Abstract
Gunshot residues (GSR) are of interest whenever a crime involves the discharge of a firearm. They do not only inform about their source, but also about the suspect’s implication. In order to assess the existing knowledge on GSR in the literature and contribute to the creation of a structured database on transfer traces at the activity level, studies focusing on transfer, persistence, background, population and detection of GSR in various scenarios and on different supports were analyzed, with a critical assessment in a Canadian context. This research establishes a review of the current knowledge identifies gaps in the literature and therefore suggests future research to be undertaken.
RÉSUMÉ
Les résidus de tir sont d’intérêt chaque fois qu’un crime implique la décharge d’une arme à feu. Ils peuvent non seulement informer sur leur source, mais aussi sur l’implication du suspect. Afin d’évaluer l’état des connaissances sur les résidus de tir et de contribuer à la création d’une base de données structurée sur les traces de transfert au niveau de l’activité, des études axées sur le transfert, la persistance, le bruit de fond, la population et la détection des résidus de tirs, dans divers scénarios et avec différents supports, ont été analysées avec une évaluation critique dans un contexte canadien. Cette recherche offre une revue des connaissances actuelles, identifie de potentielles lacunes dans la littérature et suggère de futures recherches à entreprendre.
Acknowledgments
The authors would sincerely like to thank Ms Linda Vézina, firearms examiner at the Laboratoire de sciences judiciaires et de médecine légale in Montreal, for her contribution and support in the thinking process on the state of knowledge on GSR.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest is reported by the authors.
Funding
This work was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) under Grant number 430-2016-00051 and 430-2018-00641, from June 1st, 2018 to May 31st, 2022.
Funding
The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.
Notes
1 The ScienceDirectTM platform offers, following consultation of an article, a series of similar or cited articles that could be of interest to the reader.
2 All data analyzed in this article can be found in the .csv spreadsheet (under .xlsx format) joined as supplemental material in the study by Cadola et al. [Citation11]. Only the online TTADB will be continuously updated in the future, accessible at the following address: http://www.uqtr.ca/LRC/BDATT-TTADB.