ABSTRACT
Radiology and imaging play a significant role in the clinical diagnosis and treatment of victims of trauma but also in the forensic assessment of injuries sustained by such victims. The majority of victims of accidental and deliberate third-party or self-inflicted trauma, where significant, will undergo some form of radiologic imaging. This typically, in the acute setting, takes the form of CT (computed tomography) scanning to evaluate and direct medical and/or surgical treatment of any significant injuries. Some surviving victims may also undergo subsequent MRI scans to evaluate injuries and prognosticate on the likely morbidity associated with certain injuries. These scans provide a wealth of forensic evidence which allow the forensic radiologist to contribute significantly to the forensic investigation in relation to mechanism of injury, wound profiling and injury causation as well as the age and significance of any pre-existing injuries and, particularly in relation to post-mortem imaging of fatalities, human identification. Such acute radiologic imaging may also be particularly useful as contemporaneous physical evidence may no longer be available by the time a forensic investigation has been initiated (for example, cold case investigations or intimate partner violence). The facility of imaging of trauma in the living, particularly from a forensic perspective will be the subject of this Chapter as well as the limitations of such radiologic imaging.
