The medicolegal autopsy: when to refer to a forensic pathologist

The system of death investigation in England and Wales is complex, resulting in a distinction between ‘non-forensic’ and ‘forensic’ medicolegal autopsies. This article reviews the medicolegal investigation of sudden death and the actions of the police at the scene, and features in the history, external examination and internal examination that ‘non-forensic’ pathologists should be attune to in their everyday practice.     

What makes a biostatistician?

Biostatisticians play an important role in medical research. They are co-responsible for an appropriate and efficient study design, they are involved in monitoring the study conduct, they plan and perform the data analysis, and they are involved in interpreting and publishing the results. However, how are the biostatisticians prepared for their tasks and responsibilities? Graduate programs in biostatistics are being offered, but some practicing biostatisticians completed their studies in a mathematical or epidemiological program, or obtained their degree in subject-specific fields (such as medicine or biology). Therefore, the expertise and the competencies can vary widely between the individual biostatisticians, also depending on the application field. In this article, focusing on European and US practices, we discuss the required professional expertise for the main areas of applications in the medical field as well as the necessary soft skill competencies of a biostatistician.     

L’expert judiciaire et l’irresponsabilité pénale. Débats et controverses au cours du temps et questions contemporaines

IntroductionSince the creation of the Société Médico-Psychologique, an accumulation of discussions at the national level has resulted in legislative changes, which concern people with mental disorders. Public opinion has now become a stakeholder, prompting us, as judicial experts, to address criminal irresponsibility. The authors wish to give an account of the evolution of the ideas and professional practices in alienism and forensic psychiatry regarding criminal liability, irresponsibility, and the evolution of legislative measures in this realm.MethodsTo do so, they rely on the use of their forensic psychiatric and medico-psychological expertise, which has been effective for many years and remains relevant today, as well as on their clinical and theoretical research activities. The methodology is based on the analysis of language and the critical approach of historical and clinical epistemology.Forensic IssuesThey are examined taking into account the cultural and scientific context from the middle of the 19th century to the beginning of the 21st century. Criminal responsibility and irresponsibility are ancient principles codified in Roman law by Marcus Aurelius and which evolved with the political, social and religious conjunctions of each epoch. Whether the reason given for the recognition of criminal irresponsibility is referred to as madness, degeneration, insanity, dementia, psychic abnormality or discernment, it has always been the subject of research by physicians, alienists, and then psychiatrists. The authors analyze the role of the dissemination of the debates from the creation of the Annales Médico-Psychologiques (in 1843) and of the Société Médico-Psychologique (in 1852), illustrating them with some famous cases in specialized literature. The importance of forensic discussions at the Société Médico-Psychologique animated the end of the nineteenth century and the first part of the twentieth century, contributing to the enrichment of psychiatric semiology and to the opening up of new research, notably methodological. This will lead to an evolution of the conceptions relative to what induces the criminal act and will no longer limit irresponsibility to a diagnosis of insanity or dementia ; the study of psychic functioning will be put forward with the notion of discernment and those of self-control of one's actions. If numerous theoretical debates within the profession have fueled “expert disputes” sometimes disqualifying the role of experts, they remained, however, in the medical and judicial field. Over the past decade, these issues have been broadened to include societal debates around issues related to dangerousness and recidivism. This has become a dominant theme in scientific gatherings, before the eruption into the criminal field, of the increasing role played by victims and victims’ associations. Law No. 92-683 of 22 July 1992 introduced into the Penal Code Article 122-1 (1994 Penal Code) replacing Article 64, by inserting the notions of alteration or abolition of discernment. This distinction has given rise to new difficulties and tensions in expert practice ; the law came into force in 1994. During the 2000s, a series of high-profile homicides involving people with serious mental disorders, sometimes carried out in a recidivist situation, hit the headlines in France. This resulted in a shift in public opinion that led to the law of 25 February 2008 on criminal irresponsibility. The law put an end to the judicial dismissal of cases on the grounds of criminal irresponsibility, by introducing other provisions in the form of security measures (judicial supervision and detention of security). This law creates new interferences between legal procedural issues and psychiatric practice ; it also emphasized the importance of the role of experts by creating new missions, including the expertise of dangerousness. The movement linked to the consideration of the place of victims has been accentuated, both by the objective of obtaining a judgment for the perpetrator of the acts, and by the solicitation of their participation in the successive phases of the procedure. We have recently moved on to questions and controversies about the lack of accountability leading to the law of 24 January 2022. The current article 122 did not specify the origin of the psychic disorder causing the abrogation of discernment, which was interpreted by the Minister of Justice as “a legal void”, which must be “filled with urgency”. Title I states: “Provisions limiting criminal irresponsibility in cases of mental disorder resulting from self-induced psychoactive substances”. All these new provisions, as well as the creation of new incriminations and qualifications, certainly engender debates between magistrates and experts, but they are above all part of a concern of the public authorities about the necessity of setting up “provisions limiting criminal liability in the case of mental disorder”. The interpretation of the contribution of the law to a criminal act remains complex, according to the authors, in terms of psychopathological and etiopathogenic research. Within the context of expert practice, this new law will make it necessary to add new questions for the current missions, and it can only result in an increase in the complexity of these missions and in a risk of confusion in the answers.ConclusionThe authors show that the question of criminal liability does not solicit the same questions and problems in the judicial field (the point of view of the forensic psychiatrist, during the expert examination) or in the societal field with the confrontation with all the representations that are attached both to madness and to the passage to the criminal act, which since the beginning of the twentieth century involves other emerging disciplines. From their point of view, the assertion that a psychic disorder can be of such severity so as to affect the free will and discernment of the perpetrator of a criminal act at the time of the offence, must remain within the domain of psychiatry, even if the new law of 24 January 2022, through several of its provisions, would attempt to eliminate this necessity.     

