Fatal thoracic compression after being partially run over by an automobile

The authors report on a fatal pedestrian accident in which the victim lay on the street and got under a car being run over by one of the front wheels. Both the car driver and the killed pedestrian were strongly alcohol-intoxicated at the time of the accident (2.45 a.m.). After the car had come to a standstill, the pedestrian remained trapped under the car until she was rescued by the fire brigade. On the basis of the autopsy findings and the technical expert opinion it could be reconstructed that the pedestrian's death was not caused by the consequences of being run over by the car, but by the subsequent compression of her thorax in the final accident position.     

HIV-related deaths outside medical institutions in Stockholm

During a 3-year period (August 1st, 1985 to July 31st, 1988) a systematic investigation of medico-legal autopsy cases with regard to the presence of antibodies for HIV-virus was carried out at the Department of Forensic Medicine in Stockholm, Sweden. Prior to autopsy, blood samples were taken from femoral or subclavian veins and were investigated by use of ELISA-screening and Western blotting test. During the first year of study, HIV infection was demonstrated in 11 out of 3464 deaths (0.32%), during the second year in 29 out of 3483 deaths (0.83%), and during the last year in 13 out of 3107 deaths (0.42%). It was shown that 48 out of the total of 53 HIV positive cases were previously registered, but information about the infection was available to the autopsist in only 27 cases. Drug addicts dominated 41 of 53 cases. There were only eight homo- and bisexual males, two non drug addict Central Africans and two persons who received blood transfusions. Eight of the 53 persons died of natural causes whereas 45 deaths were due to violence and drugs. The causes of death of the HIV positive drug addicts were compared to the causes of death of the HIV negative addicts. The HIV positive drug addicts tended to die suddenly in connection with the intravenous administration of heroin and at lower blood concentrations of morphine more often than the HIV-negative addicts. No increase in the suicide frequency was noted in drug addicts in Stockholm during the studied period.     

Symmetrical fracturing of the skull from midline contact gunshot wounds: reconstruction of individual death histories from skeletonized human remains

This paper reports a bilaterally symmetrical cranio-facial fracture pattern that is observed in self-inflicted, midline gunshot wounds. Five cases of self-inflicted gunshots wounds are presented as follows: two high-powered rifle cases, two shotgun cases, and one handgun case. In all five cases the remains were either decomposing or skeletonized and submitted to forensic anthropologists. Following identification, the main focus of the anthropological examination was the analysis of perimortem trauma to the skeleton. In each case, the skull was submitted in a highly fragmented state. Nevertheless, by focusing on the pattern of perimortem cranio-facial fractures, the anthropologists contributed key information regarding the circumstances of death. The observed symmetrical cranio-facial fracture patterns in the above cases are described in detail and interpreted. The specific location of the linear fractures is discussed, as well as the theoretical rationale behind the location in terms of skeletal architecture, such as buttresses, struts, and sutures. The interpretive framework provided by this paper may prove helpful to others who are faced with similar cases of cranio-facial fracturing.     

Lessons from Philosophy? Interdisciplinary Justice Research and Two Classes of Justice Judgments

More and more scholars of social justice have been calling for a closer collaboration between empirical and normative disciplines. Psychological and sociological research, as well as philosophical theories can, so they claim, learn from one another and work should be based on results obtained in the other fields of research. Some political philosophers do not share this view. They argue that, since most empirical research does not capture people's moral views on justice, its results cannot be of any value to their theories. Based on this critique I suggest in the first part of this paper that empirical research should distinguish between two classes of justice judgments: First, justice judgments in a narrow sense, which are made under conditions of impartiality and grounded in moral principles, and second, justice attitudes, which differ from other types of social attitudes only in their attitude objects. In the second part I present a quasi-experimental study that aimed at testing the two different classes of justice judgments empirically. The results show that justice judgments in the narrow sense can be obtained even under conditions in which complex experimental manipulations cannot be employed. In the third part of this paper I hypothesize that justice judgments which are based on the two formal criteria provided by political philosophy (impartiality and reference to moral principles) may serve as important intervening variables when trying to explain the impact of justice beliefs on different patterns of human behavior.     

Stand and Deliver: Private Property and the Politics of Global Dispossession

Property rights necessarily generate violent, and oftentimes lethal, processes of dispossession. While liberal theorists from Locke to Hayek consider property rights as an essential and emancipatory component of human freedom, they fail to consider societal power asymmetries impeding the ability of property rights to protect the interests of the weak and marginalised. If property rights produce freedom and prosperity, they do so very selectively. More obvious is the ongoing historical process of already propertied classes making 'clever usurpation into an irrevocable right' by extending private property regimes along two key dimensions – type and space. Examining various uses of private property over time reveals processes whereby relatively basic notions of private property, enforced by a Weberian state at the local level in the early era of industrialisation, are extended to encompass new and sophisticated forms of property that are enforced globally via international institutions. Two contemporary empirical cases of using property rights are examined in this paper: land reform in Southern Africa (specifically Zimbabwe) and intellectual property rights. In this context of ongoing dispossession, further privatisation and commodification can only exacerbate contemporary problems of marginalisation and dispossession.     

Problems associated with the diagnosis of vitality in burned bodies

The most important signs of vitality in burned bodies are soot deposits in the respiratory tract, the esophagus and the stomach as well as elevated CO-Hb values in the blood. But these findings show only that a person was exposed to fire fumes while alive; they are no indicator for vital heat exposure. As the external findings in burned bodies are often not very conclusive due to postmortem consumption by the fire, the internal findings are all the more important. Macroscopic signs that hot fumes were inhaled may be edematous swelling and vesicular detachment of the mucosa in the pharynx, the larynx and/or the upper section of the esophagus. As histological changes in the respiratory tract soot deposits, vesicular detachment of the epithelium, hyperemia and edema of the tracheal and bronchial mucosa as well as increased secretion of mucus have been described. These findings may partly be absent although the victim was alive during the fire, which can make diagnosis more difficult. Especially in peracute deaths vitality findings are usually sparse. The significance of the macroscopic and histological parameters of vitality was systematically investigated on the basis of our own autopsy material from the years 1996-2002 (88 cases) and compared with the statements found in the literature. In our study material, the vitality parameters were incomplete in 23% of the burned corpses. In 3% of the cases the question whether there was an antemortem heat exposure could not be answered.     

Multivariate analysis ('forensiometrics')--a new tool in forensic medicine. Findings on the victim of sharp-force homicide can predict the inter-relationship with the perpetrator.

A multivariate 'forensiometric' technique (PLS-DA) was used to create a model to predict the relationship between homicide victim and perpetrator on a five-level scale: strangers, acquaintances, drinking companions, relatives and spouses. The model is based on findings on the victim and at the venue, and uses the following ten variables as 'predictors', listed in falling order of covariation with instances of close relationship between victim and perpetrator: Victim found in home, female victim, a single sharp injury, injuries to the upper extremity, superficial sharp injuries to the chest ('scratches'), ten or more sharp injuries, presence of defence injuries, total number of sharp injuries, male victim, and victim found outdoors. The model was based on 87 sharp-force homicides (the model-set) and was validated on another set of 43 sharp-force homicides (the test-set). In this test-set validation, 17 of 39 cases (44%) were correctly predicted according to the results of earlier combined forensic and police investigations, and a prediction one step away from the correct level was given in another 17 cases. These results were significantly better than would have been obtained by chance.     

Prevalence of drugs among drivers arrested for drinking and driving in Finland.

A combined thin layer and gas chromatography system was developed for qualitative and quantitative analysis of drugs in biological samples after extraction with heptane-isoamyl alcohol. Both acidic and basic extraction procedures were used. Special methods were used for the extraction and detection of salicylates, isoniazid, and morphine. Particular attention was given to the detection of psychostimulants; though these drugs have seldom been found in drinking drivers in Finland they are commonly found in Sweden. Two percent of all suspected drinking drivers were also suspected of concommitant drug use, which led to primary sampling of urine. Of 100 such drivers, 24 had blood alcohol levels (BALs) which were negative and 18 of that 24 had drugs in their sample. Seventy-six of the 100 had positive BALs and 25 of the 76 had drugs in their samples. Of the randomly chosen 100 suspected drinking drivers, 5 had drugs in their samples, and 4 of these 5 had positive BALs. The benzodiazeomes were the most commonly detected drugs. No stimulants were found in our subjects.