The science of violence

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="200" caption="Gary Nolan examines the impressions of shattered glass on a skin simulant Credit: University of Leicester"][/caption]

Approximately 10% of all assaults needing treatment in A&E departments are the result of glass and bottle attacks, but little is understood about how much force is required to create the injuries.

However, a team from the University of Leicester has developed a way of measuring how much force is used during a stabbing with a broken bottle, resulting in a set of penetration force data for broken glass bottles.

The team examined the impressions of shattered glass on a skin simulant consisting of foam with a layer of silicon rubber.

“This study involved scanning a selection of bottles using Multi-Detector Computed Tomography (MDCT), smashing them to give a stabbing instrument and repeating the same MDCT protocol,” PhD student Gary Nolan told Laboratory News. “The bottles were then placed in a Materials Testing System (MTS) and the force to penetrate a skin simulant (consisting of silicon rubber and foam) was recorded.”

The study – published in the International Journal of Legal Medicine – revealed that carrying out reconstructions of glass bottle stabbing incidents can be unreliable and may lead to a misleading approximation of force involved.

“It was found that a unique ‘stabbing surface’ was produced for each bottle, which means it is not possible to predict a definitive value for the amount of force involved to cause a penetrating injury in a broken bottle attack,” said Nolan.  “The penetration force did not have a correlation with the size, shape or type of bottle.”

He said this is important as in previous cases, reconstructions of assaults involving broken glass bottles have been carried out, and because every fracture generates a unique ‘stabbing surface’ reconstructions could give misleading estimations of force involved.

“I’m very excited about this piece of work as it has great implications within the field of forensics and to society as a whole,” Nolan said. “We have shown that carrying out reconstructions of glass bottle stabbing incidents are potentially unreliable and may lead to a misleading approximation of force involved.

“This affects the type of, and way, in which such information should be presented in court. The research is also feeding into new standards and best practice for developing safer drinking vessels.”

A study considering the force required for broken glass bottles to penetrate a skin stimulant www.springerlink.com/content/v21t5g05250n22xw