Forensic Medicine and Criminalistics

6 ECTS credits
150 h study time

Offer 1 with catalog number 4000673ENW for working students in the 2nd semester at a (E) Master - advanced level.

Semester

2nd semester

Enrollment based on exam contract

Impossible

Grading method

Grading (scale from 0 to 20)

Can retake in second session

Yes

Enrollment Requirements

NOTE: registration for this course is only possible for working students. Day students can register for courses whose code ends with an R. At Inschrijven / studentenadministratie@vub.be you must be registered at the VUB as a working student for the current academic year.

Taught in

Dutch

Faculty

Faculty of Law and Criminology

Department

Criminology

Educational team

Dirk Van Varenbergh (course titular)

Activities and contact hours

39 contact hours Lecture
12 contact hours Seminar, Exercises or Practicals
90 contact hours Independent or External Form of Study

Course Content

Introduction to legal medicine
Clinical forensic medicine (child abuse en neglect, physical violence against adults, sexual agression, forensic medicine and driving)
Death investigation
Crime scene investigation
The forensic autopsy: external and internal examination
Postmortem identification
Thanatology (algor mortis, hypostasis, rigor mortis, decomposition)
Thanato-etiology

   a. Asphyxia (suffocation, smothering, throttling, strangulatie by ligature, hanging, traumatic asphyxia, drowning, carbon monoxide poisoning)
   b. The pathology of wounds (sharp force trauma, blunt force trauma, gunshot trauma)
   c. Death by elektrocution, death by hypothermia, fire deaths
   d. Death from intoxication
   e. Sudden and unexpected death (adults and infants)

Criminalistics (introduction, collection and interpretation of trace evidence, crime scene management, dactyloscopy, blood stain, forensic odontology, ballistics, forensic hematogenetics)

Course material

Digital course material (Required) : PowerPoint presentaties
Digital course material (Required) : Documentatie, Canvas
Handbook (Recommended) : Handboek Forensisch Onderzoek, De mogelijkheden van het forensisch onderzoek, Van Varenberg, Dirk, Politeia, 9782509035974, 2019
Digital course material (Required) : Inleiding tot de criminalistiek
Digital course material (Required) : Gerechtelijke Geneeskunde

Additional info

The lectures are illustrated by PowerPoint presentations containing many illustrations and pictures.
A course book is made available to students.
Additional information can be found on PointCarré.
Recommended literature: Handboek Forensisch Onderzoek (uitgeverij Politeia).

Learning Outcomes

General competencies

The aim of the lectures is to provide the student a source of basic knowledge about forensic medicine (clinical forensic medicine and forensic pathology), forensic odontology and forensic examination of trace evidence. This includes mainly the study of different forms of physical aggression against victims. The student will understand by this way the morphologic changes due to different forms of violence.
This knowledge provides the student to use it in a medico-legal context in particular in questions of timing of death, post-mortem identification, cause of death, mechanism of death, manner of death, collection and examination of biological trace evidence,…

During the lectures, given by PowerPoint presentations, the student will be confronted with the possibilities of forensic medicine and related fields, but also with the limits of the forensic investigation. The different topics will be illustrated by many images.

I hope that the student will become aware of the scientific approach regarding the forensic investigation of a crime scene and the forensic examination of a victim. This scientific approach will lead to a critical attitude towards the results of such investigations. However, such approach must always be performed with respect for the living or death victim.

Grading

The final grade is composed based on the following categories:
Written Exam determines 100% of the final mark.

Within the Written Exam category, the following assignments need to be completed:

Examen Schriftelijk with a relative weight of 1 which comprises 100% of the final mark.

Additional info regarding evaluation

Written exam.

Allowed unsatisfactory mark

The supplementary Teaching and Examination Regulations of your faculty stipulate whether an allowed unsatisfactory mark for this programme unit is permitted.

Academic context