The identity of ‘the other’ for sexual violence victims: is there anything new in sexual violence prosecutions before the International Criminal Court?

Despite the spectacular development in the field of international criminal law, critical feminism stresses the narrow scope of the sex and gender crimes in the Rome Statute establishing the first permanent International Criminal Court. The current international criminal law discourse, as expressed by recent case law, is geared towards the protection of certain groups targeted on account of their distinctiveness within the framework of a conflict situation, and gender is not recognized as one of these group identities. The question whether international criminal law on sexual violence applies only to inter-group conflicts brings to the fore an uneasy likelihood of exclusion of some recently emergent situations where identities of the conflicting parties transcend a particular ethnicity or nationality, and where victims of sexual violence belong to the same group as their perpetrators. The article argues that, rather than the Rome Statute or newly introduced rules and regulations, a significant obstacle in developing gender justice is the narrow interpretation of sexual violence to inter-group hostilities.     

Cardiac Injuries Caused by Blunt Trauma: An Autopsy Based Assessment of the Injury Pattern

Abstract:  Nonpenetrating chest trauma with injury to the heart and aorta has become increasingly common, particularly as a result of rapid deceleration in high-speed vehicular accidents, over the past 2–3 decades. The high mortality rate of cardiac injuries and possible late onset complications make blunt cardiac injuries an important challenging point for legal medicine. One hundred and ninety cases with blunt cardiac injuries in a period of 3 years were analyzed retrospectively in terms of patterns of cardiac injury, survival times, and demographic profiles of the cases in this study.     

Suicide Among Children and Adolescents in a Province of Turkey

Abstract:  Despite well-documented increases in completed suicides among children, accurate knowledge of the characteristics of these suicides is very limited. The aim of this study was to investigate general characteristics of suicide among children and adolescents in the province of Istanbul and to evaluate obtained results in the light of the literature. Data were collected from autopsy records of the Morgue Department of Institute of Forensic Medicine, Istanbul. General characteristics of completed suicides among children and adolescents between 2001 and 2005 were retrospectively reviewed. The study included 176 suicides aged 9–19 years. The overwhelming majority of the suicides (92%) were aged 15–19 years. More than half of the suicides (60%) were male. The most frequent means of suicide was hanging (55%) followed by firearms (20%) and jump or descent from height (15%).     

Sudden death due to an unrecognized cardiac hydatid cyst: three medicolegal autopsy cases

Echinococcosis is a human infection caused by the larval stage of Echinococcocus granulosus. The most common sites of infection are the liver and the lungs. Cardiac hydatid cysts are very rare, even in regions where hydatic cysts are endemic (the Mediterranean, South America, Africa, and Australia). It has been reported that cardiac involvement is seen in about 0.5-3% of human echinococcosis cases. Three cases of cardiac hydatid disease that caused sudden death and which were histopathologically diagnosed are reported. Cardiac echinococcosis is rare, but due to its insidious presentation and affinity to cause sudden death, it is important that it be identified in the histopathological examination.     

Sudden death in infancy due to bicuspid aortic valve

Symptoms of bicuspid aortic valve usually occur in the age group of 50-70 years, but rarely, it can also lead to sudden unexpected death in infancy and early childhood. The autopsy of a 2-month-old baby boy, found dead in his cot, revealed the heart weight as 25 g, and the macroscopic examination showed the circumference of the aortic valve consisting of two leaflets as 8 mm. The thickness of the left ventricle, right ventricle, and septum was measured as 8, 7, and 10 mm, respectively. Microscopically, the heart revealed hypertrophic changes of myocytes. Subendocardial areas displayed necrosis of myocytes, and severe and diffuse ischemic changes characterized by loss of myofibers and vacuolization. Interstitial pneumonia was identified in the lungs. Death occurred as a result of a congenital bicuspid aortic valve obstructing the left ventricular outflow tract complicated by lung infection. As there are only a few reported cases in infancy, and congenital bicuspid aortic valve can lead to sudden unexpected death, this case is presented to the forensic community.     

Handwriting changes under the effect of alcohol

Document examiners are often faced with difficulties in evaluating handwriting by persons under the influence of alcohol. Although numerous articles are available on the subject of alcohol influence on handwriting quality, most of them were based on empirical data such as "few" or "increased", without any statistical evaluation. The aim of this research is to determine whether previous observations on reported effects of alcohol on handwriting are valid and to establish the predictability of observing specific effects. A total of 73 participants, who completed all steps of the experiment, were surveyed. Handwriting samples were taken before and after the consumption of alcohol. The test form, including criteria of prior studies used by document examiners, was evaluated with the help of a Olympus X-Tr stereo microscope, direct and oblique angle lighting and a video spectral comparator (VSC 2000). Measurements were done by means of digital caliper, statistics using repeated measures ANOVA, Pearson correlation, Pearson Chi square test, McNemar test and Wilcoxon signed rank test.The results revealed that the handwriting parameters such as word lengths, height of upper and lower case letters, height of ascending letter, height of descending letter, spacing between words, number of angularity, number of tremor, and number of tapered ends are all significantly increased under the effect of alcohol.It was also determined that the significant correlation between the alteration of handwriting parameters such as height of upper and lower case letters, number of angularity, number of tapered ends and the amount of alcohol. Furthermore, it does not confirm the conclusions of previous studies stating that alcohol levels are not proper indicators. Our data strongly confirms that handwriting changes can be observed at any level of alcohol.None of the alterations in handwriting can be attributed to the effects of alcohol intake alone. However, the presence of some alterations together is strongly suggestive that the person was under the influence of alcohol.First of all, the duty of handwriting examiner is to identify if the questioned and known sample are coming from the same source. Consequently, as this explanatory analysis suggests that differences between sober and intoxicated persons can be identified in handwriting, but the examiner's judgement must be proportionately cautious, keeping in mind the abnormally wide range of variation.     

Manhood Deprived and (Re)constructed during Conflicts and International Prosecutions: The Curious Case of the <Emphasis Type="Italic">Prosecutor v. Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta et al.</Emphasis>

Recent case law on sexual violence crimes heard before the ad hoc international criminal tribunals and courts, that interpret them in connection with ethnic conflict, raises the question of which acts can be defined as sexual violence. The International Criminal Court (ICC), in the situation of Kenya, does not regard acts of forced nudity, forcible circumcision and penile amputation as sexual violence when they are motivated by ethnic prejudice and intended to demonstrate the cultural superiority of one tribe over another. The Court argues that not every act of violence that targets parts of the body commonly associated with sexuality should be considered an act of sexual violence. This recent interpretation of what counts as sexual violence provides another example of the complicity of international criminal law institutions in the ongoing construction process of female subordination. The ICC, in the Kenya situation, implicitly confirms the mutilation of female agency by interpreting penile amputation as a kind of power game between males, and by instrumentalizing the male sexual organ as an indicator of masculinity and manhood.     

Subvalvular aortic stenosis as a cause of sudden death: two case reports

Sudden death is defined as a death that occurs suddenly, develops during an unpredictable course, and is due to natural or unnatural causes. Although there is no universally standardized definition on how "sudden" a sudden death is, WHO defines sudden death as a death that occurs within 24 hours after the onset of symptoms. The aim of this study is to present 2 rarely reported autopsy cases and to emphasize the importance of systemic autopsy at sudden death. On macroscopic examination, crescent-shaped, thick, fibrous membranes, located 5 mm and 3 mm away from the aortic valves, were detected. Fibrous membranes extended from the ventricular septum to the left ventricular outflow tract, thus apparently narrowing this region. Left ventricular wall and septum were slightly thickened, and there were scattered grayish-white areas of a small diameter. These became more intense in the septum and myocardium of the left ventricle on the anterior plane of the myocardial sections. In both cases, the aortic valves of were thickened and also markedly narrowed on one of them. In this case, the fibrous membrane adhered to the aortic valve and extended to the anterior leaflet of the mitral valve at one side. Both aortic valves comprised 3 leaflets. Other valves and coronary arteries showed no macroscopic pathologic findings. Microscopic examination of both cases demonstrated that the fibrous membrane comprising abundant collagen fibers was situated on the ventricular septum. Hypertrophy, moderate to severe interstitial fibrosis, and focal areas of scarring were observed in the specimens taken from the septal and ventricular myocardium. No abnormality was found on the conduction system examinations. Toxicologic analysis results in blood were negative. Based on the findings, membranous-type (discrete type) subvalvular aortic stenosis, diagnosed during the autopsy, was considered as the cause of sudden death in both cases.     

Estimation of Chronological Age from Postmortem Tissues Based on Amino Acid Racemization

Skin and cartilage tissue specimens from 32 male and 13 female corpses aged between 17 and 50 years were collected within 24 h after the death. Each specimen was analyzed for the composition of dextro (D) and levo (L) forms of aspartate, glutamate, and alanine. Linear regression models were constructed using ln [(1 + D/L)/(1 ? D/L] equation to define the relationship between the extent of racemization and the chronological age. Aspartate D/L rates from cartilage showed high correlation (r = 0.779, p < 0.001, n = 45). Aspartate D/L rates from skin showed very low correlation (r = 0.356, p < 0.002, n = 44). The multilinear regression model of both aspartate D/L rates of cartilage and skin tissues in 44 cases yielded a coefficient of r = 0.828 (p < 0.001). In conclusion, only racemization rate of Aspartate both in the skin and the cartilage tissues correlated with the chronological age. Our results may imply that the age can be estimated more precisely if two different tissue specimens are obtained from one corpse.