Arwa Juma AlBusaidi, Laiha Binti Mat Kiah, Ainuddin Wahid Bin Abdul Waha
{"title":"Toward a unified methodology for preliminary digital evidence assessment: Standardizing forensic investigations.","authors":"Arwa Juma AlBusaidi, Laiha Binti Mat Kiah, Ainuddin Wahid Bin Abdul Waha","doi":"10.1111/1556-4029.70070","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1556-4029.70070","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The increasing reliance on forensic investigations on digital evidence raises concerns about reliability, standardization, and misinterpretation. Inconsistent forensic evaluations necessitate a structured approach for examining digital evidence's strength impacting judicial outcomes. This study aimed to propose a systematic preliminary digital evidence assessment methodology by integrating Bayesian reasoning to enhance evaluative interpretations. A phase-phase structured framework is introduced to guide forensic practitioners in assessing digital evidence through observation, hypothesis generation, and inference. The methodology utilizes the Certainty Scale (C-Scale) to improve consistency among forensic assessments, standardizing evaluative opinions. Additionally, developing a proof-of-concept database for digital evidence cases of manipulation is essential to support evidence strength determination in investigations. The results showed that this approach advances transparency and limits cognitive bias in forensic evaluations. Aligned with international forensic regulatory frameworks and standards like ISI-21043, the methodology proposed enhances forensic decision-making, particularly for investigators who lack digital forensic expertise. The current study contributed to forensic sciences by presenting a standardized method for examining digital evidence strength, catering to the gap between theoretical evaluation models and practical applications in forensics. To enhance transparency and provide a balanced perspective on the evidential value of observed digital evidence, it is crucial to standardize the approach that digital forensic practitioners take in formulating and articulating their preliminary evaluative opinions.</p>","PeriodicalId":94080,"journal":{"name":"Journal of forensic sciences","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-05-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144082935","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Traumatic brain injury graphing: A case study of Charles Whitman.","authors":"K A Strube","doi":"10.1111/1556-4029.70071","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1556-4029.70071","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Research has identified violent behavior (i.e., assault, murder, and suicide) as a possible sequela of moderate to severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) and repeated mild TBI (rmTBI). However, misconceptions about consciousness and its ability to control an injured brain, the diverse spectrum of potential outcomes, and the role genetics/environmental factors can play make proving TBI's influence on inciting violent behavior by a perpetrator extremely difficult. Though the cause and execution may be complex, multifaceted, and vary in each individual, violent behavior is often preceded and accompanied by other emotional, behavioral, cognitive, and/or physical consequences. This research examines the benefits of graphing, using data interpreted from in-depth, color-coded reverse chronology, as a visualization tool for analyzing/displaying the potential impacts of TBI injuries and aggravators on violent outcomes, especially in complex situations. The case of Charles J. Whitman (herein referred to as CW) was used to demonstrate this method. Results revealed that sequelae clusters appeared shortly after suspected TBI injuries, sequelae changed and progressed over time, and numerous TBI aggravators were present at the time of the tragedy, including: an extended period of excessively high ambient temperatures, sleep deprivation (SD), drug use, blood loss, and emotional stressors. TBI graphing (utilizing reverse chronology) served as a valuable tool for observing the potential TBI sequelae progression prior to the violent event.</p>","PeriodicalId":94080,"journal":{"name":"Journal of forensic sciences","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-05-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144082997","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Frame duplication forgery detection and localization based on QR decomposition and Minkowski distance.","authors":"Khaled Loukhaoukha","doi":"10.1111/1556-4029.70043","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1556-4029.70043","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The widespread use of multimedia editing tools has facilitated the creation of realistic video forgeries, jeopardizing the trust in video content. To address frame duplication forgery, a prevalent technique, this paper introduces a novel algorithm leveraging QR decomposition (orthogonal-triangular decomposition) and Minkowski distance. The algorithm extracts frame features using QR decomposition and compares them with a reference frame using Minkowski distance. Candidate duplicates are identified through random block matching. We