Archiv für Kriminologie
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Archiv für Kriminologie · Mar 1995
Case Reports[Fatal gunshot wound injuries with so-called shooting ball-point pens].
Report on two suicides using shooting ball-point pens (with .22 lr and .22 lr Hv cartridges respectively). Both cases were contact shots (in the first case in the area of the right ear, in the second case in the left temple). Corresponding to the configuration of the barrel end, the muzzle imprints were uncharacteristic (ring-shaped and narrow). The other morphological findings of the wounds did not differ from the injuries inflicted by conventional small-bore weapons.
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Archiv für Kriminologie · Mar 1995
Case Reports[Recoil-induced rifle butt mark on the ceiling in suicidal gunshot injury].
In a suicide case the butt of the weapon (double-barrelled shotgun) produced a characteristically shaped mark at the ceiling, which could be physically explained by the recoil effect and was a clue that the victim had fired the shot himself. The ammunition used was a cartridge with a rifled shotgun slug (Brenneke type). The contact shot into the temple resulted in the rupture of the skull with exenteration of the brain. As the weapon remained lying on the body of the suicide after the shot, brownish traces of rust could form at the places of contact with steel parts.
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Four fatal hunting accidents by means of firearms are described from the autopsy material of the Institute for Forensic Medicine of Humboldt University in Berlin. Again the main cause was shown to be the firing of guns in insufficient daylight.
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Archiv für Kriminologie · Mar 1994
Case Reports[Confusing muscular hemorrhage in a drowned cadaver. A contribution to differentiation between vital and postmortem changes].
The autopsy on an body recovered from the water showed evidence of drowning and, in addition, the occurrence of extensive intramuscular bleeding on the neck, in the area of the shoulder girdle and the upper arms. There was a suspicion that criminal violence had been used, and the police carried out extensive investigations; these were inconclusive. The subsequent histological examination of the affected musculature revealed "reactive" changes throughout which corresponded to post mortem damage. The case presented here serves to illustrate the usefulness of muscle histology for differentiating between the occurrence of intramuscular bleeding before and after death; the corresponding histological criteria are outlined.
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Archiv für Kriminologie · Mar 1994
Case Reports[Medical autopsy. Problems in the medical field, in judicial inquiries and with federal laws].
A basic duty of coroner's inquest is to ascertain whether death was due to an internal or external cause or cause of death remains unclear; economic constrains and less effort for the coroner's inquest lead to blunders on several levels: the physician's level, the level of judicial inquiry and the Land governments. Typical negative and positive marks as well as intermediate stages on each of these levels are pointed out, perspectives are shown.