Article
Article
- Biology & Biomedicine
- Forensic science
- Forensic isotope analysis
- Chemistry
- Analytical chemistry
- Forensic isotope analysis
DISCLAIMER: This article is being kept online for historical purposes. Though accurate at last review, it is no longer being updated. The page may contain broken links or outdated information.
Forensic isotope analysis
Article By:
Meier-Augenstein, Wolfram Stable Isotope Unit, James Hutton Institute, Dundee, United Kingdom.
Last reviewed:2014
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.YB140241
- Stable isotopes
- Stable isotope analysis
- Chemically indistinguishable yet not the same
- Human provenancing
- Case examples
- Related Primary Literature
- Additional Reading
Are two cocaine “bricks” seized as part of two independent police operations part of the same drug-running operation or are they part of two different drug-dealing organizations operating in the same city? Are the hundreds of ecstasy tablets seized during the search of a suspected drug dealer's house linked to the handful of ecstasy tablets found on the suspect or are they, as per the suspect's defense, completely unrelated, having been stashed unbeknownst to him by a friend crashing at his home for a night? Was an unidentified homicide victim a local resident or had this person only recently moved to this location? When is one batch of methamphetamine not the same as another batch of methamphetamine? All these questions have two things in common. First, these are all questions typically asked in the context of a legal case, be it criminal or civil law. Second, these questions can all be answered by stable isotope forensics, which is the forensic application of stable isotope analytical techniques.
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