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Abstract
Glass is a ubiquitous material, and as a result it is frequently recovered as transfer evidence when glass objects are broken during the commission of a crime. There are three possible goals of forensic glass examination: classification, discrimination, and individualization. The physical matching of two or more broken glass fragments is the only forensic glass analytical method that is considered to establish an individualization of glass evidence, as it enables an association of known and questioned glass fragments to the exclusion of all other sources. The significance of glass evidence is enhanced when the fragments recovered from the suspect are determined to be indistinguishable in all measured properties from the broken glass object found at the crime scene. Conversely, if the recovered fragments from the suspect differ in their measured properties from the broken glass object at the scene, then the two do not have a common source, which does not support a hypothesis of the suspect being at the scene when the glass was broken.