Skip to content

Direct Comparison

Definition

Side-by-side physical and spectroscopic comparison of the questioned chip with a sample from the suspect vehicle; the mandatory final stage in any automotive paint comparison.

Related terms

BKA (Bundeskriminalamt)
German Federal Criminal Police Office; custodian of EUCAP and primary German forensic laboratory for automotive paint comparison.
BNS 2023 § 106
Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023 provision criminalising causing death by negligence; the primary charging provision for fatal hit-and-run cases in India, with enhanced...
ENFSI EPG
Expert Working Group on Paint (European Network of Forensic Science Institutes); produced the European paint-examination protocol and promoted EUCAP development.
ENFSI FIRM
Forensic Intelligence and Reporting Model; verbal LR scale from 'inconclusive' through 'limited', 'moderate', 'strong', and 'very strong' support used in European trace-evidence...
EUCAP
European Collection of Automotive Paints, maintained at the Bundeskriminalamt (BKA) in Wiesbaden; the European counterpart to PDQ for automotive hit-and-run paint comparison.
FSR Codes of Practice
The Forensic Science Regulator's Codes of Practice and Conduct, made statutory by the Forensic Science Regulator Act 2021, setting mandatory quality standards...
Likelihood Ratio (LR)
The ratio of two conditional probabilities: the probability of the observed evidence given the prosecution's hypothesis (same source), divided by the probability...
PDQ (Paint Data Query)
RCMP-maintained international automotive paint database. Stores binder, pigment and layer data for vehicle original-equipment finishes from major manufacturers. Used to narrow a...
Secondary Transfer
The movement of a glass fragment from a primary surface (which contacted the broken glass) to a secondary surface (which contacted the...
Spectral Cross-Correlation
A mathematical similarity measure comparing two FTIR spectra; PDQ uses cross-correlation scores to rank candidate matches; a score above 0.90 is treated...
SWGMAT
Scientific Working Group for Materials Analysis, a US forensic science standards body (now succeeded by the OSAC Explosives Subcommittee). Published the Forensic...

Explained in

Your journey to becoming a forensic professional starts here.

Practice with mock tests, learn from structured notes, and get your questions answered by a global forensic community, all in one place.