Legal Medicine
Medicina Legal
Course code:8059301
Jorge Manuel Matias da Costa Santos
Learning outcomes of the curricular unit:
To convey the role of Legal Medicine, the relations of this medical specialty with the other forensic sciences and the importance of its contribution to the realization of Justice. The main objective of this CU is to update students with the methods and techniques of medico-legal and forensic investigation in different situations and contexts. It is assumed that a specialist in forensic science, whatever his specific training area, needs to know the field of intervention of the others in order to ensure the highest level of cooperation and the best results in terms of production of evidence. Teaching includes seminars and lectures with visual support, complemented by presentation and discussion of case studies. At the end of this CU students should be able to meet and interact with the medico-legal services and with the experts, so they should achieve the following learning objectives (LO):
- know how to apply the acquired scientific and technological knowledge
- know how to identify, collect and preserve evidence in persons and in corpses
- know how to recognize, report and interpret the most frequent lesions found in victims of violence
Syllabus:
- Legal medicine and its different organization models in Europe and North America.
- Introduction to forensic epidemiology and trauma.
- Clinical forensic medicine.
- Forensic pathology.
- Forensic psychiatry and psychology.
- Forensic pathologist and/or medical examiner.
Suggested Bibliography:
- DiMaio DJ & DiMaio VJ (2001) Forensic Pathology, 2nd ed., Boca Raton, CRC Press. ISBN: 0-8493-0072-X
- Saukko P & Knight B (2013) Knight’s Forensic Pathology, 4th ed., London: Hodder Arnold. ISBN: 0-340-76044-4
- Baccino E (2006) Médicine de la violence : Prise en charge des victimes et des agresseurs, Masson. ISBN: 2294020162
- Santos JC (2014) Autópsia psicológica – uma via para a compreensão da morte e do morrer. In Suicídio e Comportamentos Autolesivos: Dos conceitos à prática clínica, Saraiva CB, Peixoto B e Sampaio D (Coords.). Lisboa: Lidel, 2014, pp. 379-402
- Pereira CP (2012) Medicina Dentária Forense, Lisboa, Lidel. ISBN: 978-972-757-753-8