Blunt force trauma is one of the most common injuries encountered by the forensic pathologist in a variety of scenarios such as transportation fatalities, jumping or falling from heights, blast injuries, and being struck by firm objects. Blunt force injuries located in the cranium are often associated with the cause of death which makes their examination of vital importance in the medicolegal investigation of death. This article aims to review the existing knowledge on the mechanism of cranial blunt force injuries and the associated fracture patterns in order to facilitate the interpretation of such injuries in skeletonized or heavily decomposed bodies where soft tissue is no longer available. Current developments on theory and practice are also discussed. Despite the evidenced progress made in the past decades, trauma analysis in medicolegal settings remains a very challenging task, especially in the absence of soft tissue. It is thus imperative to work toward developing repeatable and scientifically acceptable methods with known error rates, in order to meet the increasing demands of the judicial system on the admissibility of evidence and expert witness testimony.

Numerous intrinsic and extrinsic factors influence bone remodelling rates and have shown to affect the accuracy of histological aging methods. The present study investigates the rib cortex from two Mediterranean skeletal collections exploring the development of population-specific standards for histomorphometric age-at-death estimation. Eighty-eight standard ribs from two samples, Cretans and Greek-Cypriots, were processed histologically. Thirteen raw and composite histomorphometric parameters were assessed and observer error tested. The correlation between age and the parameters and the differences between sex and population subsamples were explored through group comparisons and analysis of covariance. General linear models assessed through data fit indicators and cross-validation were generated from the total dataset, and by sex and population subsamples. Most of the histological variables showed a statistically significant correlation with age with some differences observed by sex and by sample. From the twelve models generated, the optimal model for the whole sample included osteon population density (OPD), osteon perimeter, and osteon circularity producing an error of 10.71 years. When sex and samples were separated, the best model selected included OPD and osteon perimeter producing an error of 8.07 years for Greek-Cypriots. This research demonstrates the feasibility of quantitative bone histology to estimate age, obtaining errors rates in accordance with macroscopic ageing techniques. Sex and sample population differences need further investigation and inter-population variation in remodelling rates is suggested. Moreover, this study contributes to the creation of population-specific standards for Cretans and Greek-Cypriots.

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Pesticide self-poisoning accounts for a quarter of the suicides in Crete. More detailed research is required to identify aspects of these deaths amenable to prevention, but measures such as bans on the most toxic pesticides and changes in storage practice would appear to be sensible initial approaches.