ABSTRACT
Before proceeding to the specifics of bloodstain pattern analysis, it seems appropriate to consider crime scene analysis and reconstruction in their own right. Bloodstain pattern analysis is so closely related to the tenets of crime reconstruction that it is difficult to separate them as distinct processes. The reason for this difficulty is that bloodstain pattern analysis seeks to answer the question “what happened.” Any attempt at bloodstain pattern analysis is in effect a partial crime scene reconstruction. Often, bloodstain pattern analysis will provide a significant source of the information used in the crime scene reconstruction. Therefore, the bloodstain pattern analyst must understand and apply acceptable scene reconstruction methods.
