Reliability of Bloodhounds in Criminal Investigations (original) (raw)
Research-Article
1
Victor Valley College
, Department of Biology,
Victorville, CA
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2
San Bernardino Police Department
,
San Bernardino, CA
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LM Harvey, PhD
1
Victor Valley College
, Department of Biology,
Victorville, CA
JW Harvey, BSc
2
San Bernardino Police Department
,
San Bernardino, CA
J. Forensic Sci.. Jul 2003, 48(4): 1-6 (6 pages)
Published Online: July 1, 2003
Abstract
Anecdotal evidence and legend have suggested that bloodhounds are capable of trailing and alerting to a human by his or her individual scent. This same evidence may be presented to a court of law in order to accuse a particular suspect or suspects of a crime. There is little to no scientific evidence confirming the bloodhound's ability to trail and discriminate the scent of different individual humans. Eight bloodhounds (3 novice and 5 veteran), trained in human scent discrimination were used to determine the reliability of evidence, garnered through the use of bloodhounds, in a court of law. These dogs were placed on trails in an environment that simulated real-life scenarios. Results indicate that a veteran bloodhound can trail and correctly identify a person under various conditions. These data suggest that the potential error rate of a veteran bloodhound-handler team is low and can be a useful tool for law enforcement personnel.
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