Living forensics
Living forensics is a specialized field that combines clinical medicine with forensic investigation, primarily focusing on survivors of traumatic injuries due to violence or accidents. Practitioners in this field, including medical professionals and paraprofessionals, play a crucial role in law enforcement by collecting and preserving evidence from victims and potential perpetrators, which can be vital for legal proceedings. This practice encompasses various contexts, such as domestic violence, drug abuse, and mass disasters, emphasizing the importance of recognizing signs of trauma and abuse in patients.
To effectively engage in living forensics, healthcare professionals undergo additional training to identify injuries indicative of violence, as well as to properly collect, document, and preserve evidence. Emergency rooms often serve as the initial point of contact for trauma victims, where specially trained forensic nurses can document injuries and gather critical evidence. Living forensics also extends to documenting war crimes, providing essential support for the prosecution of perpetrators of severe violence.
The types of evidence collected by living forensics practitioners include bodily fluids, fingerprints, and DNA, which can link victims to crime scenes or suspects. Proper evidence collection is vital, as it can significantly influence the success of criminal investigations and prosecutions. In summary, living forensics is an essential intersection of healthcare and law enforcement, aimed at supporting victims and aiding in the pursuit of justice.
Subject Terms
Living forensics
DEFINITION: Application of clinical medicine to survivors of traumatic injuries that require forensic investigation.
SIGNIFICANCE: The practitioners of living forensics are important contributors to law-enforcement investigations concerning incidents in which traumatic injuries have been inflicted. By collecting and preserving evidence from the survivors of accidents and interpersonal violence, as well as from possible suspects in violent crimes, they can advance investigations and provide support for the prosecution of perpetrators.
In 1986, Dr. Harry McNamara, the chief of Ulster County, New York, described the practice of living forensics as the application of clinical medicine to cases of trauma that require forensic investigation. The practitioners of living forensics are medical professionals and paraprofessionals who deal with the survivors of traumatic injuries (accidentally or intentionally inflicted) and with perpetrators of violence in relation to criminal investigations. These professionals work on cases involving living victims of alcohol and drug abuse, attempted suicide, domestic violence and other types of assault, food and drug poisoning, medical malpractice, mass disasters, motor vehicle accidents, rape, and workplace-related injuries. They also address such legal issues as to stand trial and paternity.
Training and Practice
To practice living forensics, health care professionals and paraprofessionals must receive additional education to enable them to identify signs and symptoms of abuse, violence, and neglect. They also must be trained in the proper collection, documentation, and preservation of from living victims and from the possible perpetrators of crimes. Medical personnel who practice living forensics are found in many settings, including hospital emergency rooms and acute care centers, correctional facilities, environmental agencies, mental health agencies and clinics, nursing homes, senior centers, occupational health and rehabilitation centers, and schools.
Hospital emergency rooms are often sites of initial contact between medical personnel and trauma victims. Practitioners of living forensics are trained to recognize patterns of injuries and the types of objects that cause them, and they are aware that through their actions they can consciously preserve or inadvertently destroy evidence in cases of trauma or crime. Emergency room nurses, who are usually the first to see trauma victims who enter hospitals, can be instrumental in identifying trauma and collecting and preserving evidence from victims of trauma, illness, and crime. Their expertise in documenting and treating injuries can be integrated with forensic procedures to ensure that justice is served.
It is critical that every emergency room patient be screened for signs of abuse or violence at each visit. In 1997, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) began to require that hospital staff be trained in the identification of victims of abuse, violence, and neglect and in the collection and preservation of from victims for potential legal proceedings. Many hospitals and domestic violence organizations employ forensic nurses, who have received specialized training in living forensics.
Living forensics is also essential in documenting war crimes against victims of torture, sexual assault, and other forms of violence. Medical professionals can collect evidence that may identify the perpetrator in the future and document injuries for possible trials.
Living Forensics Evidence
In many cases, the successful prosecution of the perpetrators of crimes involving interpersonal violence relies on evidence properly collected, documented, and preserved by members of living forensics teams. Among the types of evidence that living forensics practitioners may collect from the bodies and clothing of the victims of trauma or from suspected perpetrators are gunshot residue, bullets, fingerprints, bite-mark impressions, hairs, fibers, and bodily fluids from which (deoxyribonucleic acid) can be extracted for analysis. The collection of DNA evidence is particularly important, as DNA analysis is often instrumental in linking victims, crime scenes, and perpetrators. DNA samples can be obtained from very small specimens, such as saliva on a cigarette butt or a strand of hair with its root intact. Practitioners of living forensics may use sources to discover deposits of bodily fluids that are not visible to the naked eye.
The collected by a living forensics team can link victims and suspects to each other and to crime scenes. For example, deposits of particular plant materials or fibers found on both a trauma victim and a suspected perpetrator may indicate that the two have had some contact. When a bullet is recovered from the body of a shooting victim, experts can often link the bullet to the gun from which it was fired by comparing the unique markings on the bullet with the markings on thousands of bullets that are stored in law-enforcement databases or with the markings on bullets test fired from any weapons suspected to have been involved in the case. When a gun is fired, is deposited on the hand and clothing of the person who fired it; thus, documentation of the presence of gunshot residue is another important part of the work of practitioners of living forensics.
Bibliography
Crosson-Tower, Cynthia. Understanding Child Abuse and Neglect. 7th ed. Boston: Pearson/Allyn & Bacon, 2008.
Dunn, Ayana. "What Is a Forensic Nurse?" Nurse Journal, 24 May 2024, nursejournal.org/careers/forensic-nurse/. Accessed 15 Aug. 2024.
James, Stuart H., and Jon J. Nordby, eds. Forensic Science: An Introduction to Scientific and Investigative Techniques. 2d ed. Boca Raton, Fla.: CRC Press, 2005.
Payne-James, Jason, Anthony Busuttil, and William Smock, eds. Forensic Medicine: Clinical and Pathological Aspects. San Francisco: Greenwich Medical Media, 2003.
Shkrum, Michael J., and David A. Ramsay. Forensic Pathology of Trauma: Common Problems for the Pathologist. Totowa, N.J.: Humana Press, 2007.
Vozniuk, Andrii, and Mariia Hryha. "Topical Issues of Forensic Medical Examination in the Investigation of War Crimes." Scientific Journal of the National Academy of Internal Affairs, vol. 28, no. 2, 2023, pp. 9-18, doi: 10.56215/naia-herald/2.2023.09. Accessed 15 Aug. 2024.
Wilson, William C., Christopher M. Grande, and David B. Hoyt, eds. Trauma: Critical Care. Vol. 2. New York: Informa Healthcare, 2007.