J Punjab Acad Forensic Med Toxicol 2011;11(2)

FORENSIC INTERPRETATION OF INJURIES / WOUNDS FOUNDON THE HUMAN BODY

MUKESH SHARMA*, B S KHAJJA, SHAINENDRA JHA, G K MATHUR and V N MATHURDirectorate, State Forensic Science Laboratory, Jaipur - 302 016 (Raj.), India

AbstractPenetrating injuries of the body are most commonly the result of injury/wounds and are often associated witha range of potentially life threatening injuries. In every physical assault, no matter it led to death or not, theattacker had produced/left different types of marks in the victim's body that could be helpful to reconstruct thecrime scene and guide to determine the cause of death. In the present study, we have demonstrated someexamples of injuries/wounds found of the victim's body with illustrative photos. These provide a proper anduseful data for the forensic crime scene investigators.

Keywords: Injuries, types of injuries and digital photography, crime scene reconstruction

INTRODUCTIONAn injury is define as any harm, whatever illegallycaused to any person in body, mind, reputation orproperty as per Indian Panel Code (Sec. 44). Inforensic science, the injuries/wounds are producedby physical violence, which break of the naturalcontinuity of any of the tissues of the living body[1]. Different types of injuries are summarized inFig.1. Trauma is explained as an injury to the bodycaused by physical, mechanical or chemical fac-tors, which may result in wounds or possible com-plications. The medical purposes, violence refersto either behaviour that result in injury or to theinjury itself. This violence may result in both psy-chological and physical trauma [2]. In the presentpaper, the authors have tried to exemplify the physi-cal character of the injuries/wounds, which havebeen caused with the help of different instruments/weapons. In the paper, illustrative photos of differ-ent injuries/wounds are reported for ready use inforensic community.

2. TYPES OF INJURIES/WOUNDS AND THEIR PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS:Mechanical factors include the use of weapons orinstruments such as knives, screwdrivers, scissors,razor blade, galss or guns and injuries results from

falls, traffic accident or domestic violence.Chemical factors include damage to tissue byacids, alkalis or poisons as in Fig.1. A wound/injury to the body occurs when the force applied tothe body is greater than the body's ability toabsorb such force. Injury mechanism refers to thevarious forces commonly associated with trauma(i.e., projectile, sharp, blunt, thermal and polytrauma). Accurate identification of mechanism isdependent on pattern recognition as well as thecontributions of intrinsic and extrinsic factors thatdictate the way wounds/injuries [3]. For example,similarly-shaped striking surfaces producedifferent patterns if they impact at differentvelocities, and typically high-velocity projectiles canbe slowed in flight by an intermediate target. Theinjuries inflicted by mechanical force are generallydivided into two categories as blunt and sharpforces. These may be more than one type of skininjury to the body and they may be localized andwidespread. Sometimes, the absence of externalinjury to the skin or genitalia does not exclude thepossibility of serious injury to the internal organs/body parts. We have tried to explain the differentmechanical injuries as shown in Fig.2.

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Injuries

Mech.

Force

Chemical

Others

Thermal

Heat

Cold

Alkalis

Acids

Injuries due to Lightning, Electricity,

Radioactive substances

Sharp Force

Blunt

Force

Fig. 1: Injuries due to physical violence

Fig. 2: Mechanical injuries are classified withspecificationsi) Blunt Force Injury: On the body due to blunt

forces or instruments, these injures are onskin and scratches, grazing, bruising areobserved. These injuries are sub-categoriesas;

a) Abrasions: In this type of injuries the skin inwhich the outer layer of the skin is scarpedoff . Examples of the abrasions arescratches, grazing of the skin caused bydragging, imprint caused by belt/hunter/sticks.

b) Contusions/Bruises: This type of injuriesoccurs when blood vessels in the skin orinternal organ are ruptured. A bruise healsby destruction and removal of theextravasated blood. The colour change isvery variable, starts at the periphery andextends inwards to the center. At first its colour is red, after few hours to 3 days itconverted in to blue on 4th days is changesinto bluish-black. When bruising isextensive and deeply situated the colourtakes longer time to appear externally.

c) Lacerations: Lacerations are tears or splitsof skin, mucous membranes, muscle or

Sharp Force

Blunt

Force

Mech.

Force

Abrasions

Contusions/Bruise

Lacerations

Incised /Cut

Stab / Penetrating /puncture

Fractures/

Dislocations

Firearms

Entry wound

Exit wound

internal organs produced by application ofblunt force or broad are of the body. Typesof lacerations are split lacerations (crushingof the skin between two hard objects),stretch lacerations (overstretching of skin),avulsion, tears etc.

ii) Sharp Force Injury: these are caused bycutting or stabbing the skin with sharpinstruments/weapons such as knives,swords, tins, broken glass bottles, razorblade and tools (screw driver etc.). Thereare three types of sharp force injuriesexplain as under

a) Incised/cuts Injury: This type of wound is asuperficial injury in which the size of theinjuries on the surface is larger than thedepth of the injuries generally made ofrazor blade, axe and swords.

b) Stab/Penetrating/Puncture Injury: This typeof injury is produced from the penetration ofpointed / sharp instruments/ weapons on tothe depth of the body that is deeper than itslength, generally knives, broken glassbottles and tools. The stab injuries may besingle or multiple.

iii) Firearms Injury: They are usually recognizedwithout difficulty. The injuries produced byfire arms vary depending on the projectile,the muzzle velocity, distance, angle of firingand part of the body involved [4]. Thesewound are subdivided as, when a bullet,passing through a body, produces a wounda the point of entrance on the skin knownas entry wound and another at the point ofexit of the bullet known as exit wound. Thedif ferences between both woundcharacteristics are given in Table 1, which isvery useful for the forensic community whileexamination at the spot of firearm used.

