Skeletal Trauma: Identification of Injuries Resulting from Human Rights Abuse and Armed Conflict

by Kimmerle; Erin H.

• ISBN13: 9780849392696
• ISBN10: 0849392691
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-02-19
• Publisher: CRC Press

Summary

Born out of the need to recover, analyze, and present physical evidence on thousands of individual victims of large-scale human rights violations, multi-national, multi-disciplinary forensic teams developed a sophisticated system for the examination of human remains and set a precedent for future investigations. Codifying this process, Skeletal Trauma: Identification of Injuries Resulting from Human Rights Abuse and Armed Conflict describes an epidemiological framework for collecting, analyzing, and interpreting evidence for use at trial. It pieces together fragments of skeletal tissue and associated physical evidence to determine a mechanism of trauma that is factually based, methodologically scripted, and scientifically interpreted. Providing a contextual background, the opening chapter discusses international forensic investigations into Human Rights violations through international tribunals and other emerging judicial systems. The second chapter presents protocols for systemic datacollection and methods for the differential diagnosis of wounds to classify and interpret mechanisms of injury. Organized topically, the remaining chapters evaluate blasting injuries, blunt force trauma, skeletal evidence of torture, sharp force trauma, and gunfire injuries. Each chapter discusses wounding mechanisms, wound pathophysiology, relevant legal examples, and case studies. Twenty-six leading scholars and practitioners from anthropology, pathology, and forensics contribute their research, cases, photographs, and extensive fieldwork experience to provide 16 representative case studies. Taken from human rights violations, ethnic and armed conflict, and extra-judicial executions throughout the Americas, Europe, and Asia, all evidence in the examples is interpreted through an epidemiological model and set in a legal framework. Several of the exemplary studies, including those from the Balkans, have already been presented as evidence in criminal trials.

Table of Contents

A Foreword	p. ix
A Foreword	p. xi
Preface	p. xiii
Acknowledgments	p. xv
Abbreviations	p. xxv
An Epidemiological Approach to Forensic Investigations of Violations to International Humanitarian and Human Rights Law	p. 1
Firefight in Lima: Wounded/Killed Ratio Analysis of MRTA Casualties in the 1997 Hostage Rescue Operation at the Japanese Embassy	p. 14
Differential Diagnosis of Skeletal Injuries	p. 21
Finite Element Models of the Human Head in the Field of Forensic Science	p. 87
Blast Injuries	p. 95
Skeletal and Soft Tissue Injuries Resulting from a Grenade	p. 117
A Case of Blasting Injury from Colombia	p. 124
"Human Bomb" and Body Trauma	p. 128
Blunt Force Trauma	p. 151
The Interpretation of Skeletal Trauma Resulting from Injuries Sustained Prior to, and as a Direct Result of, Freefall	p. 181
A Khmer Rouge Execution Method: Evidence from Choeung Ek	p. 196
Skeletal Evidence of Torture	p. 201
Torture Sequels to the Skeleton	p. 234
Multiple Healed Rib Fractures: Timing of Injuries with Regard to Death	p. 236
Dating of Fractures in Human Dry Bone Tissue. The Berisha Case	p. 245
Torture and Extra-Judicial Execution in the Peruvian Highlands: Forensic Investigation in a Military Base	p. 255
Sharp Force Trauma	p. 263
Disappearance, Torture and Murder of Nine Individuals in a Community of Nebaj, Guatemala	p. 300
Probable Machete Trauma from the Cambodian Killing Fields	p. 314
Gunfire Injuries	p. 321
Firearm Basics	p. 385
Variation in Gunfire Wounds by Skeletal Region	p. 401
Tyranny and Torture in the Republic of Panama	p. 438
The Pacific War: A Chilean Soldier Found in Cerro Zig Zag, Peru	p. 441
References	p. 449
Index	p. 477
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