Forensic Gait Analysis

Haydn D. Kelly

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781466504141
• eBook ISBN: 9781315356945
• Topic: Law
• Subtopic: Forensic Science
• Index: Law

Forensic Gait Analysis examines the inter-section of podiatric medicine with forensic investigation—that which links or dissociates a suspect to a crime through analysis of their gait, that is their movement—how an individual walks, runs, and bends.

This book provides a concise explanation of how an individual's gait and biomechanics are forensically analysed and compared, using video imagery in the process of human identification and investigations. Along with the presentation and delivery of material with case law references illustrating the use of expert evidence.

Gait analysis is a long-standing component of the diagnostic and therapeutic tool set of medical disciplines, although the knowledge goes back much further.

The area has also captured the interest of technology engineers and others, as the development and use of forensic gait analysis as an investigative and evidential device continues to widen.

Features:

• Presents succinct knowledge on forensic gait analysis.

• 100+ illustrations with photographs and diagrams; over 850 references.

• Considers the technical and scientific basis of the field including, the history of gait, musculoskeletal, neurology, emotions and gait, forensic statistics, photogrammetry, and recognises the trajectory of development into IT and software solutions.

• Coverage on CCTV imagery and other video footage for use in the process of identification and investigations.

• Details are provided on report writing and giving expert evidence in the legal systems.

• Contributors across all subject areas.

This definitive fully referenced text on Forensic Gait Analysis is a welcome publication for healthcare professionals, lawyers, counsel, investigators, forensic practitioners, and students wishing to know more on the subject and this growing domain.

1

Gait Analysis

A Historical Overview

Contents

A Move to Understanding: The Classical Period

The Rebirth of Scientific Thought

The Emergence of Modern Scientific Thought

Advances in the Age of Enlightenment

1800–1900: The Gait Century

The Twentieth Century and Beyond

Gait Analysis and Podiatry

Podiatry Education and Training in Relation to Gait Analysis

References

A Move to Understanding: The Classical Period

It was during the period of classical antiquity that fundamental changes in mankind’s world view were codified and transcribed. These societies formulated a basic understanding of mathematical and mechanical principles and were subsequently able to separate cultural myth from human reality. Additionally, this period witnessed a new thinking in medicine with an emphasis on empiricism and experimentation. One of the first to make a significant contribution to this field was Plato (c. 427–347 BCE), who as a student of Socrates was quoted as observing that ‘the best tool for the pursuit of knowledge is through maths’. In particular, he used the science of geometry and applied it to solving issues in the world around him. One of his most influential works was the Timaeus,¹ in which Plato linked the make-up of the human body to transcendental geometric shapes.² In this treatise, he explained the reasoning that the Gods bestowed mankind with ‘four limbs – extended and flexible’ for means of locomotion:

Such was the origin of legs and hands, which for this reason were attached to every man; and the gods, deeming the front part of man to be more honourable and more fit to command than the hinder part, made us to move mostly in a forward direction.³

Plato’s student Aristotle (384–322 BCE) was the son of a royal physician and later became tutor to Alexander the Great. He was considered to be the natural successor to his mentor’s philosophy, but it was found that their ideologies differed in several key respects. Aristotle was an empiricist and believed that knowledge came after experience and experimentation. He was a true polymath but considered himself foremost to be one who studied living things and an observer of nature who contributed and expanded the knowledge of anatomy and locomotion in animals. This was enshrined in a key text entitled On the Movements of Animals.⁴ It was based on observations describing the muscular action and movement of animals. It was also the first scientific analysis of human and animal locomotion, gait and muscular action. The mechanical comparisons illustrated a deeper understanding of the functions of bones and muscles. Aristotle explained ground reaction forces and discussed the use of levers. He likened animal movements to those of puppets. He expressed such movements through the use of mathematics and physics and observed:

For as the pusher pushes so is the pushed, and with equal force. But the prime mover moves that which is to begin with at rest, so that the power it exerts is greater, rather than equal and like to the power which produces absence of motion in that which is moved.⁵

