Alcohol‐Induced Osteopenia Among In‐Custody and Homicide Deaths from the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences

Four cases of in‐custody or unlawful death are presented as examples of increased bone fragility with an associated increase in fracture rates due to ethanol‐induced osteopenia. In addition, one of the individuals suffered fractures several weeks premortem, allowing some healing to take place. Using radiographs and physical examination, the ribs from these individuals are compared with those retained from three individuals with no history of alcoholism to illustrate diagnostic characteristics that will be notable using standard autopsy and anthropological procedures. Trabecular bone mass is notably decreased in the alcoholic group leading to a greater chance of fracture occurring during conflict, including arrest and in‐custody situations. The average number of perimortem fractures among the alcoholic individuals is 15, while the control group is six. In the case of the individual with healing, the degree of bone repair on the ribs was less than is expected considering the interval between injury and death.     

Analysis of Bone Healing in a Postoperative Patient: Skeletal Evidence of Medical Neglect and Human Rights Violations

This study highlights complexities associated with postsurgical trauma interpretation of a 76‐year‐old female patient from a psychiatric institution in Mexico. The skeletal analysis identified complications from an unsuccessful surgical operation for an intertrochanteric fracture of the femur. An improperly placed surgical plate resulted in nonunion due to limited contact between fracture margins. However, it is unclear whether this resulted from surgical complications, ineffective postoperative care, or from the decedent's limited ability to follow postoperative care instructions. Additionally, failure of the plate resulted in degenerative changes to the acetabulum. These complications, associated with degenerative changes to upper limb joints, suggest significant mobility issues. The pattern of antemortem trauma and contextual information support a conclusion of postoperative medical neglect, a documented problem in psychiatric institutions in Latin America. This study provides insight into the relevance of detailed trauma assessment of skeletal remains in cases where neglect and human rights violations are suspected.     

The Evaluation and Legal Standards in Forensic Social Work Immigration Practice

Abstract

This is the second in a series of papers concerning forensic immigration social work. The first paper examined the broad issues and types of cases that require consultation by a forensic social worker in immigration cases. This paper will examine the pertinent legal standards that the forensic social worker must be aware of and the essential areas of inquiry in the evaluation of spousal abuse cases. The following two papers will examine the other two major types of cases referred from immigration lawyers: asylum and criminal and “hardship” immigration cases. The final paper in the series will examine the forensic social worker's presentation of the case as expert testimony in immigration court and highlight winning strategies.     

Penetrating Trauma: Representing Rape in the Historical Drama Series Feast of the Uninvited

ABSTRACT

In the drama series Feast of the Uninvited, director Katinka Heyns portrays some of the pain and trauma experienced by families during the South African War (also known as the Anglo-Boer War). Within the storyline, the character of Magrieta Van Wyk is raped by a Boer man. This is one of the first physical “on screen” representations of rape in an Afrikaans television production, and because of this, the MNET series ignited a lot of controversy among audiences. Through this representation, Heyns challenges the traditional notion of the “pure and heroic” Boer hero that has become a well-known archetype within films and drama series set against this time period. While witnessing Magrieta’s rape on screen, we only later find out that the black housemaid Siena was also raped in a concentration camp reserved for black women and children. It is one of the first audio-visual case studies that mention black women’s suffering during this war, but it is still only given a brief glance. The author concludes that the collaborative effort of Heyns and cinematographer Koos Roets, combined with powerful performances, recreates the harshness of the South African War, and more specifically the traumatic experiences of women during this war.     

School Mental Health's Response to Terrorism and Disaster

Abstract

The events of September 11,2001, have underscored the mental health needs of youth and families, and amplified the advantages of proactively bringing a range of mental health services to them, where they are, in natural settings such as schools. Further, there is increasing momentum for the enhancement of coordinated and comprehensive school-based approaches that seek to effectively respond to significant crises such as terrorist attacks and disaster. This article explores key themes related to school mental health's response to terrorism and disaster. Following review of background literature on child and adult reactions to trauma, we discuss the development of crisis response teams, and present a range of strategies for schools to respond to crises and disaster. The experiences of one elementary school in responding to the events of September 11 are presented, followed by review of critical challenges facing schools and school mental health programs in improving their ability to respond to significant crises.     

Policing Outlawed Desire: ‘Homocriminality’ in Beat Spaces in Australia

Drawing on interview data of gay men who have had their behavior in public spaces scrutinised by agents of the law for signs deviance, this article explores the historical characteristics of police animosity towards such conduct in Australia. This entails examining encounters between police and gay men who pursue desire in ‘beat’ (or ‘cottage’ to the use the UK term) spaces. Exploring why these outlaw gay male subjects are so abject and troubling to the law, the discussion documents how law’s desire to regulate gay men plays out in the masquerade of ‘plain-clothes’ agent provocateur operations where police entrap gay men by mimicking gay bodily appearances, gestures and mannerisms. This article also examines how police regulation of gay desire functions as a form of violence that delimits expressions of same sex desire in public spaces. A key theme that underpins the analyses in this paper is that the policing of desire in ‘beat’ spaces helps produce qualities of illicitness and dangerousness and that this, in turn, fuels the circuit of desire at play between gay men and agents of the law.

眼球钝挫伤后视网膜脱离的司法鉴定

目的分析眼球钝挫伤后视网膜脱离在法医临床学眼损伤及伤残鉴定中的致伤原因及因果关系。方法研究112例眼球钝挫伤后视网膜脱离案例,对其中视网膜裂孔类型、外伤至视网膜脱离时间、合并其他损伤或疾病进行分析。结果本组案例锯齿缘离断4.28%,黄斑裂孔12.50%,其他部位的裂孔(<90°)56.25%,巨大裂孔(>90°)5.00%,未发现裂孔的增殖性玻璃体视网膜病变(PVR)性视网膜脱离11.6%,其中45眼有不同程度的PVR。外伤至视网膜脱离的时间以1周～2个月为常见(61.60%)。合并中高度近视者83.93%,合并玻璃体混浊者52.68%。外伤与视网膜脱离存在直接因果关系者41.07%,存在间接因果关系者52.68%,外伤与视网膜脱离难以联系者6.25%。结论视网膜脱离与多种危险因素有关,外伤与视网膜脱离之间因果关系的分析是法医学眼损伤及伤残鉴定的重要内容。     

An anthropological analysis of gunshot wounds to the chest

This analysis of gunshot trauma to the bony thorax examines 87 handgun and rifle wounds from documented cases in an effort to corroborate an earlier report and to provide the forensic community with additional literature in this area. Specifically, this study tests whether the trauma signatures associated with gunshot wounds in the bony thorax are useful in determining the direction of fire. Because the ribs occupy a significant portion of the bony thorax, they are struck more frequently than other bones and, consequently, they are the focus of this report. This study confirmed that bullets can leave distinctive markers on ribs that indicate the direction of fire, including depressed fractures, bone fragments displaced in the direction of the bullet's path, and beveling. Although forensic anthropologists can determine the direction that a bullet was traveling when it struck a given rib, they cannot give a definitive statement about the number or sequence of gunshots without supporting soft tissue evidence.     

Giving Silence a Chance: The Importance of Life Stories for Research on Refugees

In order to capture refugees’ experiences and narrativesit is necessary to create space within research to be able tonotice the untold within the interviews. This article focuseson the ways that Iranian women refugees (in the Netherlandsand the United States) narrate their experiences of the pastand the present or stay silent when the experiences are toodifficult to talk about. Including the moments of silence withinthe process of analysing the stories has helped the researcherto discover different layers within the interviews. The mainargument of this article is that the combination of the lifestories method and the comparative nature of the research haveespecially helped to find out about the different ways in whichthe past is positioned within the present narratives. The lifestories in particular have created the necessary space to listento the often untold stories of refugees. This has enabled theresearcher to go beyond the expressed words in order to understanddifferent layers of expression within the narratives.