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Blood Spatter
In crime fighting, few developments have had as large an impact
as the personal computer. Most aspects of forensic science have
been affected in one way or another by advancements in computer
technology. Blood-spatter analysis is no exception. In recent years
software has been developed that allows a forensic expert to use
digital photographs of the crime scene to assist in analysis. Find-
ing a single point of origin is often made much easier by the use of
computer imagery. In fact, some programs even perform calcula-
tions on their own to draw trajectory lines without any user input.
of the blood. Image 10 shows low-impact spatter. Notice the many satellite
spatters around the parent spatter.
Spatter From a Moving
Object: Cast-Off Spatter
When an attacker uses a handheld weapon and takes more than one swing,
blood often clings to the weapon and is scattered by the back-and-forth mo-
tion of the weapon. Imagine swinging a baseball bat. A good swing pulls
the bat through an arc to the target. In order to swing again, the bat must
be pulled back and readied again. The same is true if the bat were used as
a weapon. Each swing passes along an arc between the attacker and the
victim. The motion of the swing causes blood clinging to the bat to fly off.
