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Distinguishing Between Damage to Clothing as a Result of Normal Wear and Tear or as a Result of Deliberate Damage: A Sexual Assault Case Study
Author(s) -
Daly Dyan J.,
LeeGorman Marce A.,
Ryan Jennifer
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
journal of forensic sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.715
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1556-4029
pISSN - 0022-1198
DOI - 10.1111/j.1556-4029.2008.00950.x
Subject(s) - sexual assault , clothing , forensic engineering , poison control , human factors and ergonomics , injury prevention , occupational safety and health , medical emergency , psychology , engineering , medicine , political science , law , pathology
This paper focuses on bra damage, specifically damage observed in hook and eye fasteners that are generally located at the backstraps of bras. We describe bra design including the method by which hook and eye fasteners are generally constructed. We assess bra damage in two situations where the damage observed was unexpected given the case scenarios. These were: (i) the complainant of an alleged rape attributed damage to her bra hooks to force during a struggle and (ii) the complainant had earlier manipulated her bra hooks in an incident not related to her complaint. Steriomicroscopy and reconstruction experimentation were necessarily used to assess the bra damage. A systematic approach to damage analysis was employed by the forensic practitioners to correctly identify damage as being a result of mechanical manipulation and therefore as falsified. This paper suggests that more examples of falsified damage should be documented.