Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine

In forensic science and in modern times, impalement is a rare event. When this occurrence involves the head, it is even more unusual since this region is very small compared to the rest of the body. Although impalements are rare, they represent scenarios that must be treated with great care by forensic pathologists. They may involve a mixture of blunt and penetrating wounds, and the injuries observed at autopsy must be interpreted correctly. For this reason, if possible, the interconnection between the body and the impaling object should be maintained until the autopsy table...

Donepezil is one of the primary treatments options for patients suffering from Alzheimer's Disease. In a review of more than 2200 postmortem donepezil positive blood specimens, 76% of concentrations were higher than the proposed therapeutic range. Means and medians were similar between central blood specimens and peripheral specimens, indicating minimal postmortem redistribution. Postmortem concentrations may not reflect those circulating antemortem. Mean and median postmortem blood concentrations were approximately 3-fold higher than those in antemortem blood specimens...

South Africa is experiencing a scourge of violence against women and children, with alarming levels of violence, and as such, juvenile cases are sometimes encountered in a forensic anthropological setting. The aim of this research was to assess the cases of juveniles (under 20 years) presenting at the Human Variation and Identification Research Unit (HVIRU) for a 6-year period (2016-2022), in order to assess patterns and types of cases referred. A total of 19 cases were assessed, of which 10 were 16-20 years old, 3 between the ages of 5 and 15 years and 6 less than 5 years old at the time of death...

Screening and care for victims of sexual violence (SV) among asylum seekers and refugees (ASRs) living in High-income host countries were prioritized by the WHO in 2020. The lack of stabilized prevalence findings on lifetime SV among ASRs in High-income countries hinders the development of adequate health management. The objective of this study was to determine the lifetime prevalence of SV experienced by ASRs living in High-income countries. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines...

Female genital mutilation (FGM) refers to all procedures that partially or totally remove the external female genitalia, or to all other deliberate injuries to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons. It is thought that over 200 million girls and women have had some form of FGM, with more than three million girls being at risk annually. The procedure varies in severity from partial or complete removal of the clitoris (Type 1) to oversewing of the vaginal opening, so-called infibulation (Type 3). There are no medical benefits from FGM, with complications increasing with the amount of tissue damage that has been inflicted...

Machine learning methods for the identification of child sexual abuse materials (CSAM) have been previously studied, however, they have serious limitations. Firstly, the training sets used to train the appropriate machine learning algorithms were not previously annotated by a forensic expert in anthropology. Secondly, previously presented solutions have rarely used models trained using real pornographic content involving children. Thirdly, previous studies have not presented a detailed justification for the classification decisions made, which is important due to the recent guidelines of the European Commission (Artificial Intelligence Act)...

Vaginal fluids are one of the most common biological samples in forensic sexual assault cases, and their characterization is vital to narrow the scope of investigation. Presently, approaches for identifying vaginal fluids in different regions are not only rare but also have certain limitations. However, the microbiome has shown the potential to identify the source of body fluids and reveal the characteristics of individuals. In this study, 16S rRNA gene high-throughput sequencing was used to characterize the vaginal microbial community from three regions, Sichuan, Hainan and Hunan...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

BACKGROUND: Sexual violence is common in contemporary society and disproportionally affects adolescents. In order to develop effective treatment, awareness and prevention strategies it is vital that we understand the epidemiology of adolescent sexual assault (SA). The aim of this study is to evaluate attendances by female adolescents to the national sexual assault treatment unit (SATU) network in the Republic of Ireland and compare these attendances with adult women accessing the service...

Postmortem interval (PMI) estimation is important for forensic pathological autopsy. It has been reported that there is a correlation between certain protein changes in cadavers and PMI. However, no specific protein(s) has been used to determine the PMI so far. In this study, the total protein contents of mouse liver and spleen at different time of death were measured. The data showed that they were negatively correlated with the PMI. The degradation of β-actin was found to be positively correlated with the PMI in the liver...

