro
statically and electrostatic lifting devices, Gelatine and adhesive lifting, Other lifting materials and
choices, Powdering impressions, Deformable impressions, Impressions on carpets, cushions, grass and
skin.

https://www.slideshare.net/TejasviBhatia/forensic-evidence

Session 9

Road Terminologies: Cut, Final Grade, Surface, Existing Grade, Fill, Sub grade, Base, Traffic lane,Travelled way, Shoulders, Roadbed, Roadway, Roadway ditch, Ditch slope, Back slope, Fill slope,Interceptor ditch, Slope ratio, Central line, Crown, Super elevation, Road dividers. Road signs, symbols and traffic control mechanisms

Session  10

Primary causes of road accident, Types of road accident, sources of information,
eye witnesses, Tire and other marks, Pedestrian impacts and vehicle speed, vehicle condition, vehicle speed and damage, types of skid marks, curved scuffmarks, speed estimation from skid/scuffmarks.
Time and distance, reaction time and peripheral vision of a driver, Photography and plans, Brake system
and Steering failure, Motor vehicle examination

https://www.slideshare.net/sujathasathananthan1/road-traffic-accidents-

92746224 https://hsewatch.com/types-of-road-accidents/

https://www.macmillandictionary.com/thesaurus-category/british/parts-of-roads-and-road-systems

Session 11

Rail accident: Investigation of rail crash: Criminal and safety investigation, Investigation principles,
Best Practices: rail company tests, inspection of driving cab, examination of
electrical/electronic/technological system and their failure. Necessary equipments required for forensic
examination

https://www.slideshare.net/gayathrysatheesan1/railway-accidents-185781807

Session 12

Forensic investigation of Aeroplane accident

https://www.slideshare.net/PraveenKotari1/aircraft-accident-investigation-ppt

https://www.slideshare.net/islaydoc/the-forensic-investigation-of-aircraft-accidents-40526216.

Session 13

Voice; Forensic Speaker Identification: Introduction and scope of forensic speaker identification, speaker
identification vs. Speaker verification. Human vocal tract, production and description of speech sound, acoustic characteristics of speech signal, introduction to phonetics and its importance in forensic speaker identification.

https://www.slideshare.net/TejasviBhatia/forensic-audio

Session 14

Voice evidence: collection of voice samples, examination and formation of opinion in terms of probability scale, presenting evidence in court of law in view of forensic speaker identification.Recent advancements: Automated speaker identification: text dependent and text independent approach.Tools used for speaker identification.

https://www.slideshare.net/DipikaSengupta/audio-and-video-forensics

session 15

International Phonetics Alphabets (IPA) and its symbolic representation.
Methods of speaker identification, open and close set, sound spectrograph and its analysis, analysis of vowel and consonant sound.

https://www.internationalphoneticalphabet.org/

Session 16

Common Hand Tools-Levers (screw drivers, crow bars, pry bars, nail pullers, pinch bars, moulding bar, wrecking bar), Hand saw (Rip saw, cross cutting saw, bow saw, teeth saw, compass saw, dip cut, coping saw, wall board saw, bow saw, hacksaw, chisel teeth saw, coarse cut carpenter saw), Striking Tools(Hammers, Hatches and Axes), Grasping Tools (Wrenches, Vise - grips, Pliers), Cutting Tools (Metal snips, wire cutters, bolt and cable cutters), Crimping Tools, Knives, Scissors and shears, Chisels and punches, Drill bits.

https://www.slideshare.net/AshleshaRatnaparkhi/tool-marks-250990136

session 17

Tool Marks: Marks made by hand tools (Impression / compression marks, dent, saw marks, drill marks and holes, punctures, point to point blade cut marks, scratch and scour marks. Collection and documentation of tool marks. Restoration of erased marks

https://www.slideshare.net/SuryakantMishra21/forensic-analysis-of-tool-marks

Session 18

 Automobiles- Vehicles manufactured in India, Components of automobile, Chassis, body, chassis frame, general assemblies of chassis and their functions, Various identification numbers, Head lights,Tail lights and Indicators, Types of automobiles, Technical terms- wheel base, thread width, turning radius, ground clearance, variants. Safety standards for cars, Suspension system, Steering system, Brake system and testing of brakes, Tyre and rims, Two stroke and four stroke engines and their comparison.Appliances and Equipment Failure- Kitchen and House hold appliances like- stoves, Refrigerators,
Washers / Driers, Coffee makers, Fans and Heaters, Television and VCRs. HVAC Systems like Furnace humidifiers and Furnaces, Air conditioner, Fire places and water heaters, Pumps, generators
and motors, Boilers, welding failure, swimming pool failure

https://digitpol.com/automotive-forensics/

Suggested Readings

1. Criminalistics – An Introduction to Forensic Science by Richard Saferstein.
2. Fundamentals of Speech Recognition by Lawrence Rabiner and Biing- Hwang Juang.
3. The Physics of Speech by D. B. Fry
4. Applied Speech and Audio Processing by Ian Mcloughlin
5. Color Atlas of Forensic Toolmark Identification by Nicholas Petraco.
6. Basic of Automobile Engineering by C. P. Nakra.
7. Automobile Engineering Vol- I and II by K. M. Gupta.
8. Automotive Mechanics by Joseph Heitner.
9. Encyclopedia of Science and Technology, Vol-2 Tata Mc Graw-Hill.
10. Auto Design by R. B. Gupta.
11. Forensic Engineering Fundamentals by Harold Franck and Darren Frank.

Practical's

1. To perform the physical matching of glass.
2. To determine the sequence of strokes on glass.
3. To perform the physical matching of paint chips.
4. To perform the microscopic examination of different types of fibers.
5. To perform the microscopic examination of different types of soil.
6. To preserve 3-Dimensional print of Footwear by casting method.
7. To determine the speed of a vehicle by analysing vehicular skid marks.
8. To carry out the comparison of questioned and standard voice samples.
9. To carry out the comparison and identification of different types of tool marks.
10. To study the causes of appliances and equipment failure.