Specialized Crime Investigation, Legal Medicine, and Forensic Science

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards generated from lecture notes covering specialized crime investigation, legal medicine, types of crimes, historical figures in forensics, and branches of forensic science.

Legal Medicine

The practical and case-oriented application of medical knowledge to legal cases and judicial proceedings, bridging medicine and law.

Medical Jurisprudence

The branch of law dealing with legal principles applied to medical practice, defining the rights, duties, liabilities, and ethical boundaries of medical practitioners.

Forensic Medicine

A specialized branch of legal medicine applying medical science specifically to criminal investigations to determine cause, manner, and circumstances of death or injury.

Crime

An act committed or omitted in violation of a public law forbidding or commanding it, rendering the offender liable to punishment by that law.

Crimes Against Persons

Offenses directed against an individual's body, honor, or life, typically involving bodily harm, threats, or actions committed against an individual's will.

Homicide

The unlawful killing of a human being by another human being that does not constitute murder, parricide, or infanticide (Article 249).

Sororicide

The act of killing one's sister.

Fratricide

The act of killing one's brother.

Matricide

The killing of a mother by her own child.

Patricide

The killing of a father by his own child.

Parricide

The unlawful killing of one's father, mother, child (legitimate or illegitimate), ascendants, descendants, or legal spouse (Article 246).

Infanticide

The crime of killing any child less than three days of age (Article 255).

Suicide

The act of taking one's own life intentionally and voluntarily.

Uxoricide

The act of one who murders his wife.

Regicide

The murder or killing of a king.

Vaticide

The murder of a prophet.

Aborticide

The killing of the fetus inside the womb, also referred to as abortion.

Euthanasia

Mercy killing or the painless death of a person suffering from an incurable disease to shorten suffering; classified legally as murder qualified by treachery.

Murder

The unlawful killing of another person (not constituting parricide) committed with specific attendant circumstances like treachery, premeditation, or cruelty (Article 248).

Criminal Investigation

The collection of facts using deductive reasoning to identify the guilty party, locate them, and provide evidence of their guilt.

Six Cardinal Points of Investigation

The six core investigative questions: What offense was committed, How, Who committed it, Where, When, and Why.

Motive

The inner reason or driving cause that pushes a perpetrator to commit a crime with a definite result in mind.

Opportunity

The chance or occasion that allows a perpetrator to commit a criminal act.

Means

The capability and tools available to the perpetrator to carry out a criminal act.

Forensis

The Latin origin of 'forensic,' meaning 'of the forum,' referring to public debate and legal matters in ancient Rome.

Antistius

An ancient Roman physician who performed autopsies in cases of suspected foul play, including the post-mortem examination of Julius Caesar.

Xi Yuan Lu

A 1247 Chinese text by Song Ci, translated as 'The Washing Away of Wrongs,' recognized as one of the earliest forensic manuals.

Constituto Criminalis Carolina

An early European legal code that mandated medical expert testimony in criminal investigations.

Mathieu Orfila

A 19th-century chemist known as the 'father of toxicology' for developing methods to detect poisons in bodily fluids.

Alphonse Bertillon

A French police officer who created anthropometry (the Bertillon system), an early criminal identification method based on body measurements.

Sir Francis Galton

A British scientist who developed the first classification system for fingerprints in the 1890s.

Edmond Locard

A French criminologist who established an early crime lab in Lyon (1910) and formulated Locard's Exchange Principle.

Locard's Exchange Principle

The fundamental principle stating that 'every contact leaves a trace.'

Sir Alec Jeffreys

A British geneticist who developed the first DNA fingerprinting technique in 1984.

Forensic Science

The application of scientific methods and techniques to examine physical evidence and establish facts for legal proceedings.

Forensic Biology

The branch of forensic science that analyzes biological evidence such as DNA profiling, bloodstain patterns, and body fluids.

Forensic Toxicology

The field concerned with detecting drugs, poisons, and alcohol in biological specimens to establish their link to crime or death.

Forensic Anthropology

The examination of human skeletal remains to help determine identity, cause, and manner of death.

Forensic Odontology

The application of dental science, such as bite mark analysis and dental record comparisons, to identify victims or suspects.

Forensic Pathology

The study of post-mortem bodies and tissues through autopsies to determine the cause of death.

Digital Forensics

The recovery and analysis of data stored on electronic devices to investigate cybercrime, fraud, and digital security breaches.

Forensic Psychology

The application of psychological principles to legal matters, including competency evaluations and offender criminal profiling.

Forensic Entomology

The study of insect activity on decomposing body remains to help estimate time of death.

Forensic Physician

A medical professional (also known as a police surgeon or forensic medical examiner) responsible for evaluating living patients for clinical and legal investigations.