Soil in Criminal and Environmental Forensics: Proceedings of the Soil Forensics Special, 6th European Academy of Forensic Science Conference, the Hagu

ISBN-13: 9783319331133 / Angielski / Twarda / 2016 / 346 str.

Henk Kars; Lida Van Den Eijkel

Opis

This introductory volume to a new series on Soil Forensics gives a kaleidoscopic view of a developing forensic expertise. Forensic practitioners and academic researchers demonstrate, by their joint contributions, the extent and complexity of soil forensics. their reports exemplify the broad range of sciences and techniques applied in all stages of forensic soil examinations, from investigations at crime scenes to providing evidence that can be used in court proceedings. Moreover the necessity is depicted of co-operation as a condition for any work in soil forensics between scientists of different disciplines, but no less between scientists and law enforcers.Soils play a role in environmental crimes and liability, as trace evidence in criminal investigations and, when searching for and evaluating, buried human remains. This book shows soil forensics as practiced in this legal context, emerging and solidifying in many countries all over the world, differing in some respects because of differences in legal systems but ultimately sharing common grounds.

Spis treści

  Preface; Henk Kars & Lida van den Eijkel

SECTION I: Criminal soil forensics

Soil traces: forensic examinations and legal context

Chapter 1: Forensic palynology: Checking value of pollen analysis as a tool to identify crime scene in semiarid environments; M. Munuera-Giner & J.S. Carrión

Chapter 2: Forensic Palynology: How pollen in dry grass can link to a crime scene; Martina Weber & Silvia Ulrich

Chapter 3: Geological analysis of soil and anthropogenic material. Three case studies; Rosa Maria Di Maggio

Chapter 4: Forensic Soil Analysis: case study of looting at a Roman-Visigothic burial vault; Enrique Santillana Reyes, Jose C. Cordero & Francisco Alamilla

Chapter 5: Soil comparisons using small soil traces, a case report; Stefan Uitdehaag, Frederike Quaak & Irene Kuiper

Chapter 6: Forensic comparison of soil samples; Jisook Min, Kiwook Kim, Sangcheol Heo & Yurim Jang

Chapter 7: Reinstating soil examination as a trace evidence sub-discipline; Brenda Woods, Chris Lennard, K. Paul Kirkbride & James Robertson

Chapter 8: Methodology of Forensic Soil Examination in Russia and a View on the World Standardization Process; Olga Gradusova and Ekaterina Nesterina

SECTION II: Environmental soil forensics

Forensic tools for spatial and chemical analysis

Chapter 9: Geographical Information Systems - a working example in the Brazilian Federal Police for fighting environmental crime; Daniel Araujo Miranda

Chapter 10: Forensic characterization of gasoline releases impacting the environment; Gil Oudijk

Chapter 11: A general overview of pesticides in soil: Requirement of sensitive and current residue analysis methods; Sevcan Semen, Selda Mercan & Munevver Acikkol

SECTION III: Searches and burial sites

A. Searches: co-operation, strategies and techniques

Chapter 12: A study of pH as an influencing factor in the survival of human remains at sites investigated by the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims Remains; Niamh A. McCullagh

Chapter 13: Interdisciplinary approaches to the search and location of buried bodies: a United Kingdom context; Karl Harrison, Lorna Dawson & Gaille Mackinnon

Chapter 14: Forensic Geophysics: How the GPR technique can help with forensic investigations; Pier Matteo Barone, C. Ferrara, E. Pettinelli & A. Fazzari

Chapter 15: Filter paper adsorption and ninhydrin reagent as presumptive test for gravesoil; Martien H.F. Graumans, Tim C.W. van der Heijden, Aleksandra Kosinska, Maarten J. Blom & Ben M. de Rooij

B. Decomposition and degradation processes

Chapter 16: Changes in soil microbial activity following cadaver decomposition during spring and summer months in southern Ontario; Heloise A. Breton, Andrea E. Kirkwood, David O. Carter & Shari L. Forbes

Chapter 17: Soil fauna and their effects on decomposition within coniferous and deciduous tree soil samples; R.J. J. Camplin, Damian Evans & Iain D Green

Chapter 18: Analysis of decomposition fluid collected from carcasses decomposing in the presence and absence of insects; Jenna L. Comstock, Helene N. LeBlanc, Shari L. Forbes

Chapter 19: Forensic analysis of volatile compounds from decomposed remains in a soil environment; Sonja Stadler, Jean-François Focant & Shari Forbes