evaluate the proposed method on standard datasets (TDTVD, LASIESTA, and IVY LAB) and a self-generated dataset. Our method achieves exceptional performance, attaining a perfect <math> <semantics> <mrow><msub><mi>F</mi> <mn>1</mn></msub> </mrow> <annotation>$$ {mathrm{F}}_1 $$</annotation></semantics> </math> -score for video-level detection on both the TDTVD and our self-generated datasets. Notably, for frame-level detection, it achieves an average accuracy of 0.9943, precision of 0.9752, recall of 0.9858, and <math> <semantics> <mrow><msub><mi>F</mi> <mn>1</mn></msub> </mrow> <annotation>$$ {mathrm{F}}_1 $$</annotation></semantics> </math> -score of 0.9803 across all datasets. Our analysis demonstrates the proposed method demonstrates promising performance in detecting multiply-duplicated frames and shows robustness against post-processing, potentially outperforming existing approaches.</p>","PeriodicalId":94080,"journal":{"name":"Journal of forensic sciences","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-05-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144061335","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Letter to the Editor - Black-box studies do not reflect decisions and errors in casework.","authors":"Itiel Dror","doi":"10.1111/1556-4029.70077","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1556-4029.70077","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":94080,"journal":{"name":"Journal of forensic sciences","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-05-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144052579","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The hidden pathology: An autopsy diagnosis of unsuspected juvenile systemic lupus erythematosus.","authors":"Deepu Mathew, Alagarasan Naveen, Indu Malayil Bindu, Kaniyappan Nambiar, Karpora Sundara Pandyen","doi":"10.1111/1556-4029.70074","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1556-4029.70074","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Juvenile-onset systemic lupus erythematosus (JSLE) is a severe autoimmune disorder that is rare but frequently manifests with multisystem involvement and can lead to substantial morbidity and mortality. We present the case of an 18-year-old female who was diagnosed with JSLE postmortem following sudden collapse and death. The patient was previously prescribed warfarin for benign intracranial hypertension and cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT). However, she had discontinued the medication months before her demise. She was never diagnosed with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) despite her medical history. Postmortem examination revealed several findings characteristic of SLE, including Libman-Sacks endocarditis, immune complex-mediated proliferative glomerulonephritis, pericarditis, and pleuritis. The diagnosis was further substantiated by positive anti-nuclear antibody (ANA) and anti-dsDNA antibodies satisfying the American College of Rheumatology/European League Against Rheumatism (ACR/EULAR) classification criteria. This case emphasizes the diagnostic challenge of JSLE, particularly when it manifests with atypical symptoms, which may impede or obscure the diagnosis. The diagnosis was only determined postmortem following a comprehensive examination of the patient's organs and additional immunological tests. This report features the gross and microscopic features of JSLE with its typical postmortem findings. The case emphasizes the need for heightened clinical suspicion and early intervention in suspected cases of juvenile lupus to prevent fatal outcomes.</p>","PeriodicalId":94080,"journal":{"name":"Journal of forensic sciences","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-05-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144055815","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Shutaro Nagano, Yohsuke Makino, Heather S Jarrell, Nobutaka Arai, Toshitaka Yoshii, Kana Unuma
{"title":"Fatal spontaneous spinal subdural hematoma in a patient on anticoagulant therapy.","authors":"Shutaro Nagano, Yohsuke Makino, Heather S Jarrell, Nobutaka Arai, Toshitaka Yoshii, Kana Unuma","doi":"10.1111/1556-4029.70073","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1556-4029.70073","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Spinal subdural hematoma (SSDH) is characterized by sudden onset neck and/or back pain, dysuria, and extremity impairment. The use of anticoagulants is a significant risk factor for SSDH, indicating that early diagnosis is crucial. However, achieving a timely diagnosis can be difficult owing to the rarity of this condition. The first forensic autopsy of a patient who died as the result of a spinal subdural hematoma (SSDH) is presented. A woman in her 70s undergoing anticoagulant therapy was transported to the emergency room with headache, back pain, and lower limb paralysis. The patient was initially diagnosed with spondylolisthesis and subsequently went into cardiac arrest. Her autopsy revealed an SSDH extending from the first thoracic vertebra to the cauda equina, with no associated tumors or vascular abnormalities. A retrospective examination of the patient's imaging and clinical history indicated missed opportunities for early diagnosis. The patient's cause of death was determined to be neurogenic shock due to progressive spontaneous SSDH. This case underscores the importance of early diagnosis and treatment of SSDH, particularly in patients undergoing anticoagulant therapy who are at an increased risk of spontaneous SSDH. Although some studies have suggested that conservative treatment may be effective for cases involving mild symptoms, surgical decompression is generally required for those with rapidly worsening symptoms. SSDH, therefore, should be considered in the differential diagnosis of patients presenting with back pain and neurological deficits, as delays in diagnosis and treatment can significantly affect patient outcomes.