Transfer Stain
Definition
A stain deposited when a wet, blood-bearing object contacts a surface and leaves an impression. Shoe soles, hands, fabric, and tools can all produce transfer stains that may retain the source pattern.
- Mechanism
- Wet blood-bearing object contacts a surface
- Common sources
- Shoe soles, hands, fabric, tools
- Pattern retained
- Can preserve the source object's shape or texture
- Category
- Bloodstain pattern analysis, contact stain
Common questions
How is a transfer stain distinguished from a spatter stain?+
A transfer stain forms by direct contact and can show a recognisable shape or texture from the source object, while spatter forms from blood travelling through the air and lands as discrete drops without a contact outline.
What can a transfer stain tell an examiner beyond that contact occurred?+
A clear pattern can identify the type of object involved, such as a shoe tread or fabric weave, and swipe direction within the stain can indicate the direction of movement during contact.
Related terms
- Bloodstain Pattern Analysis (BPA)
- The scientific discipline that examines the size, shape, distribution, and location of bloodstains to reconstruct the events that produced them, addressing questions...
- IABPA
- The International Association of Bloodstain Pattern Analysts, founded 1983, which sets training standards and accreditation criteria for BPA specialists.
- Passive Drip
- A stain formed when blood falls from a source under gravity alone. The resulting drop is roughly circular; its diameter correlates with...
- Presumptive Test
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- Projected Pattern
- A pattern produced when blood is expelled under pressure or force exceeding gravity, as in arterial spurting, impact spatter, or cast-off from...