Browsing by Author "JAVIER LEONARDO PRADA MORALES"

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    Caracterización de la lesión patrón en piel correspondiente a los casos de homicidio por trauma contundente registrados en la Regional Bogotá durante los años 2002-2003
    (UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL DE COLOMBIA, 2005) ANA MARIA BOLAÑOS FERIA; JAVIER LEONARDO PRADA MORALES; Bolaños Feria, Ana María; Prada Morales, Javier Leonardo; Jiménez, Gloria
    Descriptive, retrospective study on patterned skin injuries in homicide cases due to blunt trauma investigated at the Bogotá Regional Office of the National Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences between 2002 and 2003. From a total of 86 autopsy protocols, 22 cases in which the examiner explicitly described a patterned injury were selected. Variables analysed included victim demographics, anatomical location and type of lesion, shape and size, underlying soft‑tissue and bone injuries, presence of trace evidence, availability of a suspected causal object, collection of reference samples and the methods used to document the lesion (photography, tracings, video, drawings). The results show that most patterned injuries were located on the head, associated with fatal craniocerebral trauma and skull fractures; the lesion most frequently described as patterned was an irregular laceration, even though the literature emphasises abrasions and contusions as the classical patterned injuries. In a significant proportion of cases, trace evidence was recovered either from the lesion or from the suspected weapon, but direct comparison between lesion and object was documented only in a few instances. The study highlights deficiencies in the detailed description of patterned injuries and in the standardisation of forensic photography, and concludes that specific protocols for the description and documentation of patterned blunt‑force injuries are needed in order to maximise their evidential value in the accusatory criminal justice system.