Implementation and assessment of a likelihood ratio approach for the evaluation of LA-ICP-MS evidence in forensic glass analysis

For the comparative analysis of glass fragments, a method using Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) is in use at the NFI, giving measurements of the concentration of 18 elements. An important question is how to evaluate the results as evidence that a glass sample originates from a known glass source or from an arbitrary different glass source. One approach is the use of matching criteria e.g. based on a t-test or overlap of confidence intervals. An important drawback of this method is the fact that the rarity of the glass composition is not taken into account.

Source: Science and Justice - March 31, 2017 Category: Forensic Medicine Authors: Andrew van Es, Wim Wiarda, Maarten Hordijk, Ivo Alberink, Peter Vergeer Tags: Research paper Source Type: research