2011Bibliography Part V Miscellaneous Evidence - Mercyhurst ...

Stratification, Tool Marks, Bioturbation, Sedimentation, Compression/Depression (foot and shoe prints), and Internal
Compaction. In addition to the recovery and interpretation of impression evidence, other trace evidence which might be
found on surface and subsurface death scenes are cited. Entomological and botanical evidence also constitute trace items
left or taken from crime scenes. Because of the number of works referencing those topics, they are addressed in respective
sections in this bibliography. Some citations in this section could also be cross-referenced with those in Taphonomy
given their discussion of the detioration, or decomposition of hairs and fibers among victims' remains or contamination of
impression evidence through prolonged exposure at crime scenes.
When this compiler first became interested in forensic science, one of the first references he read, and
which most influenced subsequent processing of scenes and research, was Crime Investigation by Paul Kirk (1974). In that
paper the words of Kirk serve as the foundation for collecting trace evidence at any scene regardless its age or condition:
"Wherever he steps, whatever he touches, whatever he leaves, even unconsciously, will serve as
silent witness against him. Not only his fingerprints or his foot prints, but his hair, the fibers from
his clothing, the glass he breaks, the tool mark he leaves, the paint he scratches, the blood or
semen he deposits or collects. All of these and more bear mute witness against him. This
evidence does not forget. It is not confused by the excitement of the moment. It is not absent
because human witnesses are. It is factual evidence. Pysical evidence cannot be wrong. It cannot
perure itself. It cannot be wholly absent. Only its interpretation can err. Only human failure to
fint it, study and understand it, can diminish its value."
Beginning with this edition of the Bibliography, Shoe and Tire Impression Evidence has been taken out of this section as a
subcategory and made a section of its own.
Fecal or Coprolite Evidence
This section is divided into the following categories:
Fecal or Coprolite Evidence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1228
Hair and Feather Evidence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1233
Fiber and Textile Evidence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1261
Other Trace Evidence Topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1280
Left with a paucity of biological evidence, archaeologists are trained to recognize, and paleobiologists have
developed expertise in examining the content of, animal waste. Feces, in more recent settings and as coprolites in their
1227