</p>","PeriodicalId":94080,"journal":{"name":"Journal of forensic sciences","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-05-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144032908","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Advanced digital image forensics: A hybrid framework for copy-move forgery detection in multimedia security.","authors":"Arslan Akram, Muhammad Arfan Jaffar, Javed Rashid, Khalid Mahmood, Anwar Ghani","doi":"10.1111/1556-4029.70076","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1556-4029.70076","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Particularly in validating image integrity, advances in digital image analysis have profoundly affected forensic investigation. The growing reliance on digital image technology can be attributed in part to the broad availability of consistent and effective image-capturing technologies. The simplicity of changing image content thanks to advanced image-editing technologies presents fresh difficulties for forensic analysis. A structured hybrid framework is presented for finding important objects in images. It does this by using fast Fourier transformation (FFT) for frequency domain filtering, scale-invariant feature transformation (SIFT), and oriented FAST and rotated BRIEF (ORB) to pull out key points. The MobilenetV2 and VGG16 models extract features from key point areas to detect copy-move forgery. After that, an attention mechanism combines and normalizes these aspects. Key point matching uses the Euclidean distance; DBSCAN clustering groups pertinent key points for object localization. The suggested approach shows better performance than current methods and detects image copy-move forgery rather successfully. The framework's robustness is verified against image blurring, contrast alteration, color reduction, image compression, and brightness change among other post-processing techniques. Since photographs are altered, traditional approaches can struggle with a lot of variety; however, the proposed method combines advanced deep learning models and clustering techniques to make detection more accurate. Extensive testing on five benchmark copy-move forgeries datasets reveals that the suggested strategy may beat present techniques. This work offers a sophisticated automated approach to guarantee digital image integrity and identify image manipulation.</p>","PeriodicalId":94080,"journal":{"name":"Journal of forensic sciences","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-05-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144065510","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Yusuf Atan, Hüseyin Çağrı Şahin, Abdulkadir Can, Muhammed Fatih Yaman, İbrahim Üzün
{"title":"Deaths in animal attacks: A 10-year retrospective forensic analysis of direct and indirect causes.","authors":"Yusuf Atan, Hüseyin Çağrı Şahin, Abdulkadir Can, Muhammed Fatih Yaman, İbrahim Üzün","doi":"10.1111/1556-4029.70075","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1556-4029.70075","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Animal attacks are a serious public health concern, resulting in fatalities through both direct and indirect mechanisms. This study aimed to analyze demographic characteristics, circumstances, and preventive measures related to fatal animal attacks in Türkiye. A retrospective analysis of 123 fatal animal attacks was conducted using data from 64,666 forensic reports archived by the Council of Forensic Medicine (2014-2023). Victims were predominantly male (72.4%), incidents mostly occurred in rural areas (74.8%), and nearly half (49.6%) took place during summer months. Fatalities were categorized as direct-acute, direct-delayed, indirect-traumatic, and indirect-nontraumatic. Direct fatalities primarily occurred due to venomous animal bites or stings and traumatic injuries caused by mammals. Direct-delayed fatalities included conditions such as rabies, sepsis, and Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever. Indirect fatalities, occurring without animal contact, included traffic collisions (12.2%), cardiac events (7.3%), and falls (5.7%) triggered by animal encounters. The analysis revealed that direct fatalities occurred more frequently in rural areas, while indirect fatalities were predominantly observed in urban centers. In urban areas, indirect fatalities were linked to uncontrolled dog populations and irresponsible pet ownership, highlighting the importance of desexing programs and community education. Effective management in urban areas requires responsible pet ownership, community education, enhanced medical infrastructure, and traffic safety measures. In rural areas, securing livestock enclosures, venomous animal awareness, and improved emergency care access are essential. Comprehensive strategies integrating education, responsible animal management, improved infrastructure, and rapid medical responses are essential to prevent animal-related fatalities.