ABSTRACT
Since the FBI convened the Technical Working Group for DNA Methods (TWGDAM), now the Scientific Working Group (SWG) for DNA Methods (SWGDAM), the forensic community has formed several working groups. The intent of these groups is to bring together practitioners in the field from crime laboratories, federal and local agencies, and industry. One common purpose of these groups is to begin an open dialogue concerning the philosophy relating to each SWG and to review and update the methods used to examine the evidence. For the more mature groups, such as SWGDAM, the work product has resulted in the endorsement of specific methods for analyzing the DNA in forensic evidence. Other SWGs are not that far along. For example, the work product of SWGSTAIN has been the development of a standard list of terminology so that all bloodstain pattern analysts can speak the same language (Chapter 14).