Chapter 20: GC×GC-TOFMS, the Swiss knife for VOC mixtures analysis in soil forensic investigations; P-H Stefanuto & J-F Focant

Chapter 21: An investigation of the degradation of polymeric grave goods in soil environments; Clare Sullivan, B.H. Stuart & P.S. Thomas

O autorze

Professor Henk Kars has a background in mineralogy, petrology and geochemistry. After having finished his PhD Early-Medieval Dorestad, an Archaeo-Petrological Study, he performed between 1984-1994, in close cooperation with specialists in different areas of science, a variety of archeometric studies in the fields of provenancing (stone, ceramics), ancient technology (iron production), dating (geomagnetism, 14C, dendrochronology) and (geochemical) prospection, which has resulted in a high number of papers in international, often peer-reviewed, journals. Since 1995 the research subjects changed from main stream science in archaeology to the in situ preservation of archaeological heritage. This is demonstrated by the participation and coordination of EC-projects that studied the in situ deterioration of the metal artifact, bone and wood. Today he is an internationally acknowledged expert with regard to the preservation of archeological remains in situ. In addition to this he has been member of the management team of the Dutch National Service for Archaeological Heritage (ROB) for more than five years. His career at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU) started in 1994 where he was appointed, on a part time basis, to the first chair of Archaeometry in the Netherlands. In 1997 he became director of the post-academic course "Management van Archeologische Projecten" (projectmanagement for archaeologists), which is performed within a partnership of both universities of Amsterdam and ROB. Since 2002 he has been a fulltime professor Geo- en Bioarchaeology at the VU and director of the newly established Institute for Geo- and Bioarchaeology.

Lida van den Eijkel (MSc) studied Environmental Sciences at Wageningen University, a comprehensive education in both the biotic and the abiotic environment. She specialized in soil and water pollution, with strong emphasis on microbiology and physical chemistry. Part of her education was a 6 month stay in Siberia to study the hydrobiology and pollution of Lake Baikal (at the University of Irkutsk and Limnological Instiute of the Academy of Sciences).

After graduating she worked for consultancies on projects of soil remediation (especially cases of metal pollution), for a company that developed (superconducting) magnetic systems as a clean-up technology for waste water and soil, and for the (now) Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment (Rijkswaterstaat) on the pollution of flood plains.

She moved to the Netherlands Forensic Institute more than 25 years ago to work with the new to be established department of Environmental Forensics, in the beginning doing pioneering organizational work as well as forensic case-work with regards to the enforcement of environmental laws in The Netherlands. Later she extended the case-work to criminal law enforcement, examining especially soil and water contact traces.

In recent years she concentrated on environmental forensics again. Fields of special interest and work are the use of data collections of soil characteristics, the application of (recycled) materials as fertilizers, care duty for soil and GIS. An emerging field of work is the water and soil pollution due to organized serious crime, such as the delibarate dumping in the environment of waste resulting from the production of illicit drugs.

Blurb

This book follows from the 6th triennial conference of the European Academy of Forensic Sciences (EAFS) in The Hague, where forensic practitioners and academic researchers met to present and discuss their work in soil forensics and to interact with the larger forensic community. Soils play a role in environmental forensics, where criminal and liable soil pollution is studied, and in criminal forensics, where soils are important as a source of trace evidence and as a place where human remains are buried and decay. At the conference multiple sessions were devoted to all of these topics. The contributions to this book are derived from these sessions and likewise show the extent and complex nature of this developing forensic expertise and its value for law enforcement.

In soil forensics a multitude of scientific specializations, expertise and skills interplay: soil science, mineralogy, geology, geophysics, botany, ecology, palynology, archaeology, chemistry, spatial analysis, sampling and (geo)statistics - all of these and even more are relevant. Throughout this book examples are given of methodologies that are based on these sciences and used in soil forensics, such as GPR, GIS, examinations of minerals, pollen, microbial DNA, inorganic and organic materials, including material of anthropogenic origin, the use of databases, search-strategies for missing people and the study of decomposition processes in interaction with the environmental conditions of the burial site.

Moreover the practice of soil forensics is depicted in its legal context, emphasizing the need for evidence to be suitable for court proceedings and the importance of co-operation, not only between scientists of different specializations but also between scientists and law enforcers, the latter beginning even before the examination of a crime scene.

This book shows the broad field of soil forensics, emerging and solidifying in many countries all over the world, differing in some respects along with their legal systems, but ultimately sharing common grounds.