Forensic Chemistry and Biochemistry

Bloodstain Pattern Analysis

Blood follows some scientific standards, so professional bloodstain pattern analysts will study the blood evidence left behind and draw conclusions about how the blood was shed.  Analysts can categorise bloodstains from what appears to be a random distribution at a crime scene by extracting information from spatter patterns, transfers, voids, and other marks that aid investigators in recreating the sequence of events that occurred after bloodshed. This type of physical evidence necessitates the analyst's ability to identify and interpret patterns in order to figure out how they were made.

The interpretation of bloodstains at a crime scene in order to reconstruct the behaviour that triggered the bloodshed is known as bloodstain pattern analysis (BPA). The scale, shape, distribution, and position of the bloodstains are used by analysts to form conclusions on what happened or did not happen.