He then went on to explain that, ‘when movement arises out from a joint, one of the extreme points must remain at rest, and the other be moved (for as we explained above the mover must support itself against a point of rest)’⁶

Working in Syracuse, Sicily, Archimedes (287–212 BCE) produced his treatise Equilibrium of Planes, and his application of Euclidian methodology to mechanics provided the basis of rational mechanics. Archimedes’ thinking was occupied with movement as he solved the problem of how to transfer a given weight by a given force, and his works dominated until the times of Simon Stevin (1548–1620) and Galileo.⁷

In general, these important observations by classical scholars could be considered as the birth of ‘kinematics’ – that is ‘the branch of mechanics concerned with the motion of objects without reference to the forces which cause the motion’ – derived from the Greek ‘kinema’ (to move).⁸ This is also linked to ‘kinetics’, which is the energy an object creates during motion.

Somewhat later, the first significant study of biomechanics was created by the leading authority in ancient Roman medicine, Galen (c.130–c.210 AD). Biomechanics is defined as ‘the study of biological systems, particularly their structure and function, using methods derived from mechanics, which is concerned with the effects that forces have on the motion of bodies’.⁹ Although a Greek, Galen had experience as a medical consultant to gladiatorial combatants in Asia Minor (comprising most of what is now modern day Turkey). Galen was appointed as physician to the College of Gladiators at the age of 28 and probably became the first ‘sports physician’ and ‘team doctor’ as we know the terms. He practised surgery and dietetics for four years and in doing so gained considerable knowledge of the human body and human motion. His talents were recognised by the highest authorities, and later he was to hold a position as physician to the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, where he remained for 20 years.¹⁰ Of particular note was his discourse De Motu Musculorum (On the Movement of Muscles), which concerned motion and motility and which embodied his eternal passion for the mechanism of movement.¹¹ He made huge advances in the understanding of muscles and, in so doing, establishing of the science of myology. The emphasis that he placed on structure showed ‘innervation that makes muscle substance into a muscle proper’.¹² De Usu Partium (On the Use of Parts) gave Galen inimitable influence on the medical sciences at the time. His observations were based on numerous animal dissections, particularly those of dogs, pigs and apes as human dissection was discouraged during the Roman period. He described tonus and paid specific attention to the differences which he distinguished between agonist and antagonistic muscles, motor and sensory nerves and the functions of the nervous system in aiding motion. However, Galen was alive to the deficiency that presented to him by the unavailability of human dissection and encouraged students to travel to Alexandria for such experience. His work in this field and his other seminal texts on medical theory became the standard throughout the medieval period and beyond.

The Rebirth of Scientific Thought

There was little in the way of advances in this field throughout the medieval period. It was not until what is known as ‘the Renaissance’ that there was not only a rebirth of classical art but correspondingly a renewed interest in the medical and scientific knowledge of the ancient world. Perhaps the most famous example of a ‘Renaissance man’ was Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519), who was not only an accomplished artist but indeed a dedicated and talented scientist and anatomist, with an astonishing talent for conveying motion through his drawings. He saw the human body as that of a machine, and his copious illustrations of human anatomy were depicted in a similar manner to those of his mechanical inventions. Da Vinci’s anatomical studies joined art and science which emphasised the significance of perspective in producing pi...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Foreword by Peter James
• Foreword by Dr William A. Wood
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Author
• Contributors
• 1 Gait Analysis: A Historical Overview
• 2 Observational Gait Analysis – Progression and Application
• 3 Neurological Disorders Affecting Gait
• 4 Emotions and Gait
• 5 Video Image Analysis
• 6 Gait Analysis in Identification
• 7 Height Estimation Using the Foot or Lower Limb as a Dimension
• 8 Photogrammetry
• 9 Interpreting and Communicating Forensic Statistics
• 10 Reports and Report Writing
• 11 Expert Evidence in Court
• 12 The Expert in Court – The Expert’s Perspective
• Index