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Table 1: Difference in Physical characteristics ofentry and exit wound of bullet

3. ILLUSTRATIONS OF INJURIES WITHPHOTOS:

Abrasions

Bruise

Contusion

S. No.

Physical Properties Entry Wound Exit Wound

1. Size Smaller than the diameter of the bullet

Bigger than the bullet

2. Edges of the skin Inverted Everted or Torn 3. Bruising/Abrasion Present Absent 4. Burning of the skin May be observed around the

wound Absent

5. Lead ring or metal ring

May be seen while radiological examination

Absent

6. Bleeding Less More

Split laceration

Stretch lacerationIllustration 1: Blunt Force Injury

Cut/Incised injury

Single stab/penetrating injury

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Multiple stab/penetrating injuryIllustration 2: Sharp Force Injury

Entry wound

Entry wound behind the ear at LHSExit wound behind near ear at RHS in the

same case.

Illustration 3: Firearm Injury

From illustrations 1 to 3, all the different type ofinjuries/wound and their typical edges can beexplained easily. From Illustration 1, blunt forcesoccur whenever one makes contact with a harddull object in a way that hurts. Abrasions areinjuries that result in the removal of the superficiallayers of skin.Now it is clearly be seen that stab wounds usuallyare deeper than they are wide. They are also morelikely to be distorted by the victim's twisting andturning to fend off an attacker. Incised or cutwounds are caused when a sharp instrument isdrawn across the skin as illustrated in Illustration2. Unlike stab wounds they have no characteristicwidth or depth and thus reveal little of the nature ofthe weapon. These wounds are rarely fatal butwhen they are usually are suicidal or homicidal.Suicidal wounds typically are found on the victim'swrists and rarely on the neck. Suicidal incisedwounds frequently are accompanied by hesitationmarks.In Illustration 3, the character of a wound producedby a gunshot depends upon several factors includ-

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ing the distance between the victim and the muz-zle of the gun.Whether the bullet remains within the victim orpasses completely through exiting the body (athrough and through gunshot wound) as shown inIllustration 3, the medical jurist can estimate thedistance from which a single bullet was fired bylooking closely at the entry wound.

4. DISCUSSION:

In all injuries/ wound related cases the total numberor wounds should be recorded and each would incarefully measured and it's characteristics de-scribed with photography. A blunt force injurycomes from impact with a blunt object or some-thing with no sharp edges.Forensic expert determine the direction of impact,the type of object that caused it and how often thecontact was made, often they're made by blowsfrom a hammer or axe head. Bite marks are also aform of crushing wounds. With a knife or incisedwounds the crime scene investigator must make adistinction between cut and stab or puncturewounds and among different types of piercing im-plements such as an ice pick or small knife. Mostknives have a flat edge and a sharp edge whichcan be seen in the wound angels. Some woundsare defensive such as cuts made on the palms orfingers of a victim's hands. Some time cuts areassociated with suicidal gestures are known ashesitation wounds as the person attempts to inflictself-damage.As with all instances of a firearms offence that re-sults in an injury, measurements are taken alongwith photographs to aid in the identification of theweapon used, it is necessary for a Forensic ex-pert. Powder residue samples are taken and if thevictim dies as a result of their gunshot wound, theround is removed for ballistic analysis from thecorpse at the autopsy stage. The forensic scien-tists and investigating officer scour the crime scenelooking not only for the weapon involved as they

are sometimes disposed of but also for spent shellcasings and/or loose rounds that were fired butdid not hit their intended targets and imbeddedthemselves in nearby walls, doors or the ground.

5. REFERENCE:

[1] Olshaker et al. Forensic EmergencyMedicine. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins:2001

[2] Knight B. Forensic Pathology. 2nd ed.London: Amold, 1996; pp.232.

[3] Polson CJ, Gee DJ and Knight B. TheEssentials of Forensic Medicine. 4th ed.Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1985; pp.125-127.

[4] Sharma GK, Sarangi MP, Tyagi AK, KumarB. Medico-legal Interpretation of Stabbingand Cutting Injuries (An Autopsy Study).JFMT, 1994; 11(1&2): 21; also Crowley,Sharon R. Sexual Assault: The Medical-Legal Examination. McGraw-Hill/Appleton &Lange: 1999.

[5] Scolan V, Telmon M, Blanc JP, Allery D,Charlet RD. Homicide - Suicide By StabbingStudy Over 10 Years In The ToulouseRegion. The American Journal of ForensicMedicine & Pathology, 2004; 25(1):33-36.

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