science

definition of forensic medicine

Perhaps due to various television programs, forensic medicine is one of the best known branches of this science, the one that deals with determining elements and data related to the state of a body after it has suffered some situation that caused its death. Forensic medicine deals with working directly with the body and through this analysis is that it can analyze not only the cause of death but also other various elements such as the approximate time in which such event took place, the elements that were used to cause death, whether the person offered resistance or not (in the case of a non-accidental death) and also possible traces left by the murderer on the body or in the space where the death took place.

Due to all the aforementioned, the importance of forensic medicine is crucial when it comes to solving different cases in which the death of a person occurs. On many occasions, forensic examination takes place to determine whether the death was a homicide or not, for example in cases where this is not clear. However, in many other cases, when it is confirmed that there is talk of a homicide, forensic medicine sets out to try to obtain from the body in question the greatest amount of information that allows judges and prosecutors to find the culprit and imprison him.

In this sense, forensic medicine has a direct and very frequent connection with the field of jurisprudence, law and justice and this is so because of the assertions, statements and guidelines that forensic doctors establish is that the actions of the legal professionals who will search for the accused or who will try to defend him in the event that an accused person is innocent.

Among the things that forensic medicine can observe, first of all we find fingerprints, traces of elements that carry DNA such as hair, nails, teeth, remains of skin, etc., traces of footprints or the presence of a person in the place of the murder, damages and injuries that the body presents, as well as its direction and strength, possible time of the death of the person, elements that are missing or that are strange in the place of death, etc.

Photo: Fotolia - Sirikornt

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