Research Grant Awarded to Evaluate Footwear Evidence
Jacqueline Speir, Assistant Professor in the Forensic and Investigative Science Program at West Virginia University, has been awarded approximately $389,000 in grant funds to conduct research that will help uncover the forensic value of footwear evidence.
The goal of this research is to better understand potential discrimination of shoe print evidence. In order to determine this, Jacqueline Speir, and her research group will collect, characterize and compare randomly acquired accidental characteristics on the outer sole of hundreds of shoes. The data collected will provide insights into how well footwear impressions deposited at crime scenes can be linked to a single shoe and a suspect.
Funded for the next two and a half years, Speir’s research group will evaluate the similarities of accidental patterns present on shoes and the reported impressions left during the commission of a crime, as well as between impressions collected from different shoes. This research is exceptionally important and the findings could reveal the forensic value of footwear evidence.
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Source: West Virginia University
[Abstract written by Noel Andres, ForensIQ Intern 2/19/14]