</p>","PeriodicalId":94080,"journal":{"name":"Journal of forensic sciences","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-05-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144004008","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Positional asphyxia associated with cervical vertebral fractures.","authors":"Rutsuko Yamaguchi, Kouya Ohta, Jian Tie, Yayoi Aoki, Shoetsu Chiba, Sumitoshi Katsumata, Takahisa Okuda","doi":"10.1111/1556-4029.70072","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1556-4029.70072","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Positional asphyxia refers to asphyxia resulting from an abnormal body posture that obstructs pulmonary ventilation. We report two cases in which individuals were unable to escape from positions that interfered with respiration, and cervical fractures were found upon autopsy. In the first case, a female in her 70s was found dead in a prone position on a bed following a traffic accident. Forensic autopsy findings suggested that she died from respiratory failure due to shallow breathing associated with pain from a rib fracture and prolonged prone positioning, possibly influenced by potential spinal cord injury associated with a cervical vertebral fracture. In the second case, a female in her 80s was found dead with her abdomen on a bed rail and her face down on the bed, a posture known as the jackknife position. Security camera footage showed that she was unable to escape from the position after the accidental fall, and after struggling in the same position for approximately 6 h, she became immobile, suggesting death by positional asphyxiation. Forensic autopsy revealed a fracture of the fifth cervical vertebra, raising the possibility of cervical spinal injury at the time of her fall. These cases indicate that cervical spinal fractures can be detected and associated with positional asphyxia deaths; however, their exact role in causing death remains uncertain. These findings highlight the importance of vigilant monitoring and timely medical intervention, particularly in older individuals, even when initial injuries appear minor.</p>","PeriodicalId":94080,"journal":{"name":"Journal of forensic sciences","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-05-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144033328","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Exploring machine learning approaches for efficient image forgery detection.","authors":"Abilash Radhakrishnan, Tukaram Namdev Sawant, Cheepurupalli Raghuram, Dani Jermisha Railis, Harjasdeep Singh","doi":"10.1111/1556-4029.70069","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1556-4029.70069","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In the digital age, accessible image manipulation raises concerns about authenticity, with forgery techniques threatening personal, journalistic, and security contexts. Detecting alterations is crucial for maintaining trust in visual content. A robust system capable of detecting various types of image forgeries, such as copy-move, splicing, and object removal, while minimizing false positives and negatives. Develop and implement robust feature extraction methods to identify key characteristics that differentiate forged images from authentic ones, focusing on both low-level and high-level features. The Two-dimensional maximum Shannon Entropy Median Filter (TSETMF) enhances image quality by reducing noise while preserving and enhancing details, which aids machine learning models in recognizing and identifying image forgeries. Multidimensional Spectral Hashing (MSH) enables efficient feature extraction by creating compact representations, thereby enhancing pattern recognition and boosting both speed and accuracy in detecting image forgeries within machine learning frameworks. Faster Region-Based Convolutional Neural Networks (FR-CNN) improve image forgery detection by swiftly identifying and localizing manipulated areas, enhancing feature extraction and accuracy for real-time forensic analysis. Machine learning approaches significantly enhance image forgery detection, with techniques like CNNs and MSH improving accuracy, processing speed, and robustness against diverse forgery methods, ensuring effective real-time analysis. The result shows that the proposed method significantly excelled, reaching an accuracy of 98.5%, alongside high precision (97.0%), recall (98.2%), and F1 score (98.1%), implemented using Python Colab. Future research can focus on developing more robust models, integrating unsupervised learning techniques, enhancing real-time detection capabilities, and exploring cross-domain applications to combat evolving image forgery methods effectively.</p>","PeriodicalId":94080,"journal":{"name":"Journal of forensic sciences","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-05-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144035145","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}