A primary objective of a medico-legal autopsy is to determine the identity of the deceased. The act of praying for prolonged periods of time can lead to the development of skin marks in Muslims, commonly referred to as "Naamaj signs" or prayer marks. An elderly male of unknown identity was brought dead to the hospital, where a post-mortem examination was performed. The patient's name in the treatment records suggested that the deceased was a member of the non-Muslim community, conflicting with the post-mortem examination report indicating circumcision and belonging to the Muslim Community...

A young woman was buried in a sitting position in sandy soil in a shallow grave. PMCT showed filling of the upper airways with radio-opaque material consistent with soil, with autopsy dissection confirming the presence of soil in the mouth, pharynx, upper oesophagus, larynx, trachea and main bronchi. Death was due to upper airway occlusion by soil. Live burial as a type of homicide is extremely rare. Issues that need to be clarified include whether the victim was alive at the time of burial, the level of consciousness/awareness of the process, whether restraints or drugs were used and the speed with which death occurred...

PURPOSE: develop and validate a formula, through a discriminant analysis of sex estimation, evaluating maxillary sinus in cone beam computed tomography scans in a Brazilian population, comparing this formula with two other existing ones. METHODS: 190 cone beam CT scans of Brazilian adults were retrospectively evaluated by an independent examiner. Measurements were performed in the right and left MS region: height, width, length, distance between the breasts, distance between infraorbital foramina, and volume in the ITK software...

Although the poor health of prisoners poses a serious public health problem, very little is known about the health of specific offender groups. Three waves of an Australian Inmate Health Survey were used to describe the self-reported and objectively tested health of men incarcerated for sexual offences against children only (ISOC), adults only (ISOA), and against both (age-polymorphous; ISOP) compared to men incarcerated without sexual offences. ISOC and ISOP were found to have the poorest self-reported health of all groups, with higher rates of eyesight and cardiovascular problems; however, lower rates of Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C as objectively measured...

Amid the pandemic of violence against women, it is imperative to identify the contributing factors to lethal forms of violence against them. Femicides are the result of the intersection of variables that increase women's vulnerability. This study seeks to estimate the risk factors associated with death due to femicide in Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil. We considered sociodemographic variables, employment, exposure to violence, and psychoactive substance use. Our analysis employed conditional logistic regression...

Ischemic heart disease (IHD) is one of the leading causes of morbidity and sudden cardiac death worldwide and is an important public health problem. The presence of ischemia in clinical applications can be detected by ECG, biochemical markers, and radiological methods. Myocardial infarction is also frequently encountered in forensic autopsies. Postmortem diagnosis is determined as a result of histopathological examinations and additional exclusionary examinations (toxicology, microbiology, etc.). However, routine histopathological examinations are insufficient, especially when death occurs in the early period of ischemia...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

BACKGROUND: Radiocarbon (14 C), whose levels increased in the atmosphere between 1955 and 1963, accumulates in the enamel of human teeth only during the process of tooth formation and has been applied to estimate the birth year of unidentified corpses. However, enamel isolation from teeth is time-consuming and labor-intensive. Therefore, this study aimed to estimate the birth year using 14 C in the crown of a single mandibular first premolar tooth. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Fourteen mandibular first premolars collected from forensic autopsies were analyzed...

Straddle injuries are those to the perineum region brought on by straddling or riding over something, such as a horse, vehicle, or other object. The motorcycle fuel tank or handlebars are primarily responsible for the typical injury to the perineum area in motorcycle accidents. Motorcycle straddle injury usually manifest as abrasions to the scrotum or penis, and severe cases can cause pelvic fractures or even testicular dislocation. Because these injuries are usually closed with unclear internal damage, diagnosis presents a significant challenge and can easily lead to misdiagnosis...

It is generally believed that the use of alcohol and cocaine alone and especially in combination elicits aggression and violent behaviour. Though there is overwhelming proof that heavy alcohol use is associated with violence, this is not the case for cocaine. Still, in the popular press and by spokesmen of the police, cocaine use is seen as a cause of violent incidents. In the current systematic review, available data from human studies on the relation between cocaine and violent behaviour is presented. In particular, we present scientific data on the acute induction of violence by cocaine alone, as well as, that by the combination of cocaine and alcohol known to be frequently used simultaneously...