FORENSIC TEXTILE DAMAGE ANALYSIS: PRACTICAL ISSUES AND METHODOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES

M. Romeo, M. Salerno, F. Casella, F. Colosimo, A. Piscopo, C. Gentile, A. Feola, G. D. Mizio

Abstract: Clothing damage analysis is an important tool for forensic investigations and, even it is a niche field, it is gaining interest. Moreover, the attention is shifting from evaluating just the “biological” traces found on the clothes to the modifications that clothes themselves undergo in the context of a specific traumatic dynamic. The Authors analyze a case of the investigation on a hole in the jacket worn by the victim when he was attacked, performed through optical microscope and morphological and elemental SEM/EDX analysis, to determine the origin of this texture damage to verify a witness story.
Keywords: SEM/EDX, textile damage, microscopy