Importance Of Hair In Crime Investigation

In crime scene investigations there is a lot of evidence that is valuable. That is including hair that is found at a crime scene. However, hair may not be seen as valuable evidence, but it is. Hair can tell you things that other evidence cannot. It can give you information about the unknown perpetrator and narrow your list of suspects. Hair is the most common type of trace evidence. Hair is easily transferred and resilient. Therefore, making it the most probable to be found at a crime scene during the investigation. It does not matter whether the hair was extrapolated or fell out. It is more than likely going to be found during investigation. However, even if the perpetrator took extra precaution and got rid of all evidence, they wouldn’t stop to think to get the hair off the victim. Normally because
For instance, you can learn the race of the person by inspecting the hair under a microscope. You will also be able to learn the hair color of the victim. This allows you to narrow your list of suspects even more. If the victim pulled out the hair from the perpetrator then you will be able to find nuclear DNA (nDNA) off of the follicle. This type of DNA can create a DNA unique to the hair’s owner. If the hair happened to fall out, then you would be able to find mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). This type of DNA can narrow it down to the mother’s side of the family. Mitochondrial DNA does not require the follicle to be on the hair because mtDNA is found along the shaft of the hair. Toxicology of hair can tell you if a person did drugs or if the person happened to be poisoned by the perpetrator. If the hair contained any chemicals or was dyed Forensic Scientists would be able to tell. Furthermore, hair can give a prospect of the perpetrators cultural reference, because when looking at hair you can determine the types of foods they have