Broad personality or global traits are unlikely to assist in solving capital crimes, so forensic psychologists have begun to focus on characteristics of the crime to create differentiating profiles. The purpose of this study was to determine if offender and victim characteristics and method of murder could provide cluster profiles differentiating familial relationship between offender and victim. Guided by classical conditioning theory and social learning theory, an archival database of 147 capital offenders responsible for 506 victims was analyzed. Cluster analysis yielded 3 distinct profiles. Compared to other clusters, Cluster 1 offenders tended to be Black and unfamiliar with their victims, who tended to be male between 20 and 50 years old that were typically shot. Cluster 2 offenders tended to be White and familiar with their typically female victims under the age of 20 who they typically murdered by use of blunt force or strangulation. Cluster 3 offenders were distinguished from the other 2 clusters only by having accounted for 90.6% of all victims who were stabbed, but no other associations with variables in the data set were discovered to explain this finding. Though limited in sample size, range of variables, and supplemental insights that could have been gained from case files or interviews, the results contribute to positive social change with offender-victim characteristics and method of murder profiles that begin to differentiate the familial offender-victim relationship and that future research can prospectively build on to create retrospective profiling models, which could potentially lead to resolving unsolved serial murder cases.

Clandestine burials, the interred human remains of forensic interest, are generally small features located in isolated environments. Typical ground searches can be both time-consuming and dangerous. Thermal remote sensing has been recognized for some time as a possible search strategy for such burials that are in relatively open areas; however, there is a paucity of published research with respect to this application. This project involved image manipulation, the analyses of signatures for "graves" of various depths when compared to an undisturbed background, and the use of image classification techniques to tease out these features. This research demonstrates a relationship between the depth of burial disturbance and the resultant signature. Further, image classification techniques, especially object-oriented algorithms, can be successfully applied to single band thermal imagery. These findings may ultimately decrease burial search times for law enforcement and increase the likelihood of locating clandestine graves.

The presence of inhibitory substances in biological forensic samples has, and continues to affect the quality of the data generated following DNA typing processes. Although the chemistries used during the procedures have been enhanced to mitigate the effects of these deleterious compounds, some challenges remain. Inhibitors can be components of the samples, the substrate where samples were deposited or chemical(s) associated to the DNA purification step. Therefore, a thorough understanding of the extraction processes and their ability to handle the various types of inhibitory substances can help define the best analytical processing for any given sample. A series of experiments were conducted to establish the inhibition tolerance of quantification and amplification kits using common inhibitory substances in order to determine if current laboratory practices are optimal for identifying potential problems associated with inhibition. DART mass spectrometry was used to determine the amount of inhibitor carryover after sample purification, its correlation to the initial inhibitor input in the sample and the overall effect in the results. Finally, a novel alternative at gathering investigative leads from samples that would otherwise be ineffective for DNA typing due to the large amounts of inhibitory substances and/or environmental degradation was tested. This included generating data associated with microbial peak signatures to identify locations of clandestine human graves. Results demonstrate that the current methods for assessing inhibition are not necessarily accurate, as samples that appear inhibited in the quantification process can yield full DNA profiles, while those that do not indicate inhibition may suffer from lowered amplification efficiency or PCR artifacts. The extraction methods tested were able to remove >90% of the inhibitors from all samples with the exception of phenol, which was present in variable amounts whenever the organic extraction approach was utilized. Although the results attained suggested that most inhibitors produce minimal effect on downstream applications, analysts should practice caution when selecting the best extraction method for particular samples, as casework DNA samples are often present in small quantities and can contain an overwhelming amount of inhibitory substances.