A framework for systematically improving occupational therapy expert opinions on work capacity

Aim:  To present an evidence-based framework to improve the quality of occupational therapy expert opinions on work capacity for litigation, compensation and insurance purposes.
Methods:  Grounded theory methodology was used to collect and analyse data from a sample of 31 participants, comprising 19 occupational therapists, 6 medical specialists and 6 lawyers. A focused semistructured interview was completed with each participant. In addition, 20 participants verified the key findings.
Results:  The framework is contextualised within a medicolegal system requiring increasing expertise. The framework consists of (i) broad professional development strategies and principles, and (ii) specific strategies and principles for improving opinions through reporting and assessment practices.
Conclusions:  The synthesis of the participants' recommendations provides systematic guidelines for improving occupational therapy expert opinion on work capacity.     

温州地区近6年907例精神病司法鉴定案例分析

目的　探讨近 6年精神病司法鉴定案例的特征。方法　对浙江温州鹿城精神病医院1998～ 1999年 (A组 ) 2 0 2例 ,2 0 0 0～ 2 0 0 1年 (B组 ) 36 8例 ,2 0 0 2～ 2 0 0 3年 (C组 ) 337例进行对照研究。结果　近 6年 ,女性和无业构成比上升 (P <0 .0 1)。责任能力评定下降 ,服刑能力、民事行为能力评定上升 (P <0 .0 1)。精神损伤评定构成比上升 (P <0 .0 5 )。诊断为精神分裂症、情感性精神病逐年上升(P <0 .0 1)。无责任能力评定上升 (P <0 .0 1) ,完全责任能力评定下降 (P <0 .0 1)。法院委托鉴定上升 (P <0 .0 5 )。结论　近 6年中精神病司法学呈现不同的特点 ,并逐步向规范化、法规化迈进 ,服务范围和对象将会扩大     

医学司法鉴定中精神病患者反复上访原因分析

目的 了解司法鉴定中精神病患者反复上访原因。方法 对诊断为无精神病者与诊断为精神病偏执型人格障碍、偏执性精神病、精神分裂症者的上访诱因、动机、目的、内容、时间、形式、有否过激行为等进行比较。结果 上访诱因、动机、目的等方面以生活、工作、经济问题为主；上访时间以患病5—20a者居多。共33例(71．73％)：上访者中有过激行为者21例(45．65％)。结论 精神病患者上访者中以偏执型人格障碍、偏执性精神病、精神分裂症居多。其特点与正常人有所区别。这就要求政府部门在接待上访者及处理上访问题时。应加以严格区分并正确、合理解决上访要求。以免产生不良的社会问题。     

