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One of the things that makes forensic science so interesting is that it is a community of professionals of many disciplines, specialties, and sub-specialties with a common goal – to support the justice system with information to ensure that that the guilty (and only the guilty) are convicted.
Through the last four years, Forensic Magazine® has featured the work of many of these scientists – the mainstream and the somewhat ‘different.’ One such article was published in our June/July 2006 issue and featured the work of Steven Symes, Ph.D., an authority on knife and saw mark analysis. Symes’ expertise dates back to 1987 when he began researching a doctoral dissertation on saw mark analysis of bone. Since then, he has provided analysis of cut marks in nearly 200 dismemberment cases and roughly 500 knife wound cases emanating from a wide range of local, state, and national investigative agencies.
According to Symes, “At one end of the spectrum you have a significant number of cases involving dismemberment and mutilation and the potential for powerful evidence from reliable knife and saw mark analysis; at the other end you have a limited number of forensic practitioners involved in this type of analysis as well as a lack of adherence to Daubert criteria to support their conclusions,” Symes said. “The contradiction is glaring, and poses a growing need in the forensic community.”
Click here to read the article, A Cut Above: Sharpening the Accuracy of Knife and Saw Mark Analysis by Deborah W. Morton (Forensic Magazine® June/July, 2006)
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