Ink, sweat and blood: navigating bloodstain patterns documentation at crime scenes in Ekurhuleni North, Johannesburg, South Africa

R J Mokwena1, M Maboa2 & T V Matlou3

https://doi.org/10.62271/pjc.16.4.283.296

Abstract
Violent crimes are often pigeon-holed by bloodstain found at the crime scene. The science of analysing the bloodstains found at the crime scene is referred to as bloodstain pattern analysis (BPA). The bloodstain pattern analysis embraces analysts recognising and interpreting bloodstain patterns to uncover how they were bent, when they were created, who created them and what object was used. Bloodstain pattern analysis is an important technique for determining what happened at the crime scene and presenting answers to the crime that occurred. Bloodstain pattern analysis is a subfield of forensic science that utilises blood
evidence to dive a conclusion about a crime and to illustrate the shadows of violent crimes. Though violent crime scenes that involve bloodshed often provide a prosperity of data in the form of the patterns, location, and possible causes of the bloodshed, it is unfortunate that such critical information can be missed and/or evidence demolished due to futile ways of protecting and preserving bloodstain patterns at the crime scene by the crime scene investigators from the Local Criminal Record Centre. The article took qualitative empirical approach where
participants were interviewed with the permission obtain from South African police Services and ethical clearance acquired from the University of South Africa. Findings and recommendations in this article were significant for implementation by the police.

Keywords: bloodstain pattern; bloodstain pattern analysis; crime scene; crime scene reconstruction; identification; individualization.