ASTM – Forensic Standards: Preventing the Perfect Crime

Introduction

What is a Standard?

The term “standard” is often used in daily language without much thought about its specific meaning and is casually used to refer to various types of standards in the standards-development community.

ASTM International’s Regulations Governing ASTM Technical Committees (“Green Book”) defines a standard as “A document that has been developed and established within the consensus principles of the Society and that meets the approval requirements of ASTM procedures and regulations.” This definition outlines both the consensus-building process adopted by committees and a document that is an actual standard.

The Green Book distinguishes six types of standards: Classification, Guide, Practice, Specification, Terminology, and Test Method. Each type of standard is intended to fulfil specific technical and social needs, providing flexibility to technical committee members and users.

Tiny Clue, Big Benefits

While fingerprints are crucial as evidence, DNA can shift the course of a case. Since no two people—aside from twins—have identical DNA, DNA evidence is an incredibly reliable tool to identify criminals.

In our digital era, forensic specialists use DNA analysis to unravel both recent murder cases and long-forgotten cold cases. On an extensive, digital scale, advanced approaches like DNA fingerprinting and forensic genealogy facilitate information access and application.

Forensic Genetic Genealogy (FGG) is a powerful forensic tool that utilises DNA. Approximately 1 in 5 Americans took the first at-home DNA test, which was originally introduced in 2007, with results kept in vast databases. Law enforcement agencies are permitted to use these databases to compare DNA profiles in investigations of serious crimes such as homicides and sexual assaults and can also be accessed to identify long-lost relatives.

“Using genetic genealogy tools and genealogical research methods like record searching, family trees are constructed with the goal of identifying potential candidates as the identity of the unknown DNA sample,”

says Claire Glynn, Ph.D., part of the Department of Forensic Science at the University of New Haven, CT, USA.

As DNA is integral to evidence collection, certain standards in this field of criminal investigation are found in E30.

The standard procedure for collection and preservation of information and physical items by a technical investigator (E1188) primarily focuses on safeguarding evidence for analysis and setting guidelines to ensure its longevity. A key aspect of this standard is maintaining secure and credible databases for DNA information.

Ensuring Justice with Standards

Since 2023, over 3,000 wrongful convictions have been reported in the United States with some potentially connected to flawed forensic science. Considering how critical evidence is in criminal investigations, the collection and preservation of evidence must assure justice for both the victim and the accused.

Forensic technology and standards have substantially evolved since 1970. In a recent episode of ASTM’s “Standards Impact” podcast, Laura Hernandez, chair of the subcommittee on interdisciplinary science standards (E30.11) noted, “There’s definitely been a difference, not only in 25 years, but also in the last 10 years, 5 years.” Hernandez, who is also a forensic scientist with Verity Labs, highlighted, “All forensic disciplines have to adapt with changes and times.”

The standard practice for receiving, documenting, storing, and retrieving evidence in a forensic science laboratory (E1492 — currently under review as WK86598) establishes protocols for how evidence is collected and processed, who collected it, where it was collected, and who has had custody of the evidence. The credibility and admissibility of the evidence in court depend on protecting its chain of custody while it is in a forensic laboratory. The evidence may not be accepted in court if the chain of custody is broken.

The Perfect Crime: A Thing of the Past

Forensic science technologies are constantly advancing, with innovations in data collection methods, data storage, database usage for solving crimes. These improvements can assist in clearing the path to successful and well-structured guidelines, apprehending one criminal at a time.

It may soon be impossible to keep a crime hidden due to the development in forensic technologies and the establishment of stricter standards to ensure an airtight case against criminals.