14
CRIMINAL JUSTICE | SPRING 2023
A
man wearing two pairs of pants, a mask, and
gloves robbed a jewelry store at gunpoint.
Even with the man taking these painstaking
measures to conceal his identity, he could not hide
his gait—the way he walked. Video cameras in the
store recorded the thief, and a podiatrist compared
his gait to surveillance video of a suspect, concluding
both persons walked the same way. This testimony
and other evidence resulted in a conviction.
“Gait” is the manner or style of walking, running,
or moving from one place to another. A person who
has suffered a stroke may develop a hemiplegic gait,
where the leg on the affected side may be extended
and internally rotated and is swung in an arc instead
of lifting up to walk. The gait of an individual with a
stooped, stiff posture, with the head and neck bent
forward, can signal a person with Parkinson disease.
This is known as a propulsive gait. There are a num-
ber of other common types of gait abnormalities, but
even a person with a “normal” gait can have a distinc-
tive manner of walking or running.
GAIT
The scientific study of gait dates back to Aristotle
(384–322 BCE). The Greek philosopher and poly-
math observed that if a man walked alongside a
wall holding a reed that had been dipped in ink, the
resulting line would not be straight but would move
up and down. Since then, many notable researchers,
including Descartes (1596–1650), Borelli (1608–1679),
and others, have advanced the understanding of gait
and specifically gait analysis, ultimately contributing
to thousands of pages of published research. Gait
as identifier grew from research in the 1970s where
researchers Cutting and Kozlowski, and others, inves-
MICHAEL S. NIRENBERG, DPM, FAENS, is a clinical
and forensic podiatrist who has assisted in the analysis of
footprints, footwear, and gait in criminal matters in the
UK, the US, and Canada. He is co-editor of the textbook
Forensic Gait Analysis: Principles and Practice and
president of the American Society of Forensic Podiatry.
His practice, Friendly Foot Care PC, is in Crown Point,
Indiana, and his email is: forensic@friendlyfootcare.com.
How Video of a Criminal Can Acquit or Convict
BY MICHAEL S. NIRENBERG
Published in Criminal Justice, Volume 38, Number 1, Spring 2023. © 2023 by
the American Bar Association. Reproduced with permission. All rights reserved.
This information or any portion thereof may not be copied or disseminated in
any form or by any means or stored in an electronic database orretrieval system
without the express written consent of the American Bar Association.
