An Atlas of Skeletal Trauma in Medico-Legal Contexts

The increasing use of routine post-mortem CT scans in forensic pathology practice in many jurisdictions has expanded the capacity to evaluate skeletal trauma. This in turn, challenges current practitioners to be aware of skeletal injury patterns and the ways they which they can be recorded and presented in court. Typically when skeletal remains are located and exhibit evidence of trauma, forensic anthropologists and pathologists base their interpretations of the mechanism of trauma on their experience and understanding of the biomechanics of fractures. In order to augment this process, Atlas of Forensic Skeletal Trauma provides the reader with de-identified cases from the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine where the cause of death and mechanism of trauma are recorded to compile a comprehensive descriptive and visual representation of adult and child skeletal trauma. Atlas of Forensic Skeletal Trauma presents a range of adult and child skeletal trauma cases that occur in medico-legal contexts and includes high quality and comprehensive photographs and computed tomography (CT) images as well as descriptive text. A valuable guide to the interpretation of skeletal trauma for practitioners and students of forensic anthropology, pathology and radiology Coverage of skeletal trauma cases resulting from high and low velocity projectiles, low energy blunt force (e.g., assaults involving various implements, hangings, strangulations, falls), high energy blunt force (e.g., motor vehicle and aviation incidents) sharp force, as well as accidental and non-accidental injuries in children, medical intervention, taphonomic changes and skeletal variation Each section includes case studies with written and visual descriptions, and discussion as well as an up-to-date literature review