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

Born from 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 have developed the sophisticated system profiled in this book for the examination of human remains.

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 data collection 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.

An Epidemiological Approach to Forensic Investigations of Violations to International Humanitarian and Human Rights Law International Law and Forensics An Epidemiological Framework for Trauma Analysis Case Study: Estimating War Crimes from the Wounded to Killed Ratio: The Japanese Embassy, C.C. Snow, J. P. Baraybar, and H. Spirer Differential Diagnosis of Skeletal Trauma Reconstructing Skeletal Fractures to Identify Trauma The Anthroposcopic Examination of Skeletal Injuries Ruling Out Skeletal Variation and Skeletal Pathology Classification of Fractures and the Mechanisms of Injury The Microscopic Examination of Skeletal Tissue The Timing of Fracture Based on Gross Inspection Diagnosis of Injuries without Evidence of a Defect Radiography and Three-dimensional Imaging                The Usefulness of Clothing as Evidence Photography Case Study: Finite Element Models of the Human Head in the Field of Forensic Science, J.S. Raul, B. Ludes, and R. Willinger Blasting Injuries Explosive Ordnance Devices Pathophysiology of Blast Injuries The Context:  Fatal Environment and Intent Differential Diagnosis of Fragmented Blast from Gunfire Injuries Case Study: Skeletal and Soft Tissue Injuries Resulting from a Grenade, A.B. Seneviratne Case Study: A Case of Blasting Injury from Colombia, J.M. Pachon Case Study: “Human Bomb” and Body Trauma, A. Samarasekera Blunt Force Trauma The Pathophysiology of Blunt Force Injury Establishing the Number and Sequence of Injuries Cranial v. Post-Cranial Variation Blunt Force Injury Associated with Gunfire Injury                                 Case Study: The Interpretation of Skeletal Trauma Resulting from Injuries Sustained Prior To, and as a Direct Result of Freefall, O. Finegan Case Study: A Khmer Rouge Execution Method:  Evidence from Choeung Ek, S.C. Ta'ala, G.E. Berg, and K. Haden Skeletal Evidence of Torture Documented Cases of Torture in Skeletal Remains from Kosovo and Peru Differential Diagnosis of Blunt Force Trauma Resulting from Torture, Accidents, and Non-Accidental Mechanisms Case Study: Torture Sequels to the Skeleton, H.P. Hougen Case Study: Multiple Healed Rib Fractures: Timing of Injuries with Regard to Death, T. Delabarde Case Study: Dating of Fractures in Human Dry Bone Tissue: The Berisha Case, G.J.R. Maat Case Study: Torture and Extra-Judicial Execution in the Peruvian Highlands: Forensic Investigation in a Military Base, J.P. Baraybar, C.R. Cardoza, and V. Parodi Sharp Force Trauma Mechanisms of Sharp Force Wounds on Bone Identifying Sharp Injuries Sharp-Blunt Injury Associated with Chopping Weapons Case Study: Disappearance, Torture and Murder of Nine Individuals in a Community of Nebaj, Guatemala, S.C. Chacón, F. A. Peccerelli, L. Paiz Diez, and C. Rivera Fernández Case Study: Probable Machete Trauma from the Cambodian Killing Fields, G.E. Berg Gunfire Injuries The Pathophysiology of Gunfire Injury to Bone Estimating the Class of Weapon and Ammunition Differentiating Entry from Exit Defects on Bone Establishing Bullet Trajectory Range of Fire Estimating the Number of Injuries Sequencing Multiple Gunfire Injuries Case Study:  Firearm Basics, C.J. Waters Variation in Gunfire Wounds by Skeletal Region The Skull The Thorax The Limbs Case Study:  Tyranny and Torture in the Republic of Panama, A.H. Ross and L. Suarez S. Case Study: The Pacific War: A Chilean Soldier Found in Cerro Zig Zag, Peru, E. Tomasto Cagigao, and M. Lund