Guidelines on the diagnosis of noise‐induced hearing loss for medicolegal purposes

These guidelines aim to assist in the diagnosis of noise‐induced hearing loss (NIHL) in medicolegal settings. The task is to distinguish between possibility and probability, the legal criterion being ‘more probable than not’. It is argued that the amount of NIHL needed to qualify for that diagnosis is that which is reliably measurable and identifiable on the audiogram. The three main requirements for the diagnosis of NIHL are defined: R1, high‐frequency hearing impairment; R2, potentially hazardous amount of noise exposure; R3, identifiable high‐frequency audiometric notch or bulge. Four modifying factors also need consideration: MF1, the clinical picture; MF2, compatibility with age and noise exposure; MF3, Robinson's criteria for other causation; MF4, complications such as asymmetry, mixed disorder and conductive hearing impairment.     

Mathematical aspects of the paternity index I=X/Y,especially in relation to the chance of non-exclusion of non-fathers

Summary In a previous paper the author mentioned some aspects of the paternity index I (=X/Y): Among false triplets the frequency of those with I equal to or higher than an (observed) I value of I ^x is considerably lower than 1/I ^x; among false triplets the mean value of I is equal to 1, and among non-excluded non-fathers it is equal to the inverse of the chance of non-exclusion; among true triplets the mean value of 1/I (=i) is equal to the chance of non-exclusion of non-fathers. In a statistical material rather strong deviations from some of these expectations were observed.In the present paper further characteristics of the distribution of I values were taken into consideration, and especially those that should hold if lnI would fit in with a normal distribution. It was supposed that with the aid of such a distribution the deviations mentioned above could be recognized as chance variability. It appears, however, that neither the logarithms of the paternity index, nor those of the zygosity index of twins (chosen as an analogous model that is more easily analysable than the paternity index) are really normally distributed. This, in turn, makes that estimates of probability of paternity, based on such a supposition, are of doubtful reliability. Besides it is concluded that also for other reasons other estimates than Essen-Möller's W (or I or i), as probability of first type errors, lead in practice to conclusions that are equally subdue to a priori suppositions as are W values and may be, in fact, much more erroneous than those.Special attention is paid to the statistical analysis of paternity studies with more than one alleged father, and it is concluded that in such cases the general formula that may be considered to be equivalent with Essen-Möller's formula for one-man paternity cases, i.e., W=X/(X+Y) or I/(I+1), must be W ₁=I ₁/(I+n); W ₂=I ₂/(I+n) etc. and certainly not W ₁=I ₁/(I+1); W ₂=I ₂/(I+1) etc.Dedicated to Prof. Dr. Erik Essen-Möller on the occasion of his 80th birthday     

Object recognition in acquired and developmental prosopagnosia

Whether face and object recognition are dissociated in prosopagnosia continues to be debated: a recent review highlighted deficiencies in prior studies regarding the evidence for such a dissociation. Our goal was to study cohorts with acquired and developmental prosopagnosia with a complementary battery of tests of object recognition that address prior limitations, as well as evaluating for residual effects of object expertise. We studied 15 subjects with acquired and 12 subjects with developmental prosopagnosia on three tests: the Old/New Tests, the Cambridge Bicycle Memory Test, and the Expertise-adjusted Test of Car Recognition. Most subjects with developmental prosopagnosia were normal on the Old/New Tests: for acquired prosopagnosia, subjects with occipitotemporal lesions often showed impairments while those with anterior temporal lesions did not. Ten subjects showed a putative classical dissociation between the Cambridge Face and Bicycle Memory Tests, seven of whom had normal reaction times. Both developmental and acquired groups showed reduced car recognition on the expertise-adjusted test, though residual effects of expertise were still evident. Two subjects with developmental prosopagnosia met criteria for normal object recognition across all tests. We conclude that strong evidence for intact object recognition can be found in a few subjects but the majority show deficits, particularly those with the acquired form. Both acquired and developmental forms show residual but reduced object expertise effects.