A common framework to situate digital and physical traces in time

Area of Science:

• Forensic Science
• Digital Forensics
• Chronometry

Background:

• Establishing the timeline of events is crucial in forensic investigations.
• Existing methods for dating forensic traces face challenges in reliability and applicability.
• The Sydney Declaration provides a framework for addressing issues in forensic dating.

Purpose of the Study:

• To revisit and adapt three main approaches for situating forensic traces in time.
• To evaluate these approaches for both physical and digital traces.
• To enhance the reliability of forensic dating methods by considering the Sydney Declaration principles.

Main Methods:

• Review and adaptation of three dating approaches: time tags, time dynamics, and relative sequences.
• Analysis of the potential and limitations of each approach for physical and digital traces.
• Application of the Sydney Declaration principles to assess dating methodologies.

Main Results:

• Time tags (timestamps, time indicators) require expertise to interpret and are prone to manipulation.
• Time dynamics methods are influenced by external factors, making them less reliable.
• Relative sequences offer an alternative but lack direct temporal information.

Conclusions:

• A combination of different traces and dating approaches is recommended for robust time determination.
• Adherence to the Sydney Declaration principles is vital for addressing uncertainties in forensic dating.
• Future research should focus on systematizing and combining dating approaches for investigative practice.