The importance of forensic photography in the emergency department

Medicolegal perspectives of interpersonal violence: A review of first-contact clinical notes

“…Photography can be an extremely useful and valuable tool or method of recording findings in this setting. [33,34] Although there may be some additional considerations pertaining to the use of photography in a clinical environment, the Criminal Procedure Act No. 51 of 1977 [35] empowers healthcare workers to record evidence in cases where such legal proceedings may be anticipated.…”

“…The primary purpose of examining and carefully documenting injuries is perhaps to establish the degree or severity of the injury, which assists the doctor in predicting the clinical outcome, and to optimise medical care. [25,[31][32][33][34][35][36] Samuel Farr, author of Elements of Medical Jurisprudence (1788), is quoted as having said, 'There is a kind of medical knowledge which is not so much concerned with the cure of disease as the detection of error and the conviction of guilt. ' [37] In the medicolegal/forensic setting, the examination of injuries and wounds will assist the clinician, and later the court, in establishing -among other things -when the injury was sustained (the age of the wound) and what the causative agent or mechanism may have been (blunt force, sharp force, firearm, etc.).…”