Enhancement of rapid lifetime determination for time-resolved fluorescence imaging in forensic examination

An enhancement method of rapid lifetime determination is proposed for time-resolved fluorescence imaging to discriminate substances with approximate fluorescence lifetime in forensic examination. In the method, an image-exclusive-OR treatment with filter threshold adaptively chosen is presented to extract the region of interest from dual-gated fluorescence intensity images, and then the fluorescence lifetime image is reconstructed based on the rapid lifetime determination algorithm. Furthermore, a maximum and minimum threshold filtering is developed to automatically realize visualization enhancement of the lifetime image. In proof experiments, compared with traditional fluorescence intensity imaging and rapid lifetime determination method, the proposed method automatically distinguishes altered and obliterated documents written by two brands of highlighters with the same color and close fluorescence lifetime.

From De Facto Fact-finder to Expert Witness? Transition of Forensic Examination in China

Forensic examination plays an important role in China's judicial system,especially in the fact-finding process of both civil and criminal proceedings.Since 2005,this system has experienced gradual,yet significant changes.This paper seeks to examine the major themes of these changes in the context of the continued conceptual reformulation and structural realignment of civil and criminal procedures and the ongoing effort to codify evidence law with transforming impact on China's judicial system and culture.Emphasis is given to the transition of the forensic examination system from an officially(both administrative and judicial)administered fact-finding mechanism with powerful impact on the courts'truth-seeking activities to,at least partially,an expert witness system with significant participation and control by the parties5 to judicial proceedings.A convergence of influence from both the continental inquisitorial tradition and the common law adversarial structure appears to have strongly informed the process and direction of the Chinese forensic examination reform.This paper attempts to explain the reasons for this convergence of influence,identify the trend and direction of this development,and provide observations and suggestions for further improvement of the forensic examination system in several key aspects with particular reference to the legal principles and judicial practices under the Federal Rules of Evidence of the United States.

The Role of Forensic Examination at Trials in China

Expertise gains increasing acceptance and importance at trials in China.Currently,the forensic examination quality management system of China has been preliminarily established.There are problems,however,for example,laws and regulations related with forensic examination are not comprehensive,forensic institutes pursue their own economic profits excessively and judges sometime have undue blind faith in scientific evidence in fact-finding.These are hindering forensic examination from being put into full play duly.In 2005,the Decision of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress on the Administration ofForensic Examination strengthened the neutrality of forensic institutes.The Criminal Procedure Law and the Civil Procedure Law revised in 2012 initially set up the expert assistant system,which is expected to break the excessively credulous but unjustified belief in scientific evidence and solve pertinent problems.We need to focus on the following aspects:First and foremost developing a unified set of rules on forensic examination;secondly,judges need to strengthen their own ability to review scientific evidence and determine its reliability;thirdly,we should actively promote fundamental legal education refonn to remedy the insufficiency of legal understanding of forensic science;and finally,the existing expert assistant system must be further improved to help judges and litigants efiectively to identify and use expertise.

Practical Straits of the Forensic Examination in China

With the revision of the Criminal Procedural Law of the PRC and the Civil Procedural Law of the PRC in 2012,it has entered a new historical stage of litigation system and made significant progress in forensic examination system in China.However,for a long time,the illegal forensic examinations have been commonly seen in forensic practice,the right to start the forensic examination process only lies with public security and judicial authorities,while the parties only have the limited right to apply for supplementary forensic examination or re‑examination.To the problem of experts’refusal to appear in court to testify,the Criminal Procedural Law and the Civil Procedural Law have further improved the expert testimony system,but the situation has not fundamentally changed.To compensate for judges’lack of knowledge of professional issues,the expert advisor system is introduced,but there are no workable rules.Besides,judges depend too much on and accept the expert opinions blindly become a common phenomenon in the proceedings.

