NCJ Number
234447
Journal
Journal of Forensic Sciences Volume: 56 Issue: 2 Dated: March 2011 Pages: 491-500
Date Published
March 2011
Length
10 pages
Annotation
This study is a comparison of measured refractive indices (RIs) of recovered glass fragments with representative samples of a broken glass object.
Abstract
For comparative glass examinations, the refractive indices (RIs) of recovered glass fragments are often compared to a test interval defined by measurements from a broken glass object. RI measurements from five modern float glasses were used via resampling to assess the frequencies of false exclusion errors for eight test criteria as functions of the number of measurements. The test criteria were based on ranges, fixed intervals, and multiples of standard deviations of the known source measurements. The observed error rates for the eight tests studied are between zero and c. 35 percent, depending upon the match criteria, the number of measurements, and the RI distribution for a glass source. The results of this study can be used to predict the false exclusion rate for a test criterion under a given set of conditions or to select test criteria that result in a desired error rate for these typical sheet glasses. (Published Abstract)