Journal of forensic sciences
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Forty-eight deaths occurring in prisons in South Australia were identified between January 1996 and December 2010, including 25 cases of suicide (mean age = 37 years; median age = 34 years; age range = 24-70 years). Most suicides were due to hanging (23/25; 92.0%) with victims using bedding, belts, or shoelaces attached to cell shelves, air vents, doors, or other accessible projections. ⋯ There was one suicide reported after 2 years of imprisonment. Given that suicide in state prisons currently occurs at a rate approximately eight times that of the general South Australian community, it appears that the subset of incarcerated individuals represents a group in need of effective preventive strategies to enable more appropriate provisions of existing prisoner resources.
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Small intestinal injury following blunt abdominal trauma has been widely reported. Isolated jejunal tear which is caused by blunt abdominal trauma is rare and is most often seen in road traffic accidents. Here, we report a case of isolated jejunal tear in a 24-year-old male truck driver. ⋯ The condition deteriorated gradually, and he succumbed to death. The autopsy revealed transverse tear of jejunum almost involving whole of its circumference on the antimesenteric border and peritonitis. Proper use of radio-diagnostic techniques and timely undertaken explorative laparotomy would have saved the life.
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The fallibility of forensic science consultation is an ongoing and major justice concern. Prospective peer-reviewed forensic consultation has over 10 years of application in American criminal and civil courts, adapting from the traditional oversight of teaching hospitals, rules of evidence and discovery, conventions of testimony of expert witnesses, and attorneys' overall trial strategy. In systematizing heightened oversight, this process ensures greater accountability in forensic science consultation. ⋯ Multidisciplinary peer review augments expert proficiency with that of professional peers having different vantage points from relevant scientific disciplines. This approach ensures greater sophistication of a case inquiry, built-in accountability, and streamlined processes when multiple experts are necessitated. Here, the authors present examples of several cases and the primary and secondary benefits of this collaborative, rigorous, cross-disciplinary exercise.
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Review
Blast injury and the human skeleton: an important emerging aspect of conflict-related trauma.
Recent decades have seen an accelerating trend in warfare whereby a growing proportion of conflict-related deaths have been caused by explosions. Analysis of blast injury features little in anthropological literature. ⋯ Potential indicators of blast trauma include blowout fractures in sinus cavities from blast overpressure, transverse mandibular fractures, and visceral surface rib fractures. Ability to recognize blast trauma and distinguish it in the skeleton is of importance in investigations and judicial proceedings relating to war crimes, terrorism, and human rights violations and likely to become increasingly crucial to forensic anthropology knowledge.