Kyrie Abiko
While some sexual offenders think that they can get away with their crime by using a condom, a new technique being developed at Sheffield Hallam University puts them out of luck, for this new method can detect condom lubricant on fingerprints left by a suspect at a crime scene. This proves that the offender has had contact with a condom. This would enable forensic scientists to provide further support to the evidence in alleged cases of sexual assault.
Condoms have been used more often by sexual offenders for the reason of preventing the risk of STDs and the transfer of potential DNA evidence, thinking this would also lower the chance of them getting caught. However, this new method can link a suspect, identified by their fingermark, to the crime in one analysis and can aid police in proving that an offence has taken place. And it is hoped the technique might be used to match lubricant found on a fingermark with residues from vaginal swabs collected from the victim.
Researchers have even proved that this technique was successful even on fingermarks left several weeks before analysis. They also hope this technique can eventually be used to identify specific lubricants that can possibly indicate a specific condom manufacturer or even the particular brand. Researchers hope to find that breakthrough soon enough to further support evidence in cases of sexual assault in even a stronger way.
I thought this article was particularly interesting not just for the fact that this newly developed method can determine a suspect to be placed at the scene of a sexual assault, but also for the fact that the fingermarks in contact with lubricant can be carefully examined using advanced imaging equipment to map ridge patterns and therefore identify a specific individual as the suspect. It is also interesting that researchers might possibly find a way to identify the type of condom lubricant and/or identify the specific condom brand from the fingermarks.
1 comment:
Kyrie chose a very interesting article to write about. It made this current event response easy. I found she summarized the article very well; she explained why a sex offender would think using condoms would protect themselves against getting caught. She then goes on and explains how forensic scientists can actually still determine who it was. Lastly, I think Kyrie had a good paragraph reflecting why she thought it was interesting.
Two things Kyrie could have improved on are having three paragraphs. She was lacking the paragraph which is supposed to criticize the article. Also, I would have liked to have the link to the article. Although I thought her review was good, it could have possibly been completely made up, since I don’t have the article to check up on.
I was interested in the overall concept of this identification for sexual assaults. Many women, and men, get raped yearly and I strongly believe this is important that they not get away with it.
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