Archiv für Kriminologie
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Archiv für Kriminologie · Mar 2000
Case Reports[Differentiation between self-inflicted and homicidal stab wounds to the neck].
39 autopsy cases with throat incision examined in the Bonn Institute of Legal Medicine in the years 1990 through 1998 were evaluated with respect to the query whether the morphological criteria generally established for the differentiation between homicide and suicide are also suitable for the assessment in this special localization. Integrative consideration of localization, direction of incision, hesitative resp. tentative injuries, defence injuries, concomitant injuries and capability to act allowed for a discrimination on grounds of legal medical findings in 84 per cent of the cases.
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The authors report about a small bore pistol with silencer. In addition, the silencer can be sealed up by a rubber plate. ⋯ The bullet wipe persists but microradiography shows his changed morphological composition. The use of the rubber seal leads predominantly to atypical bullet holes.
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In summer 1999, a German forensic team of CID officers and forensic pathologists was sent to Kosovo on request of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) to investigate possible war crimes. For this purpose, witnesses had to be found and interrogated and graves of victims had to be located and the bodies exhumed and examined forensically. ⋯ A high percentage of all bodies could be identified. The article deals with different forensic-pathologic aspects of such an investigation.