NCJ Number
223806
Journal
Homicide Studies Volume: 12 Issue: 3 Dated: August 2008 Pages: 277-284
Date Published
August 2008
Length
8 pages
Annotation
This article explores the comparability of postmortem forensic toxicologic testing across jurisdictions.
Abstract
With few exceptions, all sites tested for the same substances but did not use the same methodology. The limit of detection thresholds for drugs of abuse and psychoactive medications varied up to 30-fold, limiting the comparability of cross-jurisdictional toxicologic data. To explore the comparability of postmortem forensic toxicologic testing across jurisdictions, a survey was administered to 11 laboratories serving pilot sites for a violent death reporting system in different States. Data for this study were obtained by survey in 2003 through the voluntary participation of National Violent Injury Statistics Systems (NVISS) sites and the forensic toxicology laboratories serving their jurisdictions. The survey documented the laboratories’ ability to detect 14 categories of drugs, the screening and confirmatory threshold limits used for each, and the specific screening and confirmatory tests used. Tables, references