Natasha Warburton
Homicide
Week 7

Bloodstain pattern analysis is defined as the examination of shapes, locations and distribution patterns of bloodstains, this source has been a helpful resource to the law enforcement with solving there case and recognizing what type of criminal act was committed. Bloodstain patterns can help investigators understand the actions and motions of the victim and the suspect throughout the crime scene. The patterns may indicate that a crime first thought of as a suicide was in fact a homicide. The analysis of bloodstain patterns is a complicated discipline and requires much experience with many different situations to learn to do an accurate reading. The bloodstain pattern analysis plays a very important role in the reconstruction of many crime scenes.
The various types of bloodstains account for how the blood was projected from the body. Blood may be dripped out of the body, sprayed from an artery, oozed out through a large wound or flung off a weapon that has struck another person. Through bloodstain pattern analysis, analysts can determine, among other things, the type of injuries received, the order in which the injuries were received, whose blood is present at the scene, and more. As I read throughout the chapter I notice that bloodstain pattern analysis can form a very interesting story that keeps the media itself entertained. The reason I said this is that, it turns out that the location where the blood lands, and the shape of the blood on the landing surface, reveal both the direction in which the blood was moving and how much force was used to wound the victim. Bloodstain pattern analysts use principles from biology, chemistry, physics and math to figure out the location of the victim when the blood was shed and even the type of weapon or impact that caused the victim’s injury. Sometimes, blood from a weapon can even reveal a criminal’s mentality. For example, powerfully projected sprays of blood would suggest that the attack was fierce and was meant to kill the victim.
There are different types of impact spatter such as high impact, medium impact and low impact. A low-velocity spatter is usually the result of dripping blood. The force of impact is five feet per second or less, and the size of the droplets is somewhere between four and eight millimeters (0.16 to 0.31 inches). This type of blood spatter often occurs after a victim initially sustains an injury, not during the infliction of the injury itself. For example, if the victim is stabbed and then walks around bleeding, the resulting drops are a type of low-velocity spatters known as passive spatters. A medium-velocity spatter is one that had a force of anywhere from 5 to 100 feet per second, and its diameter is usually no more than four millimeters. This type of spatter can be caused by a blunt object, such as a bat or an intense beating with a fist. It can also result from a stabbing. Unlike with a low-density spatter, when a victim is beaten or stabbed, arteries can be damaged.
High-velocity spatters are usually caused by gunshot wounds, although they can be caused by other weapons if the assailant exerts an extreme amount of force. these platter help a investigator know what type of weapon was used on cite because it has of the volume of blood and they shape/size of the blood spatter.