This became known as the Locard Exchange Principle and is still a central principle of the analysis of scientific evidence that arises from civil and criminal activity. Although some of the exchanged evidence of contact is overlooked because of its small size, much of it is recovered and falls into the category of scientific evidence known as trace evidence. Trace evidence can be classified in a number of ways and there is general agreement that it includes such items as hair, fibers, wood, glass, paint, soil, explosive and fire residues, etc. Probably the most common type of trace evidence encountered in criminal activity today is textile fibers. Fibers occur in a huge variety of products, so it is not surprising that they occur in many types and instances of crime.
Some estimates put fiber evidence in one-quarter of all crimes.
The analysis of fiber evidence has advanced with developments and improvements in instrumentation, but placing these results in the proper context requires an understanding of the mechanisms of transfer and persistence of fibers, and the significance of finding foreign fibers at a crime scene. It is unfortunate that there has been little research into the significance of fibers in general, and transfer and persistence in particular, because the travels and ultimate fate of fibers at a crime scene can provide critical evidence about the movements and juxtapositions of victims and suspected perpetrators. The project will be to increase the understanding of the dynamics of fiber transfer and its persistence, along with possibilities of contamination, and the commonality of particular fibers. The ideal completed project deliverable is impossible to describe since the nature of the problem is so broad. However, a basic need of fiber forensics is a model of fiber transport.