Forensics Journal - Stevenson University 2012 | Page 7

FORENSICS JOURNAL

An Application of Forensic Research to Solve a
Specific Problem: The Development of an Organic
Gunshot Residue (OGSR) Identification Method.
John Tobin, Ph.D.
Forensic Science is defined as the application of the physical sciences
such as chemistry, biology, physics, and geology to the criminal and
civil laws that are enforced by police agencies in the criminal justice
system. (Saferstein, 2010). More realistically, it is the combination
of scientific theories and procedures that, when used within the legal
world, unlock the story that is contained within the evidence collected at a crime scene. The forensic scientist then must convincingly,
accurately, and ethically advise the judge or jury in a criminal trial of
the true meaning of the story and its relationship to other facts in the
case. It is then up to the judge or jury to apply the weight or merit of
the testimony to the determination of guilt or innocence. This is also
referred to as the preponderance of evidence.

of these reported murders, robberies, and aggravated assaults were
committed with firearms. Murder was the crime that most frequently
involved firearms; 70% of the 24,526 murders in 1993 were committed with firearms (Zawitz, 2000). The Center for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) estimated 52,447 deliberate and 23,237 accidental
non-fatal gunshot injuries in the United States during 2000 (CDC,
2000). The use of guns in the commission of crime is not just a US
phenomenon. Povey et al. reported that between 2006/2007 there
were 9,650 reported incidents involving firearms in England and
Wales (Povey, 2000). Firearms were discharged in 40% of these incidents. The State of Maryland is certainly not exempt from this statistic. Maryland ranked 9th in 2009 with 1,707 guns used in crimes
that came from out of state. New census and FBI crime data show
that while Maryland is the richest state in the country, it remains one
of the most violent, and 80% of the 238 people murdered in Baltimore in 2010 were killed by handguns (Fenton, 2010).

Unfortunately, forensic laboratories are not uniform in their size or
their capacity to perform forensic examinations. Those that perform
analyses for large jurisdictions usually have the budget and resources
to have the most modern and sophisticated equipment. Smaller laboratories therefore have to make do with the resources available and
may choose not to perform certain analyses because of lack of such
instrumentation. The development of a scientifically sound method
for the analysis of evidence that can be performed by more crime
laboratories within t