Citation

Limmen RM, Ceelen M, Reijnders UJ, Joris Stomp S, de Keijzer KC, Das K. J. Forensic Sci. 2013; 58(2): 518-522.

Affiliation

Public Health Service, Department of Forensic Medicine, Amsterdam, 1000 CE, The Netherlands.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2013, American Society for Testing and Materials, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/1556-4029.12042

PMID

23278497

Abstract

The use of narrow-banded visible light sources in improving the visibility of injuries has been hardly investigated, and studies examining the extent of this improvement are lacking. In this study, narrow-banded beams of light within the visible light spectrum were used to explore their ability in improving the visibility of external injuries. The beams of light were induced by four crime-lites(®) providing narrow-banded beams of light between 400 and 550 nm. The visibility of the injuries was assessed through specific long-pass filters supplied with the set of crime-lites(®) . Forty-three percent of the examined injuries improved in visibility by using the narrow-banded visible light. In addition, injuries were visualized that were not visible or just barely visible to the naked eye. The improvements in visibility were particularly marked with the use of crime-lites(®) "violet" and "blue" covering the spectrum between 400-430 and 430-470 nm. The simple noninvasive method showed a great potential contribution in injury examination.

Language: en