Injury and ballistic interpretation
Describe injuries before assigning intent. Record site relative to landmarks, dimensions, configuration, depth when assessable, associated tissue changes and the condition in which the examination occurred. Photographs should have appropriate orientation and scale, and originals should be retained. A patterned injury may support compatibility with a class of objects, but appearance alone generally does not identify one unique implement or reconstruct every event in a struggle.
Distinguish abrasions, contusions, lacerations and sharp-force defects through their actual features. Tissue bridging and abraded or contused margins support blunt-force laceration, while clean division supports a sharp edge. A stab track can exceed apparent blade length through compression of compliant tissues. Conversely, wound length and blade width need not correspond exactly because of tissue tension and movement. Color cannot reliably provide a specific bruise age, particularly in a child-protection conclusion.
Ballistic interpretation requires the wound, clothing, scene and appropriate specialist examination. Abrasion collars, soot, stippling, muzzle effects and bone beveling can provide useful information. None should be treated as an unconditional rule: a shored exit can have abrasion, intervening materials can alter residue, and weapon-ammunition combinations affect deposition. Soot may be removable, whereas embedded particles behave differently. Exact distance estimates require relevant testing and cannot be borrowed from a universal centimeter table.
Blunt injury mechanisms can connect anatomy with force. Rapid deceleration can disrupt the thoracic aorta near a relatively fixed segment. Bridging-vein injury can produce a subdural collection, while an epidural collection may follow arterial injury associated with a skull fracture. These patterns support mechanisms but do not independently establish who acted, whether an act was deliberate or what a witness could perceive.
Children require careful differential assessment. Certain fracture and injury distributions raise serious concern for inflicted trauma, but no shorthand triad should replace a complete history, developmental assessment, imaging, medical differential and multidisciplinary evaluation. Similarly, superficial parallel cuts or injuries to the hands can inform a hypothesis without alone proving suicide or assault. The final opinion should distinguish what was observed, what is strongly supported, what remains merely possible and what cannot be resolved from the available evidence.