Forensic Examination of Abusive Head Trauma in Child Abuse Cases

Abusive head trauma(AHT)in child abuse cases is rarely encountered in the practice of forensic examination in China,and such cases are rarely reported.The authors reviewed a large number of relevant domestic and foreign studies to differentiate between the definitions of AHT and shaken baby syndrome;determine the relationship between the two;and discuss their epidemiology,mechanism,and symptoms.In addition,the main points in forensic examination and strategies for preventing AHT are also summarized to help forensic workers and clinicians identify and prevent such injuries.

Confrontation and Integration: The Present and Future of Forensic Examinations on Medical Damage in China

In China,two administrative regulations and judicial interpretations related to forensic examinations of medical damage were issued from March 2017 to June 2018.In chronological order,they were interpretation of the supreme people’s court on several questions concerning the application of law in the trial of disputes over liability for medical damage and regulations on the prevention and handling of medical disputes.Those two laws,especially the regulation,have had a fundamental impact on the pattern of forensic examinations on medical damage.This paper systematically reviews the current status and existing problems with forensic examinations on medical damage following implementation of the law of tort liability;it discusses new concepts of procedures,institutional arrangements,and the selection of examiners for forensic examinations on medical damage.We believe that through the regulation,the dualistic confrontation status of forensic examinations on medical damage will gradually change toward integration.We consider that forensic examinations of medical damage will face three challenges in the future:(1)enhancing the establishment of standards;(2)undertaking theoretical research into forensic examinations onmedical damage;and(3)promoting the development ofinterdisciplinary identification specialistsmajoring in both medicine and law.Only in this way will it be possible to rectify the current dilemma with forensic examinations on medical damage in China.

Special Knowledge in Criminal Procedure： Essence, Borders, and Role

This article presents attempts to make a comprehensive study of＂special knowledge＂ and to determine its role in the criminal process and criminology nowadays. The concept of special knowledge and its borders, especially the use of its various forms are analyzed. The author considers some controversial provisions in the demarcation of expertise special knowledge from other knowledge （including legal）, and establishes their relationship. The provision for the need to establish certain ＂unification＂ in the use of specialized knowledge, as well as in the appointment and conducting forensic examinations, inviting experts, obtaining advice is made. This also applies to the aspirations of uniform methods, expertise techniques and technology in the application of special knowledge. The use of examination in criminal justice in Ukraine is analyzed and some of the changes associated with the adoption of the new Criminal Procedure Code are considered. The changes in procedures are associated with the desire to transform the traditional regulations and to move to the adversarial criminal process. The necessity of equal procedural opportunities in the use of special knowledge by the prosecution and the defense is argued.

The Hot Issues and Future Direction of Forensic Document Examination in China

The domain of forensic document examination consists of a variety of professional tasks related to the history and preliminary of questioned documents.The wide area of tasks implemented by forensic document examiners includes the skill to identify the authorship of handwriting and signature;discriminate among genuine,imitated,or disguised handwriting;to examine and analyze components of inks,papers,and other materials connected with documents;and other highly skilled analyses based on specialized technique.The field of handwriting examination is tightly related to empirical knowledge and practical experience.Handwriting is usually thought to be behavioral activities that are identifiable due to the appearance of features and characteristics within the writing.When we assess these features we universally analyze them in two aspects:Both quality and quantity of writing.As mentioned above,the evaluation of quality and quantity is performed by forensic document examiners.The problem is how to conduct this kind of evaluation related to empirical knowledge and experience.There is not consistent answer yet,although many researchers devote themselves to explore in this hot issue,such as mathematical methods applied in handwriting analysis.In this article,several mathematical methods applied to forensic document field are deciphered in domestic perspective of China.In the digital age,we all inevitably deal with problems with the help of computer or computer technology.We also pay close attention to the computer technique assistant in the field of forensic document examination.Standards or criteria of forensic document examination are still hot issues in China.Although we established a few standards or criterion based on requires of practice,it is also a lack of standards or criterion associated to trainees and continuing education in view of practitioners.At the end of this article,the author intends to discuss a piece of a challenge to forensic document examination,which are also universal issues abroad.Those who are critical of the current state of knowledge in this area argue that members of the judiciary have failed to sufficiently address the shortcomings of the forensic document evidence proffered in criminal trials.Specifically,critics of forensic document examination argue that little valuable wording exists in the report to support the validity and reliability of the methodology and findings of forensic document examination.

Mandatory Appearances of Forensic Examiner for Cross-Examination in Court and Related Systemic Improvement Under China's Criminal Procedure

In China's criminal procedure system,forensic advice is one of the key types of evidence.These advices play an important part in discovering the facts of a case,convictions,and sentencing,and they cannot be ignored in assessments of guilt and the death penalty.However,due to broad and flexible criminal laws,in actual litigation,the nonappearance of forensic examiner or mere provision of documentation of advice read in court has become the norm.This has led to the existence in name only of cross-examination rights,which directly damages the legitimate rights and interests of the parties and the objective and impartial rulings of referees.At present,there is no legal clarity in criminal proceedings that examiner should or should not be examined in court.In my opinion,the entire court system should require an appearance in court,which must be a clear mandatory appearance with specific exceptions.The system should guarantee the forensic examiner5 mandatory appearances,which would inevitably improve the rules of evidence.

An examination of handwritten signatures forged using photosensitive signature stamp

Signature examination is the most common examination performed by any document examiner.Determination of the authenticity of a handwritten signature on a questioned document is an important task for forensic document examiners in the forensic science field.As a result of continuous developments in technology,a signature stamp can now be created using a photosensitive seal to enable the reproduction of a handwritten signature.These stamps are commonly used in China and several other countries.In this study,10 types of black photosensitive stamp-pad ink,10 brands of fountain pen ink,15 types of black gel ink and six types of black erasable gel ink found on the Chinese domestic market were collected and 10 photosensitive signature stamps were created using the signatures of 10 people.Microscopic analysis,infrared(IR)and fluorescence analyses and microspectrophotometry(MSP)techniques were used to examine the resulting photosensitive signature stamp impressions when applied to printing papers,writing papers and invoice papers.By comparing the printing and spectral characteristics of the photosensitive signature stamp impressions with those of the signatures executed using the fountain pens,gel pens and erasable gel pens,it was possible to determine whether each signature was written or stamped using a photosensitive signature stamp.To validate these results,a 96.7%absolute accuracy and a 99.3%detection rate were achieved over a total of 150 blind tests conducted by five forensic document examiners,thus demonstrating that a combination of the four analysis methods used in this work can provide a more scientific approach and improve the accuracy and the detection rate of the examination process.

Research on Subjective Bias Cognition Effect in Handwriting Identification

This article starts from the point of view that handwriting examination is dependent on empiricism and by analyzing the core steps ofhandwriting identification explains that it might be influenced by subjective bias.In practice,examiners cannot avoid biases in decision-making;instead,we must accept the existence of subjective bias in handwriting identification and then discuss its impact;for instance,feature selection in the process of comprehensive evaluation,which involves a comparison of the number and quality of similarities and differences between a questioned sample and the references.While we conclude that comprehensive evaluation is the most important step in the identification process,industries in China do not stipulate explicit and transparent criteria for it,making it hard to numerically quantify the characteristics ofhandwriting identification.In this article,forensic examiners5 opinions on handwriting identification were obtained through a survey.One finding was that most handwriting examiners believe that handwriting identification is subject to subjective bias.In addition,they believe that the subjective cognition of handwriting identification can somehow help actively produce the correct opinion;before the examination,most handwriting examiners think that they should understand the context and so on.Finally,through the questionnaire,which contained variations such as the same case with different background information,different cases with the same background information,and the same case with or without context,it was concluded that handwriting identification does have certain subjectivity.However,which kind of factors influence this subjectivity is not presently clear.Furthermore,it is difficult to control uncertainties when fbnnmg an opinion on identification.An alternative way is to perform scrutiny after the formulation ofhandwritmg opinions;for example,internal and external reviews such as appearing in court.