Forensic Comparison of Condom as an Evidences Tool in Deciphered Sexual Assault Cases

Abstract

In comparison to other violent crimes, sexual assaults suffer from very low prosecution and conviction rates especially in the absence of DNA as biological evidence. As a result, the forensic community needs to utilize other forms of physical and trace contact evidence, like condom and lubricant, in order to provide a link between the victim and the assailant. Condoms may offer sexual assailants a simple and relatively effective means by which they may remove and dispose of the biological evidence of their contact with the victim. When there is finding of condom as exhibit in decomposed form and without any lubrication traces at that time comparison condom exhibit along with control sample is difficult task. Here we show the development of a multidisciplinary spectroscopic and thermal comparison approach of the used condom sample as exhibit with different condom samples seized from crime scene. The techniques have complementary features and used in this study e.g., differential scanning calorimetric (DSC), Thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA) and FT-IR characterization techniques and provide complementary information to retrieve a condom brand spectroscopic pattern and thermal characteristics by weight loss along with Tg of Latex component in each condom sample. Unique spectroscopic profiles would greatly aid in the screening and identification of the condom, thus adding intelligence to the case under investigation.