Genital injuries and allegation of digital vaginal penetration - A retrospective examination of forensic case notes

The prevalence of genital injuries in post-pubertal females presenting for forensic examination after reported sexual violence: a systematic review

BACKGROUND

Sexual violence is a prevalent issue in contemporary society requiring a robust forensic healthcare response. It is critically important that forensic examiners put clinical examination findings into an appropriate evidence-based context. The presence of genital injuries has been shown to increase the likelihood of successful criminal prosecution and report the crime. However, the reported rates of genital injury vary widely in published studies.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

We aim to critically evaluate and synthesize existing literature on the prevalence of genital injuries in post-pubertal females, examined following sexual violence, with a view to describing the prevalence and characteristics of genital injuries as well as the range of forensic practices employed.

METHODS

Three online databases (PubMed, Embase, and Scopus) were systematically searched with key terms.

RESULTS

Of the 1224 studies screened, 141 full-text publications met the inclusion criteria. Reported injury prevalence rates varied widely. Details pertaining to forensic examinations included in each study, such as grade of the examiner, type of examination, location of examination, and time interval from assault to examination also varied widely. Injury prevalence was highest in studies where enhanced visualization techniques were utilized.

CONCLUSIONS

This systematic review demonstrates that there is no universally agreed standard for documenting genital injuries in cases of sexual violence and highlights the need for standardized approaches and guidelines for assessing, documenting, and reporting these injuries. The review provides robust evidence to support a call for establishing consistent context, terminology, classification systems, and data collection methods to improve the comparability and reliability of future research findings.

Evaluation of the Microbiome Identification of Forensically Relevant Biological Fluids: A Pilot Study

In forensic sciences, body fluids, or biological traces, are a major source of information, and their identification can play a decisive role in criminal investigations. Currently, the nature of biological fluids is assessed using immunological, physico-chemical, mRNA and epigenetic methods, but these have limits in terms of sensitivity and specificity. The emergence of next-generation sequencing technologies offers new opportunities to identify the nature of body fluids by determining bacterial communities. The aim of this pilot study was to assess whether analysis of the bacterial communities in isolated and mixed biological fluids could reflect the situation observed in real forensics labs. Several samples commonly encountered in forensic sciences were tested from healthy volunteers: saliva, vaginal fluid, blood, semen and skin swabs. These samples were analyzed alone or in combination in a ratio of 1:1. Sequencing was performed on the Ion Gene StudioTM S5 automated sequencer. Fluids tested alone revealed a typical bacterial signature with specific bacterial orders, enabling formal identification of the fluid of interest, despite inter-individual variations. However, in biological fluid mixtures, the predominance of some bacterial microbiomes inhibited interpretation. Oral and vaginal microbiomes were clearly preponderant, and the relative abundance of their bacterial communities and/or the presence of common species between samples made it impossible to detect bacterial orders or genera from other fluids, although they were distinguishable from one another. However, using the beta diversity, salivary fluids were identified and could be distinguished from fluids in combination. While this method of fluid identification is promising, further analyses are required to consolidate the protocol and ensure reliability.