Skin surface debris as an archive of environmental traces: an investigation through the naked eye, episcopic microscope, ED-XRF, and SEM-EDX.

Traces from bodies can be of various nature, for example of biological or inorganic origin. Some of these historically have received more consideration than others in forensic practice. Samplings of gunshot residues or biological fluid traces are commonly standardized, whereas macroscopically invisible environmental traces are usually ignored.

Older adult abuse in a service for sexual and domestic violence: Medico-legal implications from the experience of an Italian center.

Older adults are subject to vulnerability and abusive behaviors have serious negative health consequences. Since the phenomenon is underestimated, several challenges are faced to prevent, diagnose, and treat abuses on older adults. In this context, clinical forensic medicine practitioners can play a pivotal role.

Pellet gun trauma: An unusual and unexpected type of bone lesion.

Non-powder guns in general, and especially pellet guns are acknowledged to cause important injuries, also on bone tissue. However, pellet gun-related injuries have been poorly analyzed in forensic literature and scientists may have no idea of what signs a pellet gun can leave on bone. Moreover, since such lesions are not commonly encountered in everyday forensic practice, they could be misdiagnosed.

Analysis of interrater reliability in age assessment of minors: how does expertise influence the evaluation?

Nowadays, the clinical forensic medical management of migration flows comprises the age assessment of unaccompanied minors. The process of age estimation is a fundamental pillar for legally ensuring the minors' rights and their protection needs. The procedure is complex and involves different phases and actors, from medical doctors to law enforcement officers.

Sexual assault and abuse committed against family members: An analysis of 1342 legal outcomes and their motivations.

Background: Over the past years medical centres specifically addressed in gender-based violence have developed protocols for the collections of evidence useful in the courtroom, including accurate documentation of physical and psychological states of the victim and collection of samples. Previous studies showed an association between documented physical trauma and conviction but unfortunately, few studies in the recent literature analysed the factors that influence the legal outcome and final judgement. The present study focused on the elements that appeared of significance in the legal outcome, including medico-legal evaluation, source of the crime report and circumstance of the assault.

Twenty-five years of unidentified bodies: an account from Milano, Italy.

The identification of decedents has always been a central issue in forensic pathology, for ethical, criminal, and administrative reasons, but today, it needs more attention due to issues related not only to migration but also to the weakening of family ties. This article presents a descriptive study discussing the Italian regulatory situation developed in the last decade to face the many identification issues, with all its improvements and flaws. Hence, data gathered in 25 years of at the Institute of Legal Medicine of Milan and the epidemiology of unidentified decedents are illustrated.

Look before washing and cleaning: A caveat to pathologists and anthropologists.

Partially or totally skeletonized bodies are undoubtedly the most challenging scenario to deal with for forensic pathologists and anthropologists. Indeed, in such cases, being able to figure out the cause and manner of death is often tricky. Human remains require to be washed and cleaned before a thorough assessment of any signs of trauma.

Age estimation in the living: A scoping review of population data for skeletal and dental methods.

Age estimation of living individuals has become a crucial part of the forensic practice, especially due to the global increase in cross-border migration. The low rate of birth registration in many countries, hence of identification documents of migrants, especially in Africa and Asia, highlights the importance of reliable methods for age estimation of living individuals. Despite the fact that a number of skeletal and dental methods for age estimation have been developed, their main limitation is that they are based on specific reference samples and there is still no consensus among researchers on whether these methods can be applied to all populations.

Similarity and Differences in Sexual Violence Against Adolescents and Adult Women: The Need to Focus on Adolescent Victims.

Study Objective: To explore whether there are differences in characteristics, clinical findings and management in cases of sexual violence in adolescent and adult women.

Design: Retrospective study.

Setting: SVSeD-Service for Sexual and Domestic Violence, Fondazione IRCCS Ca' Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Milan, Italy.

The Frequency of Cranial Base Fractures in Lethal Head Trauma.

The interpretation of cranial base injuries has never been investigated from a purely anthropological perspective. Very little exists in forensic literature in order to interpret the significance of cranial base fractures. We analyzed 296 cases of deaths due to skull-brain injuries.

A new formula for assessing skeletal age in growing infants and children by measuring carpals and epiphyses of radio and ulna.

The aim of this study is to develop a specific formula for the purpose of assessing skeletal age in a sample of Italian growing infants and children by measuring carpals and epiphyses of radio and ulna. A sample of 332 X-rays of left hand-wrist bones (130 boys and 202 girls), aged between 1 and 16 years, was analyzed retrospectively. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was applied to study how sex affects the growth of the ratio Bo/Ca in the boys and girls groups.

The applicability of the Lamendin method to skeletal remains buried for a 16-year period: a cautionary note.

The Lamendin method is widely reported as one of the most reliable means of age estimation of skeletal remains, but very little is known concerning the influence of burial in soil. This study aimed at verifying the reliability of the Lamendin method on corpses buried for 16 years in a cemetery. The Lamendin and the Prince and Ubelaker methods were applied.