Hate crimes and the forensic pathologist

Hate crimes represent crimes committed against an individual or group on the basis of their race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, or disability. For the forensic pathologist, a death related to a hate crime should be considered a high-profile case, one in which the pathologist should expect abundant public interest and scrutiny. In this article, an overview of hate crimes is presented, stressing the different types of hate crimes and the motives of those who commit such crimes. For death investigators and forensic pathologists, an awareness of these details will help them to recognize and appropriately anticipate issues that may be important in deaths related to hate crimes.     

Approaches to the improvement of forensic medical expertise in the cases of sexual crimes and doubtful gender status

The authors analyzed the results of the forensic medical expertise of the cases of sexual assaults and covert sexual abuse. Special attention is given to the peculiarities of forensic-medical expertise in the cases of veneral diseases and HIV-infection, injuries to sexual organs in women and men. The specific approaches to the examination of corpses in the cases of atypical sexual behavior or a murder supposedly committed for sexual motives are considered.     

Level of agreement between opinions of medical examiner investigators and forensic pathologist medical examiners regarding the manner of death

To evaluate the level of agreement between medical examiner investigators' opinion of the manner of death and what the manner of death was as certified by forensic pathologist medical examiners (MEs), we reviewed the case records stored in a database of all deaths reported to the office of the medical examiner in Fulton County, Georgia. Of 15,771 deaths reported to the office during a 10-year period, a difference exists in 1908 cases. In 900 natural deaths, the investigators recorded 135 accident, 10 homicide, 10 suicide, and 745 undetermined manners of death. In 755 accidental deaths, the investigators recorded 16 natural, 8 homicide, 13 suicide, and 718 undetermined manners of death. In 107 homicides, the investigators recorded 12 natural, 8 accident, 0 suicide, and 87 undetermined manners of death. In 70 suicides, the investigators recorded 9 natural, 9 accident, 3 homicide, and 49 undetermined manners of death. In 61 deaths classified as undetermined, the investigators recorded 25 natural, 13 accident, 17 homicide, and 6 suicide manners of death. In 15 deaths, the discrepancy exists due to an apparent error in the database information. This study confirms a high concordance between investigator and ME opinion regarding manner of death but also documents the need for case review and autopsies by forensic pathologists to confirm the investigators' opinion of the manner of death, determine the manner of death when the investigator selects undetermined, and on occasion, refute the investigators' opinion regarding the manner of death.     

A statistical approach to aid examiners in the forensic analysis of handwriting

We develop a statistical approach to model handwriting that accommodates all styles of writing (cursive, print, connected print). The goal is to compute a posterior probability of writership of a questioned document given a closed set of candidate writers. Such probabilistic statements can support examiner conclusions and enable a quantitative forensic evaluation of handwritten documents. Writing is treated as a sequence of disjoint graphical structures, which are extracted using an automated and open-source process. The graphs are grouped based on the similarity of their shapes through a K-means clustering template. A person's writing pattern can be characterized by the rate at which graphs are emitted to each cluster. The cluster memberships serve as data for a Bayesian hierarchical model with a mixture component. The rate of mixing between two parameters in the hierarchy indicates writing style.     

法医参与医疗纠纷鉴定应注意的几个问题

医疗纠纷的鉴定要解决的问题是医疗单位有无过失,过失行为与后果的关系,医疗事故的性质及等级.医疗纠纷的鉴定结论并不仅限于技术性问题,它涉及到医患双方有无过错及应承担的责任.笔者认为法医在参与医疗纠纷鉴定时注意以下几个问题:     

Accuracy of comparison decisions by forensic firearms examiners

This black box study assessed the performance of forensic firearms examiners in the United States. It involved three different types of firearms and 173 volunteers who performed a total of 8640 comparisons of both bullets and cartridge cases. The overall false-positive error rate was estimated as 0.656% and 0.933% for bullets and cartridge cases, respectively, while the rate of false negatives was estimated as 2.87% and 1.87% for bullets and cartridge cases, respectively. The majority of errors were made by a limited number of examiners. Because chi-square tests of independence strongly suggest that error probabilities are not the same for each examiner, these are maximum-likelihood estimates based on the beta-binomial probability model and do not depend on an assumption of equal examiner-specific error rates. Corresponding 95% confidence intervals are (0.305%, 1.42%) and (0.548%, 1.57%) for false positives for bullets and cartridge cases, respectively, and (1.89%, 4.26%) and (1.16%, 2.99%) for false negatives for bullets and cartridge cases, respectively. The results of this study are consistent with prior studies, despite its comprehensive design and challenging specimens.     

国际刑事法院《罗马规约》犯罪构成要件刍议——以危害人类罪作为样本

尽管世界各国对于犯罪的规定各不相同,但其犯罪规定中所涵盖的成立犯罪的要件(犯罪要素)却大体相当.这种认识对象与内容的相通,正是国际犯罪概念和国际刑事司法审判活动及其机构产生的基础.国际刑事法院管辖的是整个国际社会关注的最严重犯罪,具体包括四类:灭绝种族罪、危害人类罪、战争罪和侵略罪.《罗马规约》对于犯罪构成要件的规定采用规约规定与《犯罪要件》细释相结合的方式,为在国际刑法领域实现法治化作出了有益的创新,开辟了国际刑事司法的新纪元.     

民事司法中的当事人闹鉴及其法律治理

自2005年起,国家启动了权力支配型的司法鉴定制度改革。然而未曾料想,当事人不满鉴定意见而到鉴定机构闹事的风气异军突起、且愈演愈烈。当事人闹鉴淋漓尽致地反映了当前转型中国政治法律背景下,鉴定场域中法院/官与社会鉴定机构/人的尴尬,且因为闹鉴立竿见影的效果,而诱导民事鉴定三重异化。治理民事闹鉴,国家理应超越既往,即过度注重对社会鉴定机构/人进行单一行政管控,而应建立以“诉讼规制”为中心的制度体系：规范法官的涉鉴行为,重铸法官对鉴定意见的决断权,建立可靠有效的鉴定争议解决机制与裁断是非对错的政治法律原则。同时,国家必须坚决而果断地惩戒违法犯罪之闹鉴者。     

Teaching forensic psychiatry to medical students

Are separate courses on forensic psychiatry available for medical students? During the 1985 to 1986 academic year, the authors surveyed all U.S. medical schools to identify courses on forensic/legal psychiatry. A minority of schools included separate courses or practicums on forensic psychiatry or mental health law. In a follow-up telephone survey, instructors of each of these courses were interviewed. Information was obtained on format of course, duration, discipline of instructor or instructors, topics covered, reading materials, institutional settings, and the number of students who took the course. The results are discussed and compared with earlier surveys.     

Religious objection to autopsy. An ethical dilemma for medical examiners

In recent years, religious objection to autopsy has become an ethical dilemma for medical examiners. We present two cases that illustrate these dilemmas, and we also review the history and legal considerations of religious objection to autopsy.     

The multidisciplinary approach to dealing with families: a model for medical examiners

Medical examiners function primarily to determine cause and manner of death, and to document illness and injuries. Equally important, however, is the role of providing family members with the initial tools to work through the grief process. By initiating contact with the family, facilitating access to other appropriate services and by making provisions for adequate viewing and meeting facilities, we fulfill these ethical duties and carry out our responsibilities as physicians. We hope to fill some of the void that exists in the forensic medical literature with this presentation and generate awareness for the neglected role of grief intervention.     

法医微生物学在应对生物犯罪中的研究及应用进展

早在2001年,美国炭疽信件恐怖袭击就证实了微生物可以被用作犯罪行为的武器。虽然与其他犯罪类型相比,目前生物犯罪的案件量很少,但这些犯罪行为却引发了为刑事诉讼活动提供法庭科学证据的问题,即如何确定生物恐怖因子的来源以及如何确定犯罪行为人。本文对法医微生物学在应对生物犯罪中的研究与应用进行综述。     

On the training of specialists for forensic biological departments of forensic medical bureaus

The author analyses the main activities of the departments of forensic medicine in the Russian Medical Academy of Post-Diploma Education and the Sankt-Peterburg Medical Academy of Post-Diploma Education in the sphere of training and education of biologist experts. Information about the participants of these educational and training programs is presented. Taken together, these data give an idea of the character of post-diploma training of biologist experts and its dynamics during the period from 1950 and 2010. Results of the analysis may be of value for the long-term planning of advanced professional training and upgrading of qualification of the experts for forensic biological departments.