• Delta - A delta is the place on a ridge • Friction Ridge Line-Friction ridges are the
nearest to the point of divergence of two crests or high points of the lines present on
type lines. the underside of our hands and feet. These
ridges are abundant and form unique and
• Core- A core is the center of a loop, whorl
individualizing patterns on the outer
and some arch patterns.
surfaces of the skin of our fingers, palms,
• Type Line - Type lines are two ridges that toes, and soles. The troughs or low points of
run parallel and surround or tend to encircle these ridges are known as furrows.
the pattern area.
• Bifurcation- Bifurcations are the forking of
two friction ridges
Bloodstain Pattern Glossary
Angle of impact- The angle at which • Caucasoid- An anthropological term
a blood drop strikes a target surface. designating one of the major groups of
Back spatter- Blood that travels back human beings, that is, the people of Europe.
toward the direction of the initiating
• Cellular- Displaying some definite form,
force
pattern, or shape. Usually refers to the
Blood spatter - The resulting pattern
medullary configuration.
that is formed when a quantity of
blood impacts a surface. •Characteristic -A microscopic or
Cast-off blood - Blood that is macroscopic feature of a hair.
collected by and then cast from a
moving object during an incident. • Color- Refers to the hue of the hair as
Contact stain - The result of a bloody judged both with reflected and transmitted
article coming into contact with a light.
surface. • Comparison-The process of examining
Point of origin - The location from questioned and known hair specimens in
which the blood originates. order to associate or disassociate them from
Smear-The pattern left when a a given individual.
bloody object is wiped across a
surface. • Cortex-The primary anatomic region of a
Target-The surface on which blood hair between the cuticle region and the
is deposited. medullary region.
Transfer pattern - A recognizable • Cortical fusi -The small spaces within the
pattern that is transferred to a surface hair shaft that appear as tiny dark specks.
when bloody objects come into
contact with it. • Cross-sectional shape- The shape of a hair
shaft when cut at right angles to its
Glossary of Hair Terms longitudinal axis.
• Anagen-The anagen root is a root from the • Cuticle-The outermost region of a hair. It
active growth phase of a hair follicle. The is composed of layers of overlapping scales.
root from a pulled anagen hair is elongated,
can have a root sheath, and is normally • Distal end -The end of the hair that is
pigmented. furthest from the root.
• Buckling-The appearance of caving in of • Hair-Any fine, cylindrically shaped fiber
the hair shaft. Normally present in pubic hair growing from the skin of mammals.
Scene of • Imbricate- Describes a scale pattern having
• Catagen-The catagen phase is the step- the edges overlapping in a wavy pattern.
down phase of hair growth. The time period • Keratin- A sulfur-containing fibrous
between the active (anagen) growth phase protein that forms the chemical basis for
and the resting (telogen) growth phase. A keratinized epidermal tissues such as hair.
catagen root may be club-shaped and may
have a meager amount of pigment and a • Known - A known sample is a collected
dried root sheath. sample intended to be representative of a
particular body area of a specific person or
animal. It usually consists of 50 to 100 hairs
from around the area being sampled.
• Macroscopic- Describes characteristics
large enough to be perceived by the unaided
human eye or under low magnification.
• Medial region - The portion of the hair
between the proximal and distal ends.
• Medulla - The anatomic region of a hair
normally located in the center of the cortex.
• Medullary configuration - The form the
medullary cells taken from the proximal end
to the distal end of the hair shaft.
• Melanin-The pigment that provides the
color to hair.
• Mongoloid- An anthropological term
designating one of the major groups of
human beings from Asia and including the
Inuit peoples and Native Americans.
• Negroid-An anthropological term
designating one of the major groups of
human beings, that is, the people of Africa.
• Ovoid bodies- Oval or round pigmented
bodies usually found in the hair cortex.
• Pigment density- The relative abundance
of pigment granules in the hair cortex, as
judged by their microscopic appearance.
• Pigment distribution- The pattern of the
pigment granules about the central axis of
the hair shaft (uniform, peripheral, one-
sided, random, central, or medial).
• Proximal end - The end of the hair nearest
the root end
• Questioned -A sample or specimen of
unknown origin.
• Regional origin - Originating from one of
the three major groups of human beings as
defined by anthropologists.
• Root- The structure at the proximal end of
a hair which comes from the hair follicle.
• Scales - Tiny plate-like structures made of
keratin that protect the hair.
• Telogen - The last phase of the hair growth
cycle, during which the hair root becomes
bulbous shaped and can be easily shed from
the follicle.
• Tip-The most distal end of a hair’s shaft.