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Trace processing in forensic investigations involves key decision-making steps, starting with the decision to attend a crime scene to the analysis of a trace. Each stage is shaped by a combination of human, organisational, and contextual factors, and involves various stakeholders with diverse backgrounds and priorities, all of whom act as decision-makers at different points in the process. However, the complexity of decision-making in trace processing remains underexplored, with limited studies offering a comprehensive review of the entire workflow. As the first of a two-parts study focusing on decision making in trace processing linked to the broader contribution of forensic science, this study presents the results of a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) of 229 studies examining the decision-making process throughout trace processing. The review investigates four key stages: (1) crime scene attendance, often influenced by the offense type, policies, and case specifics; (2) trace detection, determined by physical and environmental conditions, prior knowledge, and search methods (3) trace selection and collection, notably shaped by case priorities, triaging, and expected utility; and (4) trace analysis, guided by trace characteristics, resources, and investigative goals. A broader focus on the process as a whole highlights how human factors, including expertise and cognitive biases, intersect with decision-making. The findings underscore significant variability in practices, notably driven by jurisdictional policies and training disparities. Additionally, the review identifies persistent gaps in procedural consistency, resource allocation, and forensic awareness. As early stages of the process shape subsequent steps, deficiencies in knowledge and practices at these stages can adversely affect the entire criminal justice process. By synthesising current practices and identifying research gaps, this study offers an integrative overview of the factors shaping decision-making in trace processing. •A systematic literature review on decision-making process through four key stages.•The findings indicate significant variation in practices, notably driven by jurisdictional policies and training disparities.•This review identifies persistent gaps in procedural consistency, resource allocation, and forensic awareness.

Interleukin (IL)-33, an important inflammatory cytokine, is highly expressed in skin wound tissue and serum of humans and mice, and plays an essential role in the process of skin wound healing (SWH) dependent on the IL-33/suppression of tumorigenicity 2 (ST2) pathway. However, whether IL-33 and ST2 themselves, as well as their interaction, can be applied for skin wound age determination in forensic practice remains incompletely characterized. Human skin samples with injured intervals of a few minutes to 24 hours (hs) and mouse skin samples with injured intervals of 1 h to 14 days (ds) were collected. Herein, the results demonstrated that IL-33 and ST2 are increased in the human skin wounds, and that in mice skin wounds, there is an increase over time, with IL-33 expression peaking at 24 hs and 10 ds, and ST2 expression peaking at 12 hs and 7 ds. Notably, the relative quantity of IL-33 and ST2 proteins < 0.35 suggested a wound age of 3 hs; their relative quantity > 1.0 suggested a wound age of 24 hs post-mouse skin wounds. In addition, immunofluorescent staining results showed that IL-33 and ST2 were consistently expressed in the cytoplasm of F4/80-positive macrophages and CD31-positive vascular endothelial cells with or without skin wounds, whereas nuclear localization of IL-33 was absent in α-SMA-positive myofibroblasts with skin wounds. Interestingly, IL-33 administration facilitated the wound area closure by increasing the proliferation of cytokeratin (K) 14 -positive keratinocytes and vimentin-positive fibroblasts. In contrast, treating with its antagonist (i.e., anti-IL-33) or receptor antagonist (e.g., anti-ST2) exacerbated the aforementioned pathological changes. Moreover, treatment with IL-33 combined with anti-IL-33 or anti-ST2 reversed the effect of IL-33 on facilitating skin wound closure, suggesting that IL-33 administration facilitated skin wound closure through the IL-33/ST2 signaling pathway. Collectively, these findings indicate that the detection of IL-33/ST2 might be a reliable biomarker for the determination of skin wound age in forensic practice.

Rapid technology advancements, especially in the past decade, have allowed off-the-shelf unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that weigh less than 250 g to become available for recreational use by the general population. Many well-known manufacturers (e.g., DJI) are now focusing on this segment of UAVs, and the new DJI Mini 2 drone is one of many that falls under this category, which enables easy access to be purchased and used without any Part 107 certification and Remote ID registration. The versatility of drones and drone models is appealing for customers, but they pose many challenges to forensic tools and digital forensics investigators due to numerous hardware and software variations. In addition, different devices can be associated and used for controlling these drones (e.g., Android and iOS smartphones). Moreover, according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the adoption of Remote ID is not going to be required for people without the 107 certifications for this segment at least until 2023, which creates finding personally identifiable information a necessity in these types of investigations. In this research, we conducted a comprehensive investigation of DJI Mini 2 and its data stored across multiple devices (e.g., SD cards and mobile devices) that are associated with the drone. The aim of this paper is to (1) create several criminal-like scenarios, (2) acquire and analyze the created scenarios using leading forensics software (e.g., Cellebrite and Magnet Axiom) that are commonly used by law enforcement agencies, (3) and present findings associated with potential criminal activities.

Xylazine abuse is emerging globally, while the identification of xylazine lethal cases poses a great challenge in clinical and forensic practice. The non-specific symptoms delay the diagnosis and treatment of xylazine poisoning, the pathological changes and lethal concentration of xylazine in body fluid and organs of fatal xylazine poisoning cases are seldom reported and the other toxins detected in such cases complicate the role of xylazine in the cause of death. Therefore, we carefully reviewed related updated information on xylazine, summarized the knowledge from clinical and forensic perspectives and can thus provide a reference in such cases and throw light on further study in the field of xylazine poisoning.

Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) has become a tough nut in forensic science because of its minor damages but serious consequences. Utilizing biomarkers to diagnose mTBI has become a promising approach due to various shortcomings of traditional diagnostic methods. In this work, we developed a peptide-modified ratiometric fluorescent nanoprobe based on carbon dots (CDs) and gold nanoclusters (AuNCs) for the measurements of a pivotal biomarker S100B protein in the early diagnosis of mTBI. It has been found that florescence intensity of AuNCs at 580 nm was decreased as report signal while the florescence intensity of CDs was unchanged as reference signal in this sensing system when the surface modified peptide bind tightly with calcium-activated S100B. Under the optimized conditions, S100B concentration ranging from 0.03 to 1 μg/mL was successfully determined within 30 min, and the detection limit of 0.01 μg/mL was acquired through the standard rule (S/N = 3). Moreover, the detection of S100B in spiked blood samples were conducted with satisfactory recoveries. The as-prepared ratiometric fluorescent nanoprobe was proved to be a time-saving, convenient, and sensitive strategy, and it showed great prospects in the early diagnosis of mTBI in forensic practice.

PurposeThis paper aims to explore advances in indirect personality assessment, with emphasis on the psychology of digital behavior based on the analysis of new technological devices and platforms for interpersonal relationships, identifying – along the way – those findings that may be useful to carry out a reconstructive psychological assessment (RPA) of applicability in the legal context.Design/methodology/approachDifferent fields of knowledge are explored, transferring the findings to the field of psychology of digital behavior, analyzing the publications that report findings on the analysis of new technological devices and platforms for interpersonal relationships and identifying – along the way – those findings that may result useful to carry out an RPA of applicability in the legal context.FindingsThe application of RPA represents a significant advance in the integration of criminal psychology and forensic technology in legal contexts, opening new fields of action for forensic psychology.Originality/valueThe article has transferred advances in computer science to the field of forensic psychology, with emphasis on the relevance of RPA (from the analysis of digital behavioral residues) in the interpretation of behavioral evidence for the indirect evaluation of the personality and within the judicial context (when the victim and/or accused are not included).

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to review the evidence base for the use of risk formulation in forensic practice settings. Design/methodology/approach Systematic literature review principles were adopted to identify literature exploring risk formulation in forensic practice settings in relation to offending behaviour. Findings Data were analysed using a narrative synthesis approach, and commonalities were observed across some of the studies in terms of definitions, outcomes, and implementation, of risk formulation; however, the findings of the review did not provide a definitive account of risk formulation practice in forensic settings. This is due to the narrow scope of the included studies, the small yet diverse samples, the heterogeneity in research aims and the methodological weaknesses apparent within the included studies. Research limitations/implications Further research is needed to understand the application and outcomes of risk formulation in forensic practice settings. Practical implications Practitioners should be clear about how they are defining, implementing and assessing the outcomes of risk formulation, alongside being mindful of the evidence base when utilising forensic risk formulation in practice. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper to focus solely on the evidence base for forensic risk formulation in practice.

AN AUTHORITATIVE GUIDE TO THE CURRENT SPECIALTY GUIDELINES FOR FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGY Ethics in Forensic Psychology Practice is a comprehensive and authoritative resource that addresses major concerns of professionals who conduct evaluations, provide treatment, carry out research, as well as a guide for those who teach and train in diverse legal.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of blogging (writing online weblogs) in facilitating healing following sexual assault. Design/methodology/approach – To explore how blog writing may facilitate healing and recovery, 30 blog posts written by survivors of sexual assault were analysed using thematic analysis. Findings – The analysis revealed three themes: the aftermath of abuse, the need for support and helping others. In accordance with past research, bloggers frequently did not receive the supportive reaction to a face-to-face disclosure that they desired. Instead, blogging provided a safe environment in which victims could deal with the ongoing challenge of coping with, and recovering from the abuse. Moreover, blogging enabled victims to use their negative experience to educate and support others going through a similar experience, therefore allowing the bloggers to achieve some positive growth. Practical implications – The results suggest that blogging and reading blogs may be beneficial to victims of sexual assault. Therefore, the findings support the recommendation of blogging by professionals working with victims of sexual assault. Originality/value – The study presents the first analysis of blogs written by victims of sexual assault to facilitate their healing.

We investigated how scores from the Rorschach task and self-reports of psychotic-like disturbance distinguish individuals attempting to appear insane (i.e., feigning) from patients with psychotic disturbances or nonpatient controls. We also evaluated whether Rorschach scores provide incremental validity over self-reported symptoms. The study used 50 nonpatients asked to feign (F; age M  = 19.5, SD  = 1.5), 88 incarcerated forensic inpatients deemed not guilty by reason of insanity or incompetent to stand trial (P; age M  = 40.8, SD  = 13.5), and 47 standard nonpatient controls (S; age M  = 19.8, SD  = 2.2). Participants responded to the Rorschach Performance Assessment System (R-PAS), the Magical Ideation Scale (MIS), and the Perceptual Aberration Scale (PAS). We compared each pair of groups (i.e., F vs. P, P vs. S, and F vs. S) with separate predetermined hypotheses addressing the multimethod assessment of feigning or psychosis and ran logistic regressions including Rorschach and self-reported scores to predict group membership (e.g., F vs. P). Primary analyses found validity for Critical Contents and a revised version of it, the Thought and Perception Composite (TP-Comp), a variable we call Breaking the Card Boundary (BCB), and self-reported symptoms. In supplementary analyses, we document validity for subcomponents of TP-Comp alone and in combination with BCB. We also found it was easier to feign self-reported symptoms than R-PAS assessed characteristics and that R-PAS variables had incremental validity over self-reports on the MIS-PAS. Finally, we note limitations and suggest future paths, such as evaluating the generalizability of the results when considering attempts to feign severe mental illness on the trauma spectrum and creating a feigning composite using cross-validated logistic regression equations.