合成皮膚を用いた致死性の低い弾丸による傷パターンの同定

Less lethal munitions are frequently used for crowd control during protests and riots. The injuries inflicted by impacts from less lethal projectiles can range from minor contusions to severe head trauma. Two common types of less lethal projectiles are beanbag rounds and foam rounds. Both have been frequently deployed in crowd control scenarios and have been occasionally responsible for severe head injuries (Rajaram et al., 2022). Forensic investigations may be required to determine the type of less lethal projectile responsible for an injury. In an effort to develop a reliable, cost-effective approach to address this issue, we have conducted preliminary tests in which less lethal projectiles were fired at targets covered with synthetic skin. The objective of the study was to determine whether the defect patterns created by the less lethal projectile impacts could provide a means of distinguishing between scalp wounds created by beanbag rounds and foam rounds. Our preliminary tests were able to identify several features of the defect patterns which indicate the utility of synthetic skin as substrate for differentiating between scalp wounds due to impacts between these two types of less lethal projectiles. In particular, we found that the size of the defect, the extent of the penetration, the likelihood of laceration and the presence of stippling were features that distinguished beanbag round impacts from foam round impacts.