Elimination Sample
Definition
A known reference sample collected from someone who had legitimate access to a scene or item, used to separate their class and individual characteristics from those of an unknown contributor. Critical for fibres, fingerprints, and DNA.
Related terms
- Acquired Characteristics
- Individual characteristics that develop after manufacture through use, wear, damage, or corrosion. A new shoe has only class characteristics; a worn shoe...
- Class Characteristics
- Features deliberately or systematically imparted to a group of items by design or manufacture, such as the calibre of a bullet, the...
- Comparison Microscopy
- A technique in which known and questioned samples are viewed simultaneously through split or adjacent fields in a single instrument. Used in...
- Individual Characteristics
- Surface features on a fired bullet or cartridge case that arise from random or unique events (tool wear, corrosion, service damage) and...
- Source Attribution
- The inferential step of linking a trace to its donor. Serology identifies blood as human and potentially as a specific genetic type;...
Explained in
- Class versus Individual CharacteristicsA known reference sample collected from someone who had legitimate access to a scene or item, used to separate their class and individual characteristics from...