Day 3 :
- Forensic Entomology | Forensic Pathology | Forensic Accounting | Wildlife Forensics | Forensic Nursing | Forensic Medicine
Session Introduction
Nergis Canturk
Ankara University, Turkey
Title: Evaluation of femicide phenomenon in settled cases about homicidal attempts and murders at Ankara high criminal courts
Time : 10:00-10:25
Biography:
Nargis Canturk has completed her MD from Istanbul University, Faculty of Medicine and is now Assoc. Prof. in Ankara University Institute of Forensic Sciences. She is the Director of Criminalistics Department in Forensic Sciences Institute. She has published more than 25 papers in reputed journals.
Abstract:
Femicide which is considerably difficult to take under control is the most brutal dimension of violence against women which is a very heatedly debated social problem. Murdering women is the most extreme form of women rights violation. Femicide is a serious social problem which has been taking place all around the world throughout history irrespective of language, religion, nation, level of education and socio-economic status. While violence that weakens the women, isolates them from social life, and trivializes their presence in the community as individuals, is an irrepressible concern in the world, several serious measures have been taken since 1970s in order to prevent violence against women, however, the consequences do not sustain the expectations. In Turkey, one third of the women are exposed to physical violence. High Criminal Courts handle cases related to aggravated life imprisonment, life sentence, and cases requiring more than 10 years imprisonment. Homicide and homicidal attempts are the most indictable offences taken up by Heavy Panel Courts. In this study, 44 case documents of 102 settled cases directly associated with femicide and femicidal attempts took place between 2010 and 2014 proceeded by Ankara High Criminal Courts, and decision sheets of 58 cases whose case documents could not be reached, were scrutinized. SPSS 16.0 program was made use of to analyze the collected data. At the end of the study, it was found that the average age of women who were the victims of femicide or femicidal attempts was 39.74 (SD=17.15), average age of perpetrators was 40.59 (SD=13.2). There is no statistically significant correlation between the difference in the average ages of injured parties and perpetrators (p <0.05). It was shown that the proportion of injured parties exposed to violence by their partners was %62.7, and there is a significant correlation between both parties marital status (p<0.001). Women who were murdered or attempted to be murdered were exposed to this situation by their husbands’ %46.1, their boyfriends’ %11.8, and their ex-husbands %4.9. Femicide is a bleeding wound in both in Turkey and all over the world. Although, with the help of government and non-governmental organizations, there have been persevering attempts to end it, however, the rate of femicide takes place every year is increasing. An increase in the number of people, both males and female, who can reach qualified education all over the country, ensuring gender equality in the society and development in the socio-economic status of individuals are required measures to stop femicide and any kinds of violence against women.
Devinder Singh
Punjabi University, India
Title: Effect of carbofuran on the development of a forensically important blow fly Chrysomya megacephala Linn. (Diptera: Calliphoridae)
Time : 10:25-10:50
Biography:
Devinder Singh did his PhD in 1986 and has been a faculty member for the last 29 years. He was awarded a Post-doctoral fellowship by the Govt. of India for undertaking research in the laboratory of the legendary forensic entomologist Prof. Bernard Greenberg, University of Illinois at Chicago, USA. He has been actively involved in the field of Forensic Entomology for the last 23 years. 17 students have completed PhD under his supervision and 9 major research projects have been sanctioned to him by various funding agencies. 130 research papers have been published by him in national and international journals of repute.
Abstract:
Forensic entomology is the comprehensive field where civil and criminal legal investigations profit by insect evidence. Estimation of minimum time since death or postmortem interval (PMI) is the most vital task under its purview. Blow flies are the earliest colonizers of corpses and the development rate of their immature stages is being extensively utilized in PMI calculations. Blow fly larvae feeding on the dead bodies that contain foreign substances, such as illegal or prescription drugs, or poisons, will often sequester these substances in their own bodies. Therefore, entomotoxicology is another medicolegal application of forensic entomology in which the gut contents of the larvae and pupae sampled from human remains can be analyzed for foreign substances. Additionally, these toxins may induce changes in their development rate that could be enough to significantly alter PMI estimates. It may lead to errors if overlooked and not taken into account during a death investigation.Suicide and deliberate self harm using pesticides is a major but under recognized public health problem in the developing world. Each year 250,000–370,000 thousand people die from deliberate ingestion of pesticides. The WHO now recognizes pesticide poisoning to be the single most important means of suicide worldwide. Out of total 1,31,666 cases of suicides reported from India in 2014, 14,352 cases (10.9%) correspond to deaths caused by deliberate consumption of insecticides (NCRB, 2014). Carbofuran is a broad spectrum carbamate pesticide that kills insects, mites, and nematodes on contact or after ingestion. With their widespread use in agriculture and forestry, Carbamates, after Organophosphates, are most commonly associated with unnatural deaths caused by either accidental or incidental poisoning. Bearing in mind the above facts, the effect of Carbofuran on the development of Chrysomya megacephala, a blow fly of forensic significance, has been investigated in the present study.
Ekin Ozcan
Ankara University, Turkey
Title: Evaluation of handwriting differences between native language, a foreign language and an unknown language in terms of forensic sciences
Time : 10:50-11:15
Biography:
Ekin Özcan received her undergraduate degree in Physics at Ege University in Ä°zmir, Turkey. She received her Master’s degree in Physical Examination and Criminalistics in Forensic Science Institute at Ankara University. Her area of interest includes forensic documents, on which she wrote her thesis. Currently, she is a PhD student at Ankara University. She has unpublished papers on forensic documents, health low, toxicology and nanotechnology in forensic sciences presented in various national and international congresses.
Abstract:
Being a consciously done movement, writing starts with the imitation of the letters, it gradually continues with shaping of the personal esthetic emotions of the letter images appearing in the mind of the person writing it. Maturity of one’s handwriting in other saying shaping of the character depends on the learnt writing system, school, teacher, profession, time, setting and, personal and cultural competency of the writer. Frequency of the use of writing and professional life requiring writing affects the maturity level of writing. The purpose of this study is to observe the reflection of handwriting samples, which have been gotten from the texts that persons have written in their native language, an already-known foreign language and unknown language, on language dominance thorough evaluation of the forensic document parameters. 60 volunteer participants whose mother tongues use Latin alphabet, have written the same text given in their mother tongue, an already-know foreign language and unknown language using the standard white A4 size paper, same brand and model of 0.5 mm black pen. Factors like inclination, sketching, continuity, pen pressure, pacing, tidiness, and punctuation and caption styles have been evaluated three times repeatedly by the same researcher with the repeated-measure method on average values SPSS 16.0 program through analyzing starting-ending gaps, tracking, capitalization, letter length line blanking and capital letter size with LED loop table lamp, functional magnifying glass and digital compass. Eventually, a meaningful difference have been found in sketching, pacing and punctuation parameters (respectively; p=0,001 and p=0.002). The level of language dominance used in the writing affects sketching, pacing and punctuation. These criteria have a great role for determining the frequency of use of writing in daily life in forensic document.
Duygu Yavuz
Ankara University, Turkey
Title: Investigation of polymorphic variants of Slc6a4, Tph-1, Tph-2 genes in completed suicide
Time : 11:30-11:55
Biography:
Duygu Yavuz received her undergraduate degree in Biology at Hacettepe University in Ankara, Turkey. She is studying for her Master’s degree in Forensic Biology at Forensic Science Institute, Ankara University. She is expected to receive the degree at the end of July. This study is her thesis project.
Abstract:
Suicide is a big health problem in the world. Studies have shown that suicidal behavior has psychiatric, sociological, economic and biological causes. In this thesis project, possible relationship between suicidal behavior and genetic structure was analyzed. Studies in the literature have shown that serotonergic system affects the behaviors of people. Hence, polymorphic variant of rs1800532, rs7305115, rs6355, rs1386494 regarding TPH-1, TPH-2 and SLC6A4 genes having important roles in serotonin production and degradation pathways were selected for analysis. 100 completed suicide samples and 100 healthy control samples were included in this study. Age (18-65) and the gender distribution were selected to be similar in suicide and control groups. Absence of psychiatric disorder history other than depression, schizophrenia, bipolar mood disorder, mental retardation, chronic illness, drug and alcohol addiction were noted in sample selection. DNA isolation was made from blood samples and then polymorphic variants, rs6355, rs1800532, rs7305115, rs1386494, of TPH-1, TPH-2 and SLC6A4 genes were analyzed by KASP (Competitive Allele Specific PCR) method. No significant difference in gender and age distribution was observed between suicide and control groups. Our results showed that genotype and individual allele frequencies of polymorphic variants (rs1800532, rs7305115, rs6355, rs1386494) were not significantly different in two groups. In conclusion, no association between TPH-1, TPH-2 and SLC6A4 gene polymorphisms was observed in completed suicide samples.
Bamidele Kolude
University of Ibadan, Nigeria
Title: Ethnic and gender comparison of rugae patterns among clinical dental trainees in Ibadan, Nigeria
Time : 11:55-12:20
Biography:
Bamidele Kolude is a Consultant Oral Pathology Senior Lecturer at College of Medicine, University of Ibadan. His research focus includes Salivary Gland Cancers, Forensic Odontology & Orofacial pain. He has more than 60 academic publications in reputable journals.
Abstract:
The Yoruba ethnic group is predominant in south-western Nigeria while the Igbo ethnic group is predominant in south-eastern Nigeria. Yoruba ethnic group worldwide were estimated to be about 30 million in the year 2010, while there were approximately 24 million of Igbo ethnicity. Global distribution of these two ethnic groups is as a result of slave trade, educational and business determination. The palatal rugae pattern is unique to humans and may be specific to ethnic groups and/or gender hence the suggestion for its use in population and gender identification in forensic dentistry. These rugae patterns are well protected by the lips, the buccal pad of fat and teeth. They are said to be stable throughout life following completion of growth and they can be used effectively in post mortem identification provided, an ante-mortem record exists. Human identification is required for certification of death and for personal, social, legal and humanitarian reasons. This becomes particularly important in mass disasters involving individuals of different races or ethnicities. In the background of few studies on the forensic role of palatal rugae in West Africa, we aim to compare the rugae patterns between two major ethnic groups contrasted with gender in Ibadan, Nigeria to establish any peculiarities.