Revista Espanola de Medicina Legal最新文献

Introduction/objectives

Violence against women is still a serious social and health problem, despite the measures implemented in recent years. The examination of the victims by the forensic doctor in the courts is of great interest since it provides information related not only to the aggression, but also to their social, family and economic environment. The objective is to use this information to identify groups at risk and improve/implement the necessary measures.

Material and methods

In this work, the forensic has collected, for eight years, abundant data on the victims examined in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat. The sample includes 1,622 cases of women who have been victims of gender violence. A descriptive study of the population and of the lesions has been carried out.

Results

The paper presents the main variables studied, both socioeconomic and referring to the aggression itself. This study also analyzes the reentry of the victims, the repetition of aggressions (revictimization), which are 10.9% of the sample. Finally, the results obtained after applying artificial intelligence techniques -in this case, CaRT classification trees- are presented.

Conclusions

With the results obtained, we conclude that the treatment of the information collected and systematized from the medical-forensic intervention allows a better understanding of Violence Against Women, from which we can extract suggestions on the adoption of care and support measures for the victims and the most vulnerable groups, as well as administrative resources and the optimization of prevention programs.

Introduction

Homicide by combination of suffocation methods is observed mainly in elderly people or with some physical impediment capable of counteracting the aggression.

Material and methods

A retrospective observational study was carried out on 634 autopsies. Five met the characteristics of homicides by combination of asphyxiation methods.

Results

Two men and three women, average age 69 years, with negative toxicological studies, victims of a single aggressor, presented peri orificial skin lesions (mouth and nose), muscle hemorrhages in the thorax, rib fractures, blunt injuries to the head interpreted as like submission.

Discussion

In the combination of asphyxia methods the findings that must be seen together: Head injuries to subdue the victim, skin lesions on the neck, face, inner face of the lips, rib fractures, and counter-pressure injuries to the back, buttocks, or elbows. Contextualized together, can explain the dynamics of this homicidal modality.

Introduction

This study describes the characteristics of the victims of deaths by homicidal suffocation with plastic bags in the period between 2008 and 2021, in autopsies performed at the National Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences of the city of Medellín.

Materials and methods

A descriptive, retrospective study was carried out, whose information was obtained from the autopsy reports made by forensic doctors of the institution.

Results

Of the 38,772 autopsies performed, 17,703 were homicides, of which 96 (0.54%) were due to the use of plastic bags to produce death. Of the 96 cases analyzed, 92.7% (89) corresponded to men and 7.3% (7) to women. The young male population between the ages of 15 and 27 was the most affected; 74.4% (71) entered as unidentified corpses and in 17.1% (14) the diagnosis of torture was considered within the analysis of the legal medical necropsy.

The findings of suffocation in the external examination were facial congestion 67.1% (55), petechiae in the conjunctivae 63.4% (52), petechiae on the face 28.0% (23), lesions in the internal oral mucosa 61.0% (50), and abrasions in the labial commissures 25.6% (21) due to the use of foreign elements in the oral cavity or application of asphyctic maneuvers. 58.5% (56) presented signs of trauma in other parts of the body that did not explain the cause of death. 36.4% (35) had plastic bags covering the head and adjusted to the neck with some element, 32.3% (31) transparent tape attached to the plastic bag that covered the head and 31.3% (30) presented a plastic film with the trade name Vinipel MR. 76.8% (73) had their hands and feet tied when the body was found at the scene.

Conclusion

This is the first step to obtain information on the characterization of individuals and their macroscopic findings related to homicide deaths due to suffocation with plastic bags, to warn about the actions of organized criminal groups and their practices in the transnational context. However, its analysis requires an adequate exploration of the scene, the results of the investigations carried out by the authority and the performance of an exhaustive necropsy to achieve a diagnosis.

Gambling is an increasingly more common activity in our society, especially with the advent of new gambling modalities, such as online gambling. Although many people gamble without undergoing health problems, some individuals develop gambling disorder (GD). In recent years, the concern about this disorder has growth substantially among researchers and clinicians, and the number of studies exploring its etiopathogenesis and risk factors has increased significantly. Indeed, certain groups of individuals may have an elevated risk for GD; for example, being male, young, people with low socioeconomic, high impulsivity and emotional instability. From a neurobiological perspective, GD has been associated with alterations in neurotransmitter systems involved in motivation and reward processing. Likewise, some studies have reported that hormonal factors may play an important role in the development and maintenance of GD. Taken together, all these findings have contributed to the improvement of preventive and treatment interventions of gambling disorder. However, further studies are needed to better understand the mechanisms involved in the development and maintenance of this disorder. The present review offers an update on the main clinical, neurobiological and treatment aspects of gambling disorder.

Introduction

Sex estimation is a fundamental aspect of forensic work as a mandatory step for the identification of human remains of unknown origin. The methodological analysis of the dentition as a sexual estimator is important due to its high degree of preservation. Considering the need for specific information regarding the potential of dentition for sex estimation in forensic cases from Argentina, the aim of this study is to evaluate the proposal previously developed by Luna (2019) in a local sample of human skeletal remains.

Materials and methods

A sample of 152 permanent canines belonging to 98 individuals of both sexes was selected- The individuals belong to the Prof. Dr. Rómulo Lambre osteological collection (La Plata, Argentina). Luna's proposal (2019) was applied to estimate sex from canine crown and neck metrics, which considers direct measurements and different types of discriminant functions and logistic regressions.

Results

Only the cervical mesiodistal diameter showed acceptable results (> 75%) for sex estimation. Moreover, discriminant function 1 showed a posteriori probabilities of correct classifications greater than 0.75 and logistic regressions 1 and 3 offered acceptable overall results.

Conclusions

This proposal based on the metric recording of permanent canines constitutes an adequate methodological alternative in situations in which the diagnostic bone elements of sex are deteriorated or absent.

Introduction

Involuntary admissions due to mental disorders occur with relative regularity in hospital admission units in our country. This work will study the socio-demographic and clinical characteristics found in relation to this type of patients, in order to have more information, both clinical and legal, with which to work and perform a better function, administration of resources and development of necessary skills in these situations.

Material and methods

Retrospective descriptive observational study, in which different variables will be analyzed, previously selected, present in the population of psychiatric patients involuntarily admitted to the Doctor Negrín Hospital in a period of 2 years, 2019 and 2020, thus determining, the degree of prevalence of each of them.

Results

Among the variables most associated with involuntary admission are, being a man, in the fourth decade of life, single, without children, or employment, with a diagnosis of major psychotic or affective disorder who has most likely abandoned treatment.

Discussion

It would be advisable to carry out a special follow-up of patients who meet the profile described above in order to minimize involuntary occurrence. It is necessary to develop educational, follow-up and adherence programs within the reach of the population of psychiatric patients in order to minimize the need for involuntary admissions in our environment.

Y-chromosome-specific short tandem repeat (Y-STR) markers reside on the non-recombinant portion of the Y chromosome, their inheritance is paternal, they are not detectable in female DNA. These properties make Y-STRs a useful tool in forensic investigations such as sexual assault, parenting, and other violent crimes; likewise they are also useful in genealogical and evolutionary studies. The objective of the research is to expand the scientific evidence of the distribution by region or country of the Y sex chromosome haplotypes. Similar studies in Peruvian populations are scarce due to the smaller number of Y-STR polymorphisms frequently used in Forensic and Population Genetics.

Material and method: In the investigation, 141 DNA samples from the jungle of Peru were analyzed, of which comprised of 104 samples from Iquitos region (Loreto), 29 samples from Awajun (Amazonas) and 8 samples from Tambopata (Madre de Dios). The samples were processed using direct PCR with the Yfiler™ Plus PCR Amplification kit for 27 STRs, the amplified products were analyzed by capillary electrophoresis on the Applied Biosystem™ 3500XL Genetic Analyzer, and the data obtained was imported into the GeneMapper® ID-X v1.5 software to generate the genetic profiles. With the results obtained, the statistical analysis and the population structure were carried out.

Results: Of the 141 samples, 106 unique haplotypes were observed. Gene diversities for each Y-STR marker ranged from 0.317 to 0.919. The haplotype diversity for the total sample was 0.9906. This study supports that the Y-STR haplotypes in this population are highly polymorphic in the analyzed population and, therefore, are very useful in forensic studies of human identification, as well as in population genetics when investigating groups or individuals from Latin America.

Introduction

The aim of this paper is to analyze the characteristics of the victims and the circumstances of sexual violence related with the risk of physical lesions, as well as to determine the frequency and severity of the injuries.

Material and methods

Descriptive study of 702 cases of sexual assault attended at the Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences of Alicante between the years 2016–2020. A comparative study was carried out between victims with and without injuries, to identify the variables associated to their presentation.

Results

314 victims attended showed physical injuries (44,8%). Profile of the victims with injuries were women (95.5%), aged 18 to 27 years (31.3%), and previous alcohol consumption (50%). Injuries physical were mainly extragenital (38.6%), anogenital (15%), or both, and most cases were mild in severity (97.5%). Recovery was less to one week (83.4%) and without aftermath (97.1%). When the victim showed aftermath (9 cases), the most frequent were psychological type (1.6%).

Conclusions

Physical injuries in sexual violence is related with circumstances of victim vulnerability: women, age between 18 to 27 years, and previous alcohol consumption.

Our study shows that anogenital lesions are absent in a significative number of victims of sexual assault, so this absence cannot exclude sexual violence. The lesions found are mild in severity, and the absence of physical aftermath in most of the victims may be conditioned by the scarce